Wake County, NC - Bicentennial File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Barbara Kawamoto Reprinted with permission of the News & Observer and cannot be reproduced without permission. 'Tiny little airport' soars with planning and luck The News & Observer December 29, 1991 Bicentennial Special/Early 20th Century Raleigh 200 By Dudley Price From the News & Observer March 5, 1989 There was no throng of spectators that Saturday in May 1943 when the first airliner to take off from Raleigh-Durham Airport - a Miami- bound Eastern Airlines DC-3 - roared down the runway and into history. "It was a military base, and no spectators were permitted," said James W. Goodwin, who was Eastern's station manager at RDU from 1940 to 1974. Today, sleek jets lift off 184 times a day from RDU, which has added "International" to its name and become the north-south hub for American Airlines, the nation's second-largest airline. In 50 years, aircraft have progressed from lumbering prop planes to wide-bodies jets, air travel has changed from a dress up special occasion to a routine necessity, and Raleigh-Durham International Airport, whose first terminal was a wood-frame hut, has grown to a sprawling 5,000 acre complex. The number of daily departures has climbed from two to 243, including a direct flight to Paris. Nearly 3.7 million passengers boarded planes at RDU in 1988. The airport that started with a handful of workers employs 3,600 and has an annual economic impact of $750 million. The small cities of Raleigh and Durham and the village of Chapel Hill have become a metropolitan area with a combined population of 660,000. Triangle leaders attribute much of that growth to RDU. "If it wasn't for that airport, we'd still have farmers riding up the streets of Raleigh and Durham on wagons, Research Triangle Park wouldn't have a damn brick in it and the universities wouldn't have grown," said R. Dillard Teer, a retired paving contractor and airport authority member from 1949 to 1980. "It's unbelievable what the airport has done to the community and, with over 3,000 employees, it's a pretty good industry in itself," he said. Before RDU was built, the area's air service was centered at Raleigh Municipal Airport, established in 1929 by the Curtiss Wright Flying Service at the intersection of Tryon Road and U.S. 70-401 south of Raleigh. Eastern Air Transport, the predecessor of Eastern Airlines, began passenger and airmail service to Raleigh Municipal in 1932 using Curtiss Kingbird biplanes. Durham had no airport. By the late 1930s, business was outgrowing the old airport. Runways were only 2,100 feet long and could not be expanded, Goodwin said. Although the twin-engine DC-3 carried only 21 passengers, it could not take off fully loaded with passengers or cargo because the runway was too short. In 1938, Eastern's president, World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, told Raleigh and Durham officials they should consider building a new airport. At the urging of federal officials and with Durham residents tired of driving to Raleigh to catch flights, the municipalities agreed. In 1941, they paid $200,000 for 891 acres of scrub pine and farmland midway between the two cities, and started building an airport. Construction did not hit high gear, however, until 1942, when the Army Air Corps decided the new airport would be a good base to train pilots. The corps leased the airport, bought another 949 acres and laid out three runways in a triangular arrangement, each 4,500 feet long and 150 feet wide. The airport opened in early spring 1943. On May 1, Eastern moved its operation from Raleigh Municipal to RDU. "It really never was used as an active military base, except for one glider outfit," Goodwin, 79 said. "Its one claim to fame was that Jackie Cooper, the child actor, was a member of the unit." The problem for the Army was RDU's remote location, Goodwin said. The airport was served by U.S. 70 on the north and what was then called U.S. 70A - now N.C. 54 - on the south. Each was a two-lane asphalt highway. "It was a very isolated area," he said. "It was 14 miles to Raleigh, the same to Durham and nothing much in between. The military turned it down because it was so remotely located, there was nothing for the troops to do." Starting out small RDU's first terminal was "one little 20-by-40 foot wood frame building," Goodwin said. "There were no seats in the waiting room at all, just a potbellied stove and small rest rooms for men and women." Next to the terminal was the control tower, a two-story wooden "box on stilts." Controllers, who had no radar, used radios to communicate with pilots. But "with high winds they'd have to evacuate it," Goodwin said. In 1947, Capitol Airlines, which merged into United Airlines in 1961, began to serve RDU, followed by Piedmont Airlines in 1948. The airport made terminal space for the, said Teer, 68, by combining two former Army barracks buildings. Newer and larger airliners began to land at RDU. Runway 5-23, which still is in use, was lengthened to 5,500 feet in 1955 to give bigger planes enough room to land. That same year, the airport finished work on a one-story brick terminal building - still in use and known now as Terminal B. "That really was the turning point, when we moved into the new terminal," Teer said. The expansion continued, a bit at a time: a terminal addition to house Federal Aviation Administration offices in 1958; a new control tower in '59. "We did everything piecemeal; we didn't have any money," Teer said. The airport's development has been guided by an eight-member airport authority. Each of the four government - Raleigh, Durham, Wake County and Durham County - appoints two members and chips in $12,500 to the airport, which had a $20 million operating budget in 1988. The rest of the airport's operating revenues come from rent, grants and landing fees. Elizabeth C. Crassweller, a former Eastern flight attendant who grew up in Raleigh, remembers flying into Raleigh from Chicago on a four-engine Lockheed Electra in 1961. "It was just that tiny little airport," said Crassweller, who lives in Baltimore. "A one-story brick building with one entrance and exit and two gates." "There was one ticket counter and restaurant. You just walked out the glass doors and were virtually ready to board the plane." Passengers, too, were different from today, Crassweller said. For many, an airplane flight was something new. "It was a big experience, something people would talk about," she said. "Passengers were always dressed up. You never saw anyone in blue jeans." W. Eddie Pegram, RDU's assistant director for operations, said things hadn't gotten much more sophisticated when he began working at the airport in 1966. "There was no security to go through, and you could drive right out onto the field," he said. "We had young boys come out and try to drag race on the runways and couples would sit right next to the runway and watch planes land. But big changes loomed. Into the Modern era Fast, spacious jetliners were taking over airline fleets. They were too heavy, however, for RDU's one main runway, which had been lengthened to 7,500 feet but was designed to accommodate planes no heavier than the DC-3. In 1962, the first talks were held on the need for a new runway. Thus began one of the longest-running construction projects in the area: The new airliner runway was not completed until 24 years later. The authority first came up with a plan, called Plan A, for a 10,000-foot runway to be built east of and parallel to the airport's 7,500-foot runway, between the terminal and Umstead State Park. The site was chosen largely because land to the west sloped downward and the FAA then required parallel runways to be the same elevation and 5,000 feet apart, Teer said. But in 1968, Wake and Durham County voters turned down a $20 million bond issue, which would have increased their taxes to pay for Plan A. The runway plan was not dead, but it would have taken a land swap with the state park to make it happen. Park supporters, bearing the relatively new name environmentalists, opposed the transfer. They championed Umstead as, among other things, the habitat of the gray squirrel. Plan A died in 1972 when the state vetoed the land swap. The authority then began Plan B, which called for a 10,000-foot runway parallel to Interstate 40 and perpendicular to the 7,500-foot runway. The problem was that it would aim the flight patterns of jetliners directly at Research Triangle Park businesses and at residential areas in northern and western Raleigh and Cary. Residents and executives from RTP businesses opposed the plan, demanding noise studies. Later, the residents did their own noise studies, which backed up their assertions that noise would increase significantly if the runway were built. Frustrated by years of trying to get an acceptable plan, one authority member suggested that the authority buy the Burroughs Wellcome building in order to silence the firm's objection to Plan B. But in 1977, authority support for the plan caved in, and it was tabled. J. Willie York, an authority member from 1976 to 1985, said Plans A and B had failed because the authority "never bothered to involve the public" in the planning process. Planning was begun anew and this time by a diverse group of citizens and business leaders whose charge was to come up with the most acceptable plan. Their work, headed by former authority member, Malcolm L. Williams, culminated in a 10,000-foot runway being built parallel to the west of the 7,500-foot runway. It opened April 1, 1986. At York's urging, a $9.6 million terminal, called Terminal A, was built and opened in 1982, housing Piedmont, Delta and United airlines. Passengers also can thank York for eliminating pay toilets in the terminals. American Airlines picked RDU as the site for its hub for north-south flights largely because of capacity for increased landings and takeoffs afforded by the new runway, airline and airport officials said. The hub, which opened in mid-1987, doubled the number of airline flights at RDU. American spent $122 million on a terminal and hub complex and, with 120 daily flights, ranks as the busiest of eight major airlines serving RDU. York and Elkins said they had been surprised when American chose RDU for a hub. But "everything has fallen into place," Elkins said. "It took lots of planning, effort and lots and lots of luck." The airport has come far, said authority Chairman Eugene B. Hardin, Jr., of Raleigh, not just in jet flights and acreage, but also in creating a region out of several neighboring municipalities. "Air transportation has been such a key to the growth of this area as well as the whole state and country, and the airport has really grown with that," he said. "One reason this area has such a bright future and will continue to grow is the tremendous air service we have." Even as it celebrates a half-century of airport history, though, the authority is looking ahead. Another committee is drawing a plan to guide growth through the year 2010. Runways are expected to be at capacity in the mid-1990s, and the number of annual landings and takeoffs is expected to nearly double, from 271,000 in 1988 to 463,000 by 2010. Air cargo also is expected to increase from 30,400 tons shipped in 1988 to 87,700 tons in 2010. To meet demand, the authority is issuing $25 million in bonds to develop a 200-acre air cargo area. G. Smedes York, an authority member and chairman of the planning committee, predicted runways would be built during the next 20 to 30 years. "The impact of the airport is so widespread that it needs to be continually promoted and improved," he said. "The prosperity of the region is so vitally dependent on it." ============================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. 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