Only one airport can claim the title of "the oldest and continuously running in the world". This title belongs to College Park airport in Maryland. Maryland is located about 25 miles from Baltimore - Washington International Airport, the state's main facility.
Image Park's own assets can be tracked directly to Wright Brothers. Despite the fact that a sustained and controlled airplane, dominated by Kitty Hawk in North Carolina State in 1903, occurred in 1903, their attempts to make Europe interested in 1908, My country. Wright Model A Military Flyer is one of the three aircraft submitted to satisfy the requirement that the US Army Air Force "heavier than airplane, heavy airplane, train two pilots" Ft. Maia, Virginia, late that year, but its dangerous fate led to Orville Lite injury and its passenger's death.
A reconverted aircraft that proved its capability with an hour flight meets all the specifications in the capability of 2, the airspeed of 40 miles, the range of 125 miles, and on August 2 designs to the military What was left was the unmet filled requirement to train the two officers.
Fort. The location of all the test airports so far was bound too much and often surrounded by inquisitive onlookers, obviously a large area was needed. Replacing the 160 square meters of flatland near the state of Maryland, the lieutenant Frank Lahm of the Army Signal Corps found it from the balloon and was unfairly chartered as an airfield. Parcels located near the new Maryland Agricultural University were accessible by train and trolley, but far enough to hold down a considerable number of general viewers. It became a college park airport.
After some trees were harvested in October, the actual aircraft had been transported to a new location in a disassembled state, but a small hanger and launch truck were built to facilitate the military flyer of the wheel hanger It was.
The flight training of Frank P. Lahm and Frederick Humphreys which began on October 8 thoroughly made the solitting in less than three hours but the latter became the military officer for the first time in the world became a pilot, First let the government aircraft fly. Both were previously reassigned within the military.
Mrs. Ralph H. Van Darman became the first woman to fly as a passenger in the US and Lieutenant George Sweet became the first naval officer who flew with Larm on November 3.
The hanger, which houses the light brothers and the 10 men who joined, was working as a resident during battle teaching.
Inventor and patent attorney Rex Smith established a Rex Smith airline company and can evoke civil aviation at the college park when providing aircraft services and support provided by National Airlines and Washington Airlines .
Wright Model B inherited the first "A" version in 1910 and was an open cockpit design for 2 people, essential for this operation, consisting of White Spruce in West Virginia state. A dual wing like the light and flyer of 1903 bearing the name of Kitty Hawk was covered with fabric and guided by bank by the wing and warping method of Wright's design, not the later standard aileron It was. With a 30-35 horsepower driving a 8.8-foot counter-rotating propeller at 428 rpm, a 4-cylinder water-cooled Wright engine is loaded and a 950-pound airplane can fly in the air at nearly stationary 27 mph and is 38.6 feet long Maximum speed of 40 mph with span. A warped elevator as well as a double rudder watched the tail.
With the installation of the second wing warp and rudder control, the initial deficiency that will provide only a single wing warp and steering control lever between the pilot, and even between the two elevator actuators after 2 years is corrected and the left seat pilot phenomenon. The type carried out both flight training and experiment. With Wright-Burgess and Curtiss Pushers, I formed the first flight training fleet of aviation school.
Wilburr Light skipped flight 55 from College Park in 1909. The fastest record among them was a record 46 mph.
In November 1908, Lights moved away from College Park but after concluding the contract they transferred the training school to Ft. The seeds planted by the pilots of the first two signal teams were Sam, Houston borrowed more than 100 acres of land under the budget of the Army Aviation and Space Administration in 1911 and built additional hangers We ordered an aircraft and set up the first Army Aviation School. Indeed, the initial Wright hangar was increased to seven, but at the moment there was a headquarter building and a tent of medicine and confusion.
The air foundation continued to be established for that year. For example, the first test of aircraft bombs was done, whereas College Park was the origin of the first cross country flight, the first military intersection, in the 42-mile sector Frederick, Maryland, Light aircraft. The first legislature of Congress was bombed by the US military and the first aerial photograph was taken from the airport at altitudes of 600, 1500, and 2000 feet.
Bleriot XI, a single engine designed in France, named after the designer Louis Bleriot, joined the Curtiss and Wright aircraft at the National Aeroplan Company in College Park in 1911. The hp Gnome rotary engine was the first heavy plane to go through the British route from Kale to Dover in a 661 pound pilot design with a 25.7 ft "twist" wing airplane On July 25, 1909, It was functioning as a basic configuration on which all current aircraft were based. But after the pilot of the New York's school of prospects demonstrated it, the innovative arrangement of single wings was the reason the army rejected the type that the army outperformed the structure of the standard biplane Merry At Land College Park. Nevertheless, the National Airplane Company became a type authorized agent for sale in the Washington area.
The 'first thing' of aviation continued to draw attention in 1912. For example, a pilot evaluation of military astronauts was introduced. Aircraft mounted machine guns were first tested. Lieutenant Hap Arnold made the first Mile High flight. Sadly, the first death of the US Army's Frank Scott army soldier occurred.
The Civil Aviation Bureau was increasingly recapturing the army until the Civil Aviation Bureau replaced the military agent in 1913 when the Army moved to San Diego's North Island as a result of the June lease expiration. The existing Rex Smith aircraft company has designed its own aircraft and the National Aviation Company has repaired with the design of Bleriot, Curtiss, Wright and conducted flight instruction. In the meantime, Washington Airplane Company built Colombia Monoplane and Biplane.
College Park Airport is a new chapter in 1918 as the first flight service location after the US post office tested three months from Washington's Photo Mc Park to New York's Long Island Philadelphia and Belmont Park Has entered. It was operated by Curtiss JN - 4H Jenny on August 12th, Max Miller flew and succeeded in carrying it to New York.
Jenny, the driving force of the US aeronautical fleet, had a total length of 27.4 feet and a wing width of 43.8 feet. Two biploplas equipped with a liquid-cooled OX-5 engine had an empty weight of 1,430 pounds, but the pilot and front of the rear seats. The maximum speed was 75 mph.
Flight hanger and compass rose were constructed in 1919 and twelve aircraft organized air fleet from 1921 to New York to transcontinental crossing line.
Another chapter in the history of College Park, in 1924, Emil and Henry Berlinter's father and son's team, sponsors of the already established Washington airplane company, began helicopter flight on 24 February. Berlin helicopter with a 18 ft long Nieuport 23 fuselage features a 38 ft spiral width in a triple plane configuration from which leading and trailing edge shutter blades protrude horizontally and a 13 foot diameter reverse Rotating rotor BR-2 Bentley engine of 220 horsepower was installed. The single seat 641 pound design was on a four-wheeled vehicle.
The helicopter rose to 15 feet and the experiment flight revealed power shortage and insufficient lateral control, but the helicopter maintained about 40 mph airspeed and 150 feet steering radius and moved about 200 yards . Nonetheless, it later led to the progress incorporated into the 1940's vertical design of Igor Sikorsky himself.
College park airport served not only for vertical flight but also for blind flight. Between 1927 and 1934, the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) tested and developed radio navigation support to promote zero vision by hooded biplane. Jimmy Doo Little, who first blindly landed at Mitchell Field on Long Island on September 24, 1929, began this kind of operation for the first time at College Park on September 5, 1931. The first instrument flight took place in 1934 between College Park and Newark. Washington University of Technology succeeded the development program and was able to lay the foundation of today's instrument landing system (ILS).
Also in 1927 the management of the airport was handed over to George Brinckerhoff who participated in the Golden Age of Aviation such as large pilot training and holding frequent air show. Flight from the public to the aircraft.
One of the most frequently used aircraft in these shows was Monocoupe 110. HIWIN 's 1611 pound aircraft with a 145 - hp Super Scarab piston engine, 20.8 ft. In total length and 32 feet in wing length, is efficient, aerodynamically refined and has a speed of 120 - 148 mph It was achieved. In the race of College Park, we often acquired the speed record and the air met.
Taylor J - 2 Cub of two tandem arrangements introduced four years later in 1936 was also useful during this period. A compliant high wing trainer with a total length of 22.5 feet and a span of 35.2 feet got a total weight of 970 pounds and achieved a speed of 87 mph with one 40 ft. Continental A-40 engine. This type, which Brinckerhoff used for 30 years of flight training, was a typical private pilot trainer at general aviation airports nationwide.
Another famous trainer introduced three years later and demonstrating improved ability was Taylorcraft CL - 65. Unlike J-2's tandem seating configuration, side-by-side placement has made duplex easier. High wing tail and air air with wing wings covered with 22 feet total length and 36 feet fabric is driven by a 65 horsepower Lycoming O - 145 piston engine, with a total weight of 1,150 pounds, A maximum speed of 102 mph can be achieved.
In the 1940s, another design Aeronica 65 LA "Chief" representing College Park blew away Maryland's sky. Equipped with the 65 hp Continental C - 65 engine, comparable to the speed of Taylor craft, featured a maximum weight of 1,250 pounds. However, only 87 of them were produced.
During World War II, the girls service pilot, WASP, trained at the College Park under Maryland's private pilot training program and was able to absorb the obligations of non-combat aircraft.
Boeing PT-17 Steerman, two open-cockpit biplanes useful for pilot training, frequently performed stunts during the Brinker Hof era from 1927 to 1964 and was competing in air battle. With a total 24.10 ft 220 hp Continental R-670 radial engine, we achieved a speed of 124 mph with a maximum gross weight of 2,717 pounds. For the Army, the Navy, and several countries, more than 8,500 were produced in 11 different versions.
One aircraft registered with N8NP and piloted by Gus McLeod became the first open cockpit type biplane that flew the Arctic. Departing from Maryland State Gaithersburg in April 2000, due to the scheduled 13 days expedition the temperature fell below zero degrees and finally went to the pole on 17th April, but due to mechanical difficulties It landed. The pilot who sent the necessary replacement battery for the next month discovered that the splash of the ice that was installed drifted about 80 miles to Norway.
After repair, Stearman had been flying to Nunavut, Canada before the weather prevented further continuation.
Designed by Henry Berliner himself in 1932 and designed by Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO), the Elcope 415D is a low-wing monolayer board using a tricycle chassis tested at the college park and twin fins was. With an 85-foot Continental A-85 engine, a 2-foot 1,400-pound general aircraft has a span of 30 feet and achieves a speed of 117 mph and steers the rudder using ailerons and control fields. There was no rudder pedal, pilot training was easier, it was regarded as slipping, stalling, rotation prevention.
In 1973 the Maryland state capital park and planning committee purchased College Park airport and was added to the National Park Historical Museum 4 years later.
Today, the world's oldest continuously operated airport, which occupies 40 acres, is a non-tower comprehensive airline with 80 aircraft and one lightweight 2,600 ft runway (15/33). The 270 m2 College Park Aviation Museum (College Park Aviation Museum), a glass and brick roof building inspired by the early Light and Brothers design, was built in 1919 with the original flight hanger and compass Rose is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute and is located next to it and exhibits many of the historic airport related aircraft.
Numerous contemporary turbo props and pure jet aircraft are periodically traveling back and forth between the Maryland State of Baltimore and Washington International Airport and below it there is a small land called "College Park Airport" There is no thing. However, at least recognition and appreciation should not necessarily be extended. After all, this is the place where everything began.
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