The Evolution of Airports- The World’s Most Revolutionary Structure

• The first use of the term "airport" appeared in a New York Times article in 1902,
where Santos-Dumont stated that he expected New York to be the principal "airport"
of the world in less than a score of years.
• The earliest aircraft takeoff and landing sites were grassy fields. The plane could
approach at any angle that provided a favorable wind direction
• A slight improvement was the dirt-only field, which eliminated the drag from grass.
However, these only functioned well in dry conditions. Later, concrete surfaces
would allow landings, rain or shine, day or night.
• The title of "world's oldest airport" is disputed, but College Park Airport in Maryland,
US, established in 1909 by Wilbur Wright, is generally agreed to be the world's oldest
continually operating airfield[4], although it serves only general aviation traffic.
• Another claim to the world's oldest airport is from Bisbee-Douglas International
Airport Douglas, Arizona, USA, which had the first airplane in the state.
• The airport's status as the first international airport in the USA is confirmed by a letter
from President Roosevelt declaring it "the first international airport of the Americas".
• Shoreham Airport was created near Brighton, Sussex, England in 1910 and is
Britain's oldest municipal airport today.
• Bremen Airport opened in 1913 and remains in use, although it served as an
American military field between 1945 and 1949
• Amsterdam Airport Schiphol opened on September 16, 1916 as a military airfield, but
only accepted civil aircraft from December 17, 1920, allowing Sydney Airport in
Sydney, Australia—which started operations in January 1920—to claim to be one of
the world's oldest continually operating commercial airport.[6]. Rome Ciampino
Airport, opened 1916, is also a contender.
• Increased aircraft traffic during World War I led to the construction of landing fields.
Aircraft had to approach these from certain directions and this led to the development
of aids for directing the approach and landing slope.
• Following the war, some of these military airfields added civil facilities for handling
passenger traffic. One of the earliest such fields was Paris - Le Bourget Airport at Le
Bourget, near Paris.
• The first international airport to open was the Croydon Airport, in South London,
although an airport at Hounslow Heath had been temporarily operating as such for
nine months.[7][8] In 1922
• The first permanent airport and commercial terminal solely for commercial aviation
was built at Königsberg, Germany.
• The first lighting used on an airport was during the later part of the 1920s; in the
1930s approach lighting came into use
• 1940s, the slope-line approach system was introduced. This consisted of two rows of
lights that formed a funnel indicating an aircraft's position on the glideslope.
Additional lights indicated incorrect altitude and direction
• Following World War II, airport design became more sophisticated. Passenger
buildings were being grouped together in an island, with runways arranged in groups
about the terminal.
• The one exception to this rule was Washington National Airport, which opened in
1941, built with federal funds and owned by the federal government. Dulles Airport,
which opened in 1962 outside of Washington, D.C., was also built with federal funds.
Its landmark terminal was a compact, two-level structure designed to be expanded at
either end and "topped off" with a distinctive glass-enclosed control tower that gave
air traffic controllers an unobstructed view for many miles in all directions
• After World War II, new airports were built in what was called a "connection" or
transport design, with planes parked on the tarmac, and passengers walking out to
them. As larger planes parked farther from the terminal, shuttle buses or mobile
lounges began transporting the passengers to the planes. And as jets were introduced,
which required even more space, this became even more essential.
• A feature of some airports of this era was the grouping of passenger buildings on an
island in a central part of the airport with runways arranged in groups around the
terminal. This arrangement allowed for expansion, and new gates and parking spaces
for planes could be added to existing buildings. London's Heathrow Airport and Paris'
 Orly exhibit this arrangement. But additions also meant that passengers had to walk
farther to reach their gate.
• "Pier finger" and star-shaped terminals appeared in the 1950s in the United States and
soon after in Europe. Passengers would congregate in a central area and then move
out into the fingers or points of the star to depart. Chicago's O'Hare Airport and the
airport in St. Louis used this design, as did Amsterdam's Schiphol; Gatwick; and
airports in Rome, Milan, and Copenhagen. Planes could load passengers directly from
these fingers, and "moving sidewalks" often helped passengers reach their departure
gate. Two levels separated arriving and departing passengers.
• Airport construction boomed during the 1960s with the increase in jet aircraft traffic.
Runways were extended out to 3 km (9,800 ft). The fields were constructed out of
reinforced concrete using a slip-form machine that produces a continual slab with no
disruptions along the length.
• This design evolved into decentralized satellites, or jetways—covered corridors that
telescoped out from the main terminal to meet the plane, such as was built in Toronto
in the early 1960s, which included nearby auto parking areas. (Gatwick near London
had built an early satellite design in 1936.) The seven-story Terminal I at Paris'
Charles de Gaulle Airport, built in the late 1960s, was a separate, single round
building with seven trapezoidal satellites, where the planes stood, and car parking in
the middle. Another design was the "linear" or "gate arrival" terminal, a long but
shallow corridor with appendages coming off it where the planes tied up and
passengers boarded and deplaned
• While this terminal design reduced the distance between airside and landside, the rise
of terrorism in the 1970s increased airports' safety and security requirements. Airports
intentionally added "bottlenecks" to divide "secure" regions following passport
inspection and searches from "open" areas where passengers bought tickets and
checked their luggage. Arrival and departure areas, which had been as close to the
airplanes as possible, became centrally located, resulting in longer walks for
passengers (although many airports added moving sidewalks).
• In turn, airports added design details to make the airport more pleasant and attractive.
Concourses, like in the terminals at Britain's Stansted and Japan's Kansai
International airports, both built in the late 1980s and early 1990s, are large, open
places with visible steel trusses or concrete ribs. Bright light filters in through
transparent walls, and the roof (or ceiling from the inside) has become another facade.
The expanded and renovated Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and
Denver's new international airport, also illustrate this design.