Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (Images of Aviation)

Comments

1. Anonymous says

   March 3, 2015 at 10:21 am
   
   Fasinating History, June 28, 2014

   By 

   Jorge “Movie Geek” (Vancouver,WA,USA) –

   Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (Images of Aviation) (Paperback)

   After some years of bickering and “one up man ship” including constructing new air port facilities with two new air conditioned terminals in 1937 and 1940, the cities of Dallas and Ft. Worth, stimulated by a Federal Civil Aeronautics Board offer of funding if an agreement on a joint airport could be reached, made an agreement that was completed in October 1941. The location was identified as ARLINGTON on a contemporary area chart, surprisingly close to the location of today’s DFW. As the planning and designing progressed an engineering firm designing the airport’s layout presented a plan showing the terminal located on the West side of the proposed air field facing Ft. Worth. Dallas officials strongly protested and in the resulting controversy Dallas withdrew from the project in 1943. Another two decades of enmity followed and two separate air ports, Greater Southwest International Airport and Love Field continued to be developed separately. GSIA had the better site and facilities, but, Love had much more traffic demand with one major flaw. Love’s site did not have space for expansion to meet the needs of the “jet age”. On April 17, 1964, the CAB, after again much squabbling between the two cities, issued a ruling that neither cities airport would be recognized as the primary facility for the Dallas-Ft.Worth region. The cities were given 180 days to develop a plan for a joint airport or the CAB would do it for them. By May 1965 a Memorandum of Understanding was reached by the respective cities councils. This ruling caused the evolution of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and is well documented by text and excellent illustrations in this interesting volume. From the perspective of someone who was living in Texas at the time and experienced both Love Field and Greater Southwest Airport the history is more personal. However in today’s world of international mega airports after forty years of existence the original plan of this airport shows its superiority and its adaptability to change. The design of multiple mega airports built in recent years has focused on a single large terminal; Bejing Capital, Berlin Brandenburg (Under construction), Hong Kong, and Dubai, for example. These designs, although spacious in layout still concentrate masses of passengers in certain areas. The DFW design disperses these masses throughout the five terminals with planning for a sixth now under consideration. And the efficient automated Skylink airport train is able to get a passenger from the most distant point in one terminal to that of another terminal in less than ten minutes without having to leave the secure air side area. Just recently, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) has opened it’s DFW station in Terminal A connecting the airport to downtown Dallas and many other areas of the DFW Metroplex. A similar connection from Terminal B to downtown Ft. Worth is being planned. For ease of use for the originating or connecting airline passenger this airport should easily rank in the top five of mega airports worldwide.

   0

   Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

   Was this review helpful to you? 
   

   
   |

    Comment

   Reply