Philadelphia+International+Airport

Only 12 miles from downtown Philadelphia, the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is arguably one of the hubs of the city; right off the side of the I-95 It is home to twenty-nine airlines flying from four runways daily to more than 129 cities, 38 of them being international. Philadelphia International Airport is often overlooked when thinking of the nation’s fastest and most popular airports, but the fact remains that has experienced the most rapid development compared to other airports in the area of the size, including airports in New York and Washington. Its effect on the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania economy is quite large, including the introduction of a number of new high tech jobs, as well as introducing foreign companies into the area, not to mention the most common and obvious function of airports: transportation. I. Background of Aviation in Philadelphia History II. Philadelphia Municipal Airport's Humble Beginnings III. The Public's view of Flight IV. Expansion of the Airport and Economic Impact V The future Potential of PHL** ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Introduction**
 * **Contents

Ever since Francois Jean Pierre Blanchard launched his hot air balloon from the exercise yard of the Walnut Street Gaol in Philadelphia, aviation has captured the mind and the curiosities of the American Public. After Wilbur Wright flew his first human powered non-sustained aircraft in 1903, the airplane became more than just an interesting hobby for enthusiasts, but a valid form of transportation that the federal government took an avid interest in. Looking past its obvious defense and warcraft abilities, Aviation in its modern form of course did not come into play in Philadelphia however, until after World War I, in the year 1918 when an experimental airmail service sponsored by the federal government was conducted between Post offices In Washington and New York, with a stop in Philadelphia This experimental mail service, carried out by war era using war-surplus de Havilland DH-4 biplanes was held in great regard by both the government and the United States Post office. In time, this led to the one act that was the defining act in defining a private airline industry in the United States, called the Contract Air Mail Act of 1925. This act made the awarding of contracts to private contractors for the transportation of airmail possible. It was meant to encourage commercial aviation, as long as it did not cost the government any money. By the end of the year 12 companies had accepted the contracts, one of them in particular a company called Robertson Aircraft Corporation, of which Charles A. Lindbergh was an employee. The routes were extremely limited at first in fear of safety issues and feasibility, but soon enough commercial transcontinental flights were if not common, not unheard of in the United States.
 * Background of Aviation in Philadelphia History**

During World War I, the United States government had a hand in constructing ships at a shipyard in Pennsylvania, in a location called Hog Island. It was the largest shipyard in the world at the time, and churned out almost 122 ships until around the year 1921 when the ship building facility was demolished. In its place, the Pennsylvania National Air guard used the Island as a training field for pilots for both the airmail runs and for defense maneuvers. This area was dedicated in 1927 as the Philadelphia Municipal Airport after Charles Lindberg, flew in on his plane “The Spirit of Saint Louis”, a custom built monoplane that was already famous for its non-stop flight from New York to Paris that year. The city of Philadelphia bought Hog Island from the federal government for $3 million dollars to expand the airport due to the increasing amount of commercial air traffic that was occurring, however it was done in the year 1930. After the Great Depression, the last thing the city of Philadelphia was interested in was aviation, and the field lay dormant for over half a decade, before the field finally opened officially as Philadelphia Municipal Airport. The somewhat symbolic of the takeover of Hog Island from a derelict shipyard to a budding airport was not lost on the American public, admittedly mostly due to Charles Lindberg’s popularity in both the aviation field and the public. By then the smaller airline companies were all being rapidly bought out by each other in an attempt to avoid restricting regulations put on the private airline industries by the government, and four airlines were assigned to serve Philadelphia: United, American, TWA, and Eastern Airlines.
 * Philadelphia Municipal Airport’s humble beginnings**

The airmail route was already an established business,but under government pressure they started to take on passengers. At this time, it was not unheard off for a plane to take on commercial passengers, however due to the expense of flights, there was no incentive for the private airline companies to even bother taking on customers. Under Brown’s supervision commercial air transportation took on the characteristics of a federally regulated industry. Airlines were encouraged to compete with each other, and with this competition resulted in consolidation of many of the smaller companies, as well as the new airmail payment method by space rather than by weight allowed the airlines to consider once again taking on passengers. Passenger flights were very popular in Philadelphia at the time despite the cost. Passengers would get dressed up in their “Sunday best” for flights that were largely inefficient and slow by today’s standards, but at the time were the cutting edge of technology.[2] Almost 40,000 passengers were transported during the Philadelphia Airport’s first year of operation, using two-motor Douglas DC-3 21 passenger planes, of which most of the cargo was still mail. The airport‘s commercial air service unfortunately was closed during World war II, and it was not until June 26, 1945 was commercial service restored. Later that year, Philadelphia Municipal Airport became Philadelphia International Airport, after the company American Overseas Airlines started making international flights from out of Philadelphia.
 * The public’s view of flight**

During the 1930s, the infrastructure of roadways, bridges, and public buildings in Philadelphia had been poorly maintained even into the early postwar period. Philadelphia International Airport was not immune to this passivity from the government, as it was lying relatively unimproved since it opened for up until the 1950s. On December 15, 1953 a new $15 million terminal building was completed and dedicated after an initiative in Philadelphia taken by public officials and community leaders to stop the perceived deterioration of Philadelphia’s property.[1] In the 60s was the well known Jet age, and while the airport took some time to see the benefits of the new technologies that were coming in, including planes that were three times as fast as their aging predecessors, there was a rush to modernize the airport, and projects were developed to create the present Airport facility. To meet the needs of the traveling public, new passenger and airfield facilities were erected, and shops were introduced into terminals. A new $22 million dollar all weather runway was dedicated on December 11, 1971 to increase the number of flights that were able to go out of Philadelphia to meet the increasing business and commercial needs. New jets were allowing the faster transportation of passengers in a greater amount of numbers, and improved fueling techniques would improve upon the time it took to take in new passengers and transport them elsewhere. The airport’s $3 million dollar overseas terminal was opened in 1873, and it handled international and charter flights until replaced by the Richardson Dilworth International Airport Terminal in 1991. [5] The central type style of the terminals was expanded and improved up on by adding unit terminals which should be familiar to any frequent traveler of airports today, using designations such as ‘a’ b’ ‘c’, d, and e to designate sub terminals. This eventually evolved into the today configuration of Concourse A West, Concourse A East, Concourse B, C, D and Terminal F.
 * Expansion of the Airport** **and Economic Impact.**

During the boom of the 80s, the airport dedicated a new state of the art $6.5 million dollar federal aviation administration air traffic control tower, which would facilitate the time saving even more. The airport was seemingly always a couple steps behind the rapidly increasing growth of the city and businesses available in Philadelphia. Today, the airport has doubled in size from 1.4 million to 2.4 million square feet since 2001, and this has expanded the number of boarding gates by 118%. IN 2005, PHL broke into the rankings as 9th in the world’s busiest airports. [9]. The public often has complaints about the rapidity of service and delays in flight services, but it is a constant battle between expansion and further delays in the airport system, especially as a smaller airport surrounded by the giants of John F Kennedy Airport in New York and Baltimore/Washington International in Washington D.C. Improvements are always needed, as with more expansion comes more passengers, in a cycle. US airways making PHL one of its main hubs has helped with the popularity and the business of the PHL airport. They represented almost 64% of PHL’s passengers in 2008, with Southwest coming up a close second. [9]

Philadelphia’s total economic air service impact was more than $14 billion in 2005, and only rising. This takes into account direct spending by the airport and airline employees, indirect spending by Pennsylvania visitors and the induced spending resulting from the effect of these amounts being respent in the region. The amount of direct and indirect jobs created by the air service industry in Philadelphia sustained more than 34000 airport related jobs. [2]

Philadelphia’s airport has held a phenomenal amount of growth despite its humble beginnings. Unlike airports in airports like John F Kennedy, which started off larger than PHL, and has seen more growth in terms of terminals and in size and sheer amount of runways, it reminds the fact that PHL’s growth in terms of passengers served has grown at a rate of 16.2%, launching PHL as number one at as the fastest growing US airport. A fifth runway is currently underway for construction, as well as a current project to add 1,040 feet to a currently existing runway, which has already increased the amount of plane traffic by 22% since last year. [5] The airport is in need of new runways and expanded airspace, but seeing as the Airport is cornered in, and due to the sheer amount of time it takes for airline expansion projects, considering the safety implications, projects often get backed up in paperwork. Extending the runway required permanently closing a portion of Route 291, also known as the Industrial Highway. Expansion can be viewed as a sort of a shuffle game, in which the highway routes sandwiching in the Airport can be shuffled around in order to support expansion. Despite this, Philadelphia International Airport still continues to make plans to continue that exponentially rapid growth that makes it so remarkable.
 * The Future and Potential of PHL**

[1]Blanchard, Jean-Pierre: 1793, “//Journal of my forty-fifth ascension”,// Philadelphia//:// Library of Congress, 1793 [2]Green, Richard K. “//A Note on Airports and Economic Development”.// 2002. University of Wisconsin [] [3]Kane, Robert. **__Air Transportation,__** New York: Kendall Hunt: 2007 [4[LLoyd, Linda. “Extended runway open at Philadelphia Airport”. Philadelphia Business Today, Mar. 13, 2009.  [5[Ogburn, W. F., Adams, J. L., and Gilfillan, S. C. **__The Social Effects of Aviation__**. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946 [6]Todd, Daniel, Simpson Jamie. **__The world aircraft industry__**//,// London: Croom Helm, 1986 [7]Trimble, William F. **__High Frontier: A History of Aeronautics in Pennsylvania.__** University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982 [8[Van Der Linden, Robert. **__Airlines and Airmail.__** University of Winsconsin __[9]__ [|www.PHL.org]. “ Philadelphia International Airport's Economic Impact Estimated at $14 Billion” August 2005. < http://www.phl.org/news/050822.html>
 * Bibliography**