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tv   Reel America Airports Mean Business - 1972  CSPAN  February 27, 2024 7:47pm-8:18pm EST

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all.
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april, because earlier far. united tooth. 27 how to get over the bridge to way to traffic coming from here right side. our off time previous traffic kind of to my own not what no 6.9 over. a nine at to 27 you turn in for the why now right. yes. you clearly interrogate why most people think about airports. they think about the modern jet
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carrier, a passenger or terminals serving our major cities. but the fact is, the serve only about 800 of the total number of 1000 airports in this country. it is general aviation accounting for three out of every four airport operating days, which enables america's middle sized cities and towns to compete in modern commerce, where cities used to build airports. it now seems that airports build cities. economic development and growth are linked to presence of a thriving community. airport. because federal, state and local governments recognize the far economic impact of general
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aviation. our national system of airports is being dramatically revitalized today. many leaders realize that airports mean business. in the face of america is changing. it's a continuing process of new population patterns, new development and new applications of technological growth. industry, business and people go. where are the opportunities? are they always have and always will. an example of this is what is happening in colorado, a few miles southeast of denver there, has grown up a remarkable technology center of the future, which is rapidly becoming the western headquarters. many blue chip enterprises. george m wallace has been instrumental in this development
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development. denver technological center comprises of 870 acres and in being developed become a city. within a city it will be completely planned and integrated business residential, commercial, industrial complex within what we know as the front range of colorado stretching from fort collins, illinois to roughly colorado springs on the south. george m wallace believes there are two factors which have made this new community successful communication and transportation, particularly air transportation. what you see here is one of three communicate centers. this facility to handle our business activities. i know the fact that all they do right turn up up to do their work they are we have mining operations in utah, arizona and new mexico, operating properties.
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we have our real estate construction development. here in denver, we have aircraft flying between here and moab, utah. so the we base aircraft at arapahoe county airport, the of the arapahoe county airport up often in connection with the denver technological center of course, there have been many factors which attract industry and people to the community but the civic leaders are certain that it could not have been done without the airport. we cannot have our people traveling from point a to point b and taking two days to do what we can do with our own aircraft and one day. the type of people that we attract to denver technology center are people that do a great deal of traveling. it's very important them that they have the same flexibility and that we have with our own aircraft and the proximity of arapahoe county airport just naturally ties the whole thing together the denver center is typical of hundreds of enterprises, specifically
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spawned by aviation in fact. a recent survey of, the 500 top american firms revealed that very few of these would locate in a community without an airport. it is becoming ever increasingly more important that that business have improved communication and transport nation. we think of things in of time not in terms of if we have a sudden need to schedule aircraft to go to moab this morning by the time i punched the button and our pilot who normally stands by at arapahoe county airport by the time he rolls out the aircraft and has checked it out, we're already and pack we're roughly 5 minutes by automobile from dtc to the hangar at arapahoe county airport. the relations between community development and all weather
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airport is not limited to one geographical area. in ohio, for example, the state government in the mid 1960s linked the state's need for industry with industries need for business aircraft and build all weather airports of, sufficient size. today there is a county airport with a hard service runway of 3500 feet or more in. 84 of the state's 88 counties. this means that we are now on the air map and that companies can come in. we have a philosophy in ohio that we think the airport today is the front door to your community and anyone going to come and build a plant and make a decision to help the economic growth of this area. they're going to fly in our study, show us that out of the 2500 major companies in this country that are going to develop new plants, we found that 2370 of these companies own and operate. and we think we have to come up with a good system and what
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advising people to do is to build the kind of facility that will handle the corporate type airplanes that we have today, the business airplane is a common site around the country and has become a tool of modern business as surely as the computer business. aircraft vary, the small single engine plane to sophisticated multi-engine. but. this airplane is a north american saber lighter seating capacity of the seven passengers and two crew and a top cruising speed of 560 miles per hour. and we can fly to of 45,000 feet. it's used to transport executives, other company personnel to various plants mill stores, whatever, as the importance and usefulness of
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business aircraft grows, their need for facilities increases. we are operating six aircraft at this time. we buy airplane to do the job. we have some 12 passenger airplanes and we have 110 passenger airplane. we have a couple seven pet airplanes. and we're able with an aircraft to to do several days job and one day. granted that airplanes are to a business. but just how important is an airport the community as a whole? how well does the investment in the airport pay off. this is delaware ohio. traditionally a college and farm supply town until the development of the county airport and its surrounding industrial park. now there are five signs of all
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employers adding to the economy during its first year of operation. this single plant contributed $6.5 million to the local economy. good morning, ppg industries of delaware, ohio. the 457 employees earned $4.6 million in wages and salaries. purchases from area suppliers came to $670,000 and service expenditures reached nearly $1 million. this one plant paid a quarter million dollars in local and state taxes in ohio alone. studies that airport development has attracted or expanded 1500 manufacturing firms providing. 60,000 new jobs and $250 million in income. these companies have made a capital investment of over $1 billion. the cost the state's entire
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network of airports through bond issues was $6.2 million. the major companies are decentralizing. they're moving out into the community such as yours, because we're finding a better quality of life out in the communities of your site. you have good high schools. you have a beautiful hospital here. you have every asset that a company would want. and now, we need to build this new facility, the airport. so then how do you land an airport in your community? perhaps you could do it on state level, as in ohio or as a community effort as it was done in rogers in northwest, except for a paltry raising and marginal farm industry. the economy of northwest arkansas was stagnant until the middle 1950s. at that time, a group of interested citizens decided that in order improve conditions and make opportunity for young people to remain in northwest arkansas, it would be necessary
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attract industry. they had appealing resources, a stable labor supply, inexpensive land to develop good water and power resources and a desirable environment at the time, a leading sporting goods company was looking for a new home. we came to rogers, actually, in 1957, although the plant wasn't until the of 1958. when we looked for a plant site, one of the very first things we looked for was, whether or not there was an airport facility. and i am frankly adamant that when i look at our greenfield, which was rogers airport at, the time it didn't offer everything that i wanted, but i had complete assurance from the people in rogers. but they, too, recognized the need for aviation as an adjunct to work to a development that do anything within their power to
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help construct find airport for the arrival. and with that in mind, we finally decided that we moved to rogers. not only have we contributed materially to the economic of northwest arkansas, but the fact that have been happy and successful here has been a major factor in bringing other industry to northwest arkansas. it's only natural when other industries looking for locations for branch plants or perhaps maine plants that they come to industry in the area and ask them about their experience. and this has been true in our case. hardly a week goes by that some group of industrialists has come in my office and asked me about my request, arkansas and among other things, what about the use of aircraft in the airport and what are the plans for the future for the riders? so general aviation has been a major factor along with safety in, contributing materially to the economic of northwest arkansas. rogers got its airport out of the delta nation of a handful of
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individuals who believed that the future of, their community was linked to aviation. they demonstrated this in 1947 when the rogers airport, the focal point of a gigantic chicken airlift. what prompted of checks to broiler producers in the area? this in turn to the location at rogers of of the world's largest chicken hatcheries and made rogers one of the nation's major poultry areas. today. rogers has 26 manufacturing plants. employing 3725 people out of a total population of 10,700. as plants open, new families move to rogers at the rate of
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about 500 each year. the big thing in industry is decentralization. up until a relatively short time ago, industry felt that it had to be concentrated in large industrial, mainly because the transportation factor. but general aviation has changed always not. can industry now put its branch in what were at one time considered remote areas, but the areas that were remote are now benefiting from the location of these branch plants. so everybody benefits from the decentralization of industry. that airports are bridges, the present and gateways to the future. the federal government helps to
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finance construction expansion projects. president nixon's landmark airport and airway development act of 1970 provides a total of $2.8 billion in federal and local money over a five year period to build and improve airports across the country. this is half a billion more than the total generated during the entire 23 year lifespan of the former federal aid to airports program administered. the department of transportation's federal aviation administration. the program is called adap, an abbreviation for the airport development aid program, serving the entire system of airports large and small in order to be eligible. a community must be identified and faa national airport system plan and the development desired must be recommended by faa.
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federal funds are available for project on the airfield land acquisition construct of runways, taxiways and aprons. and the installation of lighting and navigation aids. to counter airport. illinois is an excellent example of this federal and local partnership at work. as early as 1931 to page was the home airport, a business aircraft for oil companies, pipelines and companies. in the fifties, with federal assistance, the airport was expanded and in a relatively few years, the number of based aircraft rose to 440. the page is a logical facility to relieve chicago's busy o'hare airport. but in order to keep pace the airport is now planning for additional expansion. by 1990, it is estimated that the page will handle more than half a million plane movements a
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year, twice the present rate. often of, course, it doesn't take a new airport. rather, the community development can be enhanced by improving existing airport. the bartow municipal airport serving bartow and winter haven, florida was formerly an airport facility in in 1961, it was declared surplus by the military and conveyed back to city of bartow for utilization as an airport an industrial park a guaranteed city of bartow would see that it would be maintained as an airdrome facility. buildings left by the military are a tremendous advantage and have unlimited potential. in many cases, their modern buildings can be easily converted. good road established by the military and in many wonderful utilities were left by the
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military in the early part of 1971. we developing an airport improvement program utilizing. the faa adap program, where the federal government supplied us 50% of funds for airport improvements. the airport consists of 1700 acres, approximately 600 acres are in direct aviation utilization. the remainder of the area is 400 acres of highly industrial tracts. the remainder is for future developing. we have roughly 40 industries located on the airport at the present time, a varied and different types. last year our survey indicated there were $17 million worth of payroll on this airport.
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even though the advantage airports is often acknowledged, one of the leading obstacles has been objection, real or imagined, about the airports and airplanes impact on the environment. former astronaut and now environmentalist wally schirra has spoken out on this subject. i decided to look for another area of interest. the environment seem to be one where we hadn't really paid much attention. we've had a lot of rhetoric, a lot of talk. i would look at the land as a land use. what have we taken away from the land in the sense of do we take prime grazing land, a prime bottom land that would be used for farming? well, that would be a no no in today's logic. so would look from that way. we look at it for drainage and this would be the civil engineers approach. then with that of logic, you can then lay out an area where airport itself doesn't interfere with the environment of people and protect that land rather than let that land appreciate in
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value. typically, we found all of our airports have been encroached by the advances of population and by the the service teams that most support the airport, the flight crews, the ground crews, the catering crews. these then start taking the real estate and adjacent airport. they don't to commute too far. so they end up putting homes in in apartments and, in motels and then finally sophia gets complains about the noise of the airport and it's a new community the airport must go. a prime feature of the adap program is a concern for the environment. we just received the final plat on the last hundred acres of the industrial park. i thought you probably interested to see one of the really different ideas out there. they have single family. one acre, lots along the boundary of the of the park with planning must include detailed
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professional study of the environmental factors and steps must be included to protect the environment and separate aircraft noise from residential areas. it's worth that airports can live compatibly with the environment and in themselves be places of beauty where community planning takes this into account. scottsdale arizona, one of the nation's fastest communities, is interesting, from this standpoint, the late, noted architect eero saarinen once said aviation and architecture are devoted to the same principle, placing something between earth and sky. it is possible for this same idea to extend to the industrial neighbors of an airport.
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scottsdale municipal airport. i can recall when airport was nothing more than just a field, and when the city council here and the mayor became instrumental in developing the airport. well, you can see for yourself what is brought in industry around the entire perimeter of the airport. and i am sure that anyone will agree that is perhaps one of the most beautifully designed airports within the state of arizona for that matter within the country, and it has industry to scottsdale, industry always settles where there is a good. we are maryland which is quite a famous showplace can probably hear the train fields the background. purpose. is are saying and the wheels diving and the dolphins are making all of fancy patterns.
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this is quite a well place where they do a lot of really valuable study on ocean life and that sort of thing and if you wonder why we can land here, this is an approved heliport which shows that you do not have to have an eyesore, a spot that looks like a heliport or an airport, it can be just part of the landscape. this is a lovely grass field, no dust. it has a wire fence around it to protect it from any visitors that might want to come and see the helicopter so that it is perfectly safe. it is approved by the faa and, by the state and it makes a lovely place to come and have lunch. i have been since 1939, but have been in helicopters just since 62. these have been pilgrim days. i guess you'd say the helicopter is still way the airplane and developed but it has such a terrific potential that it is really fascinating the machine
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itself is harder fly than airplanes but once you get on to flying, it it's so easy to go in and out of small areas, confined areas, rooftop and many places that can't possibly go with airplane. that of course, it opens up a whole new world. would you like buy. would you like to buy. that.
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heliports mean business? do they permit a complete convenient and fast transportation system from city to connecting airline flights, or from city center to outlying areas.
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the development of new quiet takeoff and landing aircraft called stol, also door to door travel time and eases congestion at larger, crowded airports. stol operations require a minimum amount of land or takeoffs and landings and offer the potential of locations closer. a transportation sector. the small airstrip at disney world in central florida is a case in point. visitors at this major facility and fly into tampa, miami or orlando and then fly, install, airplane directly to disney world. the same principle can be applied to other areas which need ready access. here again the location of a stall airport means business.
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the modern airport is for today's growth communities but the railroad was to towns and cities a century ago as always, a city survives and prospers according to its transportation capabilities. and today that includes aviation it's already happening and scores of communities from california california to florida florida. dozens of areas in between and even in the remote beauty spots of the nation. these communities are finding is that an airport serving general really does business. if your community wants to build an airport and enjoy the benefits, go to your state
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aviation or department or contact the federal aviation administration for information and technical and assistance airports. mean business.
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well, as you've probably guessed, based on the furniture layout down here, we're going to do this next session a little bit differently. more of a conversation between and our speaker instead of a lecture. it's honor to introduce to you all, dr. ted widmer, who's distinguish ur

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