In 1923, the Air Service, a part of the U.S. Army, published and distributed a basic how-to manual on airport construction for America’s cities. This publication, titled “Airways and Landing Fields,” contained information on the Model Airway program as well as a list of suggestions to be followed by a city on “How An Airport Should Be Built.” These suggestions listed in the Air Services bulletin regarded the location suitable for building, related to the size and shape, ground material, markings and accommodations. These attributes that the Air Service bulletin prescribed included being within proximity to ground transportation, merchandise and business districts of a city, which the City of Cleveland took to a different level for building its second an airport.
The lakefront and its subsequent use or misuse, as the case may be, has been a point of contention among Clevelanders for decades. Before the turn of the twentieth century there had been a park on top of the bluff overlooking the lake, appropriately if unimaginatively named Lake View Park. Then during the Great Depression the shoreline between what is now called East 9th Street and East 12th Street was a dumping ground for the city’s refuse both material and human. In this area a makeshift “Hooverville” as shantytowns were christened after President Hoover, was constructed by the hundreds of jobless and homeless Clevelanders as a result of the Depression. To combat this refuse and homeless problem several influential and wealthy Clevelanders put forth an idea to clear the area and build a World’s Fair type event in the location. This event would be known as the Great Lakes Exposition of 1936. During the exposition, future ideas and plans were proposed, displayed and developed about what use the lakefront could be to the city. Eventually the most practical solution was proposed of transportation facilities either marine or aerial in nature. The proposal contained the early building blocks for a lakefront plan that included the entire shoreline of the city of Cleveland and would contain an aviation point which would become Burke Lakefront Airport. The Lakefront area where the refuse and Great Lakes expositions were once located was not suitable enough for a full-fledged airport according to the Air Services suggestions made in 1923. Nevertheless, a Lakefront location for an airport was seen locally as a huge draw for tourists, businessmen and Clevelanders alike. Proposed as only a short ten-minute drive from Public Square in the center of the city, it was viewed by many as what could be a great alternative to the more distant Cleveland-Hopkins Airport.
In the early 1940s construction on a dike retaining wall in Lake Erie by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began, which was the outer support area, where within the interior was to be completely filled with hundreds of tons of dirt dredgings from the Cuyahoga River. The interior area was partially completed and secure enough in August 1947 for a temporary runway to be built and the first airplane to land at the site. On the shoreline, off Memorial Shoreway and in between East 9th and East 12th Streets Mayor Thomas Burke and Major John Berry, City Commissioner of Airports, were on hand to perform an opening ceremony with the first plane to land at the site. Over the next year the Army Corps of Engineers continued to develop what would become the permanent airport by depositing over 700,000 cubic yards of dredging on both the east and west ends of the temporary runway.
Even though the completed airport was far from completion, within about five years, it still managed to set records for the numbers of flights and passengers traveling through the area in 1949. There was a total increase of about 200 aircraft and over 400 more passengers than in the previous year. The 1950s saw a need for the attribution of more money through bonds to make improvements and completions to the Lakefront Airport. The 1960s were a decade of change and celebration surrounding the nearly completed Lakefront Airport. Continuous flights were flying in and out of the Lakefront Airport, and the first commercial business, Lake Central Airlines, planned to move some operations to the Lakefront Airport. A Nike missile facility that was built near the Lakefront Airport in the late fifties was shut down with updates to technologies which rendered the site obsolete.
Controversy and near closure followed the airport surrounding the proposed installation of a new heavy-lift crane at the West 3rd Street docks. The proposed site would have caused disruptions to the flight paths of planes into and departing the Lakefront Airport. This was such a controversy that even Port Director William Rogers proclaimed that he would quit if the city approved the proposed crane installation on the piers north face.
Throughout all this, entertainment was still to be had in the form of high-flying action during the annual Memorial Day air shows held at Burke Lakefront Airport especially in the form of the "Girl on the Wing" (aircraft wing walks by stuntwomen). The 1970s saw expansion at Burke Lakefront Airport with a focus on attracting more small airlines providing destinations such as roundtrip flights to Detroit, Michigan. An increase in numbers of flights and passengers from the sixties into the seventies produced a need for construction of new West and East Concourses. The 1980s, on the other hand, saw no further expansion of buildings or rise in numbers of passengers or flights but instead the inclusion of a new opportunity for an entertainment location for the city. The first Cleveland Grand Prix (similar to the Indianapolis 500) was held on the airport's runways and approach aprons on July 4, 1981.
Over the years since its heyday, Burke Lakefront has steadily lost numbers in planes delivering cargo as Cleveland lost its onetime #3 rank as a Fortune 500 headquarters city, and as many companies moved toward larger planes that the airport could not support. The land on which the airport sits has also been a contentious subject for Clevelanders, although unlike Mayor Daley in Chicago with his midnight raid to destroy Meigs Field and avoid court proceedings and costs, Burke has remained as Clevelanders continue to discuss and debate the future of the airport.
]]>The Marjorie Rosenbaum Plaza at Burke Lakefront Airport celebrates the "Golden Age of Aviation" when Cleveland hosted the National Air Races eleven times between 1929 and 1949. It was during this era that Cleveland was referred to as the "Indianapolis 500 of the Air." The Plaza also celebrates the modern day Cleveland National Air Show held at Burke Lakefront Airport since 1964.
Granite plaques that ring the Air Show Plaza tell the stories of the National Air Races held in Cleveland between 1929-1949 including legendary pilots who flew here: Amelia Earhart; Charles Lindbergh; Jimmy Doolittle; and Roscoe Turner. The plaques tell the stories of some of the famous airplanes including the GeeBee air racer flown to victory by Jimmy Doolittle in 1932 in the Thompson Trophy speed pylon race. Also featured are stories of the incredible women air racers in those early years (including Amelia Earhart) who flew in the National Air Races. The finish line of the "Powderpuff Derby" women's distance race from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland was in front of of cheering fans in the Grandstand at Cleveland Municipal Airport (now Hopkins Airport), the location of the National Air Races in Cleveland until 1949.
The National Air Races were discontinued in Cleveland after 1949 (partially due to a fatal crash of a P-51C air racing plane flown by Bill Odom in Berea, Ohio during the 1949 National Air Races.) The current Cleveland National Air Show at Burke Lakefront Airport returned in 1964 and has become a Labor Day Weekend tradition in Cleveland and is one of the oldest and best annual air shows in America.
The Air Show Plaza features two F-4 Phantom jets on pedestals painted in the color schemes of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. Both demonstration teams have performed at the Cleveland National Air Show many times. (The F-4 was the only airframe used by both the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds at the same time.) Walk of Fame plaques that circle the Plaza celebrate the modern day Cleveland National Air Show since 1964 at Burke Lakefront Airport. These Walk of Fame plaques showcase some of the legendary flying acts and performers who have appeared at the Cleveland National Air Show since 1964.
The Air Show Plaza is named for benefactor Marjorie Rosenbaum, wife of Cleveland National Air Show Board Member and former Chairman Jacob Rosenbaum.
]]>The National Air Races finally came to Cleveland Municipal (now Cleveland-Hopkins International) Airport in 1929. Local businessmen Louis W. Greve and Frederick C. Crawford played a big role in bringing the event to Cleveland. Both men were involved in the the city's thriving aviation industry with Greve's Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company making landing gears and Crawford's Thompson Products (later TRW) involved in the production of aircraft engine valves.
The Cleveland National Air Races of 1929 kicked off with a grand parade down Euclid Avenue watched by over one hundred thousand spectators. A $3 million aviation exhibit opened at the Cleveland Public Auditorium at the same time. Meanwhile, the event's organizers built a permanent grandstand at the airport which could seat 50,000 spectators. Overflow crowds (a common occurrence) were accommodated with temporary stands. The ten-day event, held in late August and early September, proved to be wildly successful, and the Air Races returned to Cleveland in 1931, '32, '34, '35, '37, '38, '39, '46, '47, '48, and '49.
The most popular parts of the Air Races were the fast-paced, closed-course races. The 1929 Thompson Trophy Race, for example, featured planes flying five laps around a ten-mile circuit. Cross-country races, timed to end in Cleveland during the Air Races, were also held. The inaugural Powder Puff Race of 1929 featured women competitors (including Amelia Earhart) flying from California to Cleveland. Blimp rides, parachuting competitions, and military demonstrations kept the fans entertained between races.
The dangerous nature of aviation at this time was surely part of the appeal that drew crowds to the Air Races. Indeed, crashes were common, and fatalities sometimes occurred. The closed-course races in particular, with pilots jockeying for position mid-air, could be incredibly dangerous. In 1949, Bill Odom crashed his P-51 World War II fighter plane into a house in Berea during the Thompson Trophy Race, killing himself and a mother and child inside. Afterwards, Berea and other cities near Cleveland Airport passed laws barring races from being held in their airspace. For this and other reasons, 1949 would be the last National Air Race held in Cleveland. In fact, the event as a whole went on hiatus after the crash before being revived in Reno, Nevada in 1964. The Cleveland National Air Show began that same year at Burke Lakefront Airport, though its focus was on aviation demonstrations, and races only occurred infrequently.
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]]>When Cleveland Municipal Airport opened on July 1, 1925 it became one of the first municipally owned airports in the country. City Manager William R. Hopkins took much of the credit for this feat, and the airport was named for him on his 82nd birthday in 1951. Earlier in 1925, Hopkins convinced Cleveland City Council to approve a $1.25 million bond issue that was used to purchase the 1,040 acres of land near the intersection of Brookpark and Riverside roads where the airport would be constructed. Skeptics scoffed at the long distance (nearly 11 miles) between downtown Cleveland and the new airport, but this proved to be a non-issue. Streetcars and other forms of public transportation could cover the distance in about a half hour.
The first flights at Cleveland Municipal Airport carried mail for the U.S. Air Mail Service. Beginning in 1919, Air Mail planes had landed in a section of Woodland Hills Park near East 93rd Street and Kinsman Road. This small airfield soon proved to be inadequate though, providing a major impetus for a new municipal airport. Henry Ford's commercial air mail service, the nation's first, conducted flights between Cleveland and Detroit right from the time that Municipal Airport opened. These early commercial airlines also carried passengers, but the cost of a plane ticket precluded all but the wealthy from partaking in these early flights.
The number of planes using Cleveland Municipal Airport jumped from a few thousand in its inaugural year to nearly 20,000 by 1929. A new terminal building constructed that year contained the world's first air traffic control tower — a tall, glass-enclosed structure with a 360-degree view of the air field. Soon after its construction, two-way radio was installed in the tower, the first time this had been used in the aviation field. This proved to be an important addition, as in its early years the airport used the "allway" landing mat process, which allowed multiple planes to land simultaneously on different parts of the air field — a process designed to prevent pilots from having to wait mid-air for space to land.
During World War II, the area around the airport's periphery became a key part of the war effort. In 1941, a laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) opened on its western end. The laboratory originally conducted research on airplane engines before turning into the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1958. The center was to play a crucial role in the drive to put a man on the moon. In 1942, the Cleveland Bomber Plant also opened nearby in what is now the I-X Center. Here, workers built B-29 aircraft bombers which when finished would take off from the airport to wherever they were needed. Cleveland Municipal Airport was also the regular site of the National Air Races between 1929 and 1949.
By the mid-1950s, all of the original structures at the airport had been razed to make way for expansions. The original Cleveland Municipal Airport was gone, but Cleveland Hopkins International Airport remained a thriving center of the commercial aviation industry that served one of the nation's largest concentrations of corporate headquarters. In 1968, Cleveland-Hopkins became the first airport in the U.S. to have a direct rapid transit connection to downtown. Since the airport lost its hub status in 2014 following a merger of Continental and United Airlines, it has experienced a lower volume of air traffic, leading to ongoing plans to revitalize.
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