Airports

The airports serving the airline passengers of the early 21st century are the product of more than 80 years of experimentation and development. For much of the first half of the 20th century, airports were in many ways peripheral to the lives of Americans. Air travel was an elite experience and most major airports were located at some distance from the center of population. Today, however, the emergence of air travel as a mass phenomenon and urban sprawl have worked to increase the contact and connections between Americans and their local airports. Over the course of the first century of staffed, powered, heavier-than-air flight, airports emerged as vital parts of the national transportation infrastructure.

The history of commercial airports in the United States can be divided into two broad periods. The first period stretched from the end of World War I through the end of World War II. During these decades many of the basic patterns of United States airport development emerged as airports evolved from relatively simple facilities, often privately owned, serving the Post Office and the military, to more complex, expensive, publicly owned facilities serving a growing traveling public and receiving federal aid, in part due to their continued role in national defense. Driving much of the activity during this early time period were civic boosterism, aviation enthusiasm, and, as suggested, military needs. The second period covers the decades from the end of World War II to the present, although the events of September 11, 2001 may prove an important watershed as well. This postwar period witnessed the emergence of a number of issues and developments. First, and most important, complaints about aircraft noise made campaigns to expand airports, not to mention build new ones, extremely contested affairs. Second, the volatility of the airline industry made airport planning extremely difficult. Finally, new technologies—from jet airliners to ground control radars—made airports even more complex and expensive than many early airport boosters could ever have imagined.

The first “customers” for airports in the United States were the Post Office and the military. Both began approaching local civic leaders on the subject of building such facilities immediately following World War I. Though even at that date many expressed the idea that airports ought to be publicly owned, a variety of local circumstances, not the least of which was a lack of necessary enabling legislation, often led private interests to take the lead in the earliest airport construction initiatives. Over time, however, a number of factors came together to favor public over private ownership of those airports serving the traveling public. As aircraft technologies advanced, many improvements required certain changes at the airports. For example, the early technologies allowing for day-and-night, all-weather flying depended upon extensive airport lighting and hard-surfaced runways. Growing complexity brought higher expenses. At this early stage airports struggled to break even, let alone make a profit. Therefore, it became apparent to many that public ownership and financing would be the only way to guarantee that airports witnessed the needed improvements. Finally, the Works Projects Administration, a major source of federal funding for airport construction in the 1930s, required that any airport receiving federal aid had to be publicly owned.

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