LaGuardia Airport opens...

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October 16, 1939

THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York, October 16, 1939

* LaGuardia Airport opening ceremony dedication
* New York City - Airplanes

This 38 page newspaper has one column headlines on the front page that include: "325,000 SEE MAYOR DEDICATE AIRPORT TO WORLD SERVICE" "North Beach, Potentially the Greatest Terminal of Kind, Accepted From WPA" "150 Planes in Air Show" and more with smaller subheads. Reports continue on page 21 with related photos.

Tells of the opening dedication of LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Nice to have in the famous NYC title.

Other news of the day throughout. Rag edition in very nice condition.

wikipedia notes: The current site of the airport was originally used by the Gala Amusement Park, owned by the Steinway family. It was razed and transformed in 1929 into a 105-acre private flying field. The airport was originally named Glenn H. Curtiss Airport after the pioneer Long Island aviator, and later called North Beach Airport.

The initiative to develop the airport for commercial flights began with a verbal outburst by New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia (in office from 1934 to 1945) upon the arrival of his TWA flight at Newark — the only commercial airport serving the New York City region at the time — as his ticket said "New York". He demanded to be taken to New York, and ordered the plane to be flown to Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field, giving an impromptu press conference to reporters along the way. At that time, he urged New Yorkers to support a new airport within their city.

American Airlines accepted La Guardia's offer to start a pilot program of scheduled flights to Floyd Bennett, although the program failed after several months because of Newark's relative proximity to Manhattan. La Guardia went as far as to offer police escorts to airport limousines, in an attempt to get American Airlines to continue operating the pilot program.

During the Floyd Bennett experiment, La Guardia and American executives began an alternative plan to build a new airport in Queens, where it could take advantage of the new Queens-Midtown Tunnel to Manhattan. The existing North Beach Airport was an obvious location, but much too small for the sort of airport that was being planned. With backing and assistance from the WPA, construction began in 1937.[8] Building on the site required moving landfill from Rikers Island, then a garbage dump, onto a metal reinforcing framework. The framework below the airport still causes magnetic interference on the compasses of outgoing aircraft: signs on the airfield warn pilots about the problem.[9] Because of American's pivotal role in the development of the airport, La Guardia gave the airline extra real estate during the airport's first year of operation, including four hangars (an unprecedented amount of space at the time) and a large office space that would be turned into the world's first airline lounge, the LaGuardia Admirals Club.

The airport was dedicated on October 15, 1939, as the New York Municipal Airport, and opened for business on that December 2.

Category: The 20th Century