What's in a name?

steingar

steingar

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steingar
CNN reports on the origins of aerodrome appellations fro many of the largest airports in the US. Interesting stuff.
 
steingar said:
CNN reports on the origins of aerodrome appellations fro many of the largest airports in the US. Interesting stuff.
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Fortunately they omitted the ones named after dead, moribund, and vegetative state presidents.

LAX hasn't succumbed to being renamed either by fanatics or other unfunded mandates, but they did name the international terminal after former mayor (no relationship to the Connecticut guy) Tom Bradley.

Also not mentioned:

Ted Stevens (Anchorage) International
Austin-(August Earl) Bergstrom
Thurgood Marshall (BWI)
(Charles) Lindbergh Field (San Diego)
John Wayne International (Santa Ana, Orange County, whatever)

sort of related is the
Chicago (Battle of) Midway Airport.
 
Not named after a 'person', but an interesting namesake is 4A7 - Tara Field -- after Tara Plantation in 'Gone With the Wind'.
 
When they relocated the Willmar, Mn airport (KILL) a few miles away, the new ID is KBDH. I'm told BDH stands for Big Damn Headache!
 
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I fly out of FTY, Atlanta-Fulton county airport, Charlie Brown field :D Named after a county commissioner. ;)
ATL was Hartsfield for years and now it's Hartsfield-Jackson, after Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor.
 
Issue #1: General Mitchell Airport reminded me that there's a Billy Mitchell Airport on Hatteras Island NC. It makes me wonder: How many people have more than one airport named for them? Are there more? Indirect namings like Washington don't count.

Issue #2: IMHO, you should not have an airport named after you until after you're dead. This is especially true if you are still holding office.
 
N747JB said:
I fly out of FTY, Atlanta-Fulton county airport, Charlie Brown field :D Named after a county commissioner. ;)
ATL was Hartsfield for years and now it's Hartsfield-Jackson, after Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor.
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Speaking of "Charlie Brown," KSTS (Santa Rosa, CA) is named for "Peanuts" creator Charles M Schulz.

:D
 
Griffiss AFB (now Griffiss International) Rome, NY
Named after the first airman killed in action in WWII. (by friendly fire)
 
flyingron said:
John Wayne International (Santa Ana, Orange County, whatever)
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From what I understand, John Wayne was dead set against the expansion of the OC Airport into an International Airport.

I guess back in the day it was a very nice regional airport and a haven for GA.
 
Brad Z said:
Issue #2: IMHO, you should not have an airport named after you until after you're dead. This is especially true if you are still holding office.
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Damned straight. I cringed over Reagan for a couple of reasons: He wasn't dead at the time and the bonehead republican congress dumped an unfunded mandate on the Commonwealth of Virginia. How they managed to get the name changed on an airport not owned by the Federal government I do not understand.

There's also
William and Hillary Clinton in Little Rock
George H. W. Bush in Houston
Gerald R. Ford in Grand Rapids.
Of course, JFK in NY.

Airport wise Jimmy Carter seems to have come up on the short end of the stick, getting only a county field in Americus, GA, as does Harry Truman (Bates, MO).

To my knowledge Obama, George W. Bush, and Richard Nixon do not have airports named after them. Eisenhower doesn't either, though there's been an attempt to rename Wichita after him. Nor does LBJ (though he has lots of other stuff named after him).
 
Although Eisenhower does have the entire US interstate system named after him.
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
From what I understand, John Wayne was dead set against the expansion of the OC Airport into an International Airport.

I guess back in the day it was a very nice regional airport and a haven for GA.
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That is correct. I flew out of SNA from the early 60s with my parents and got my PPL there in 1976. Also met John Wayne several times and although a really nice guy he hated the airport because the departure path was right over his house. I have never called in using the John Wayne name but always Santa Ana Tower. Don
 
Easton maryland is easton- Newnam airport. Named after william S.D. Newnam, WW 2 marine corsair pilot who came home and ran the easton airport for many years. Great pilot, ran a commuter service to national airport daily using a shrike commander and a straight tail bonanza. Always wore red socks as did marine unit he had flown with and had brush cut. Nice person, great pilot. The airport was originally a sub hunter base - training base built by the government, sold to the county after WW2 for almost nothing. Georgetown Del. same deal.
 
Gen. William J. Fox Airport (KWJF) is, IMO, named after the wrong person.

The correct one is its founder, Pancho Barnes. She was a 1920s barnstormer, later ran a nearby fly-in dude ranch at Muroc, CA, and famously offered a free steak dinner to the first person to break the sound barrier. Her son's FBO is still there (though her son has been dead for 30 years).

I once rented a Warrior from them without realizing the history until afterward. One would think the autographed 8x10s of Chuck Yeager might have been a hint....
 
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Lots of blabbing in the newspaper here about changing mid continent to Eisenhower.
 
MAKG1 said:
Gen. William J. Fox Airport (KWJF) is, IMO, named after the wrong person.
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Years ago, when NOAA started publishing approach plates in bound volumes, they were arranged in alphabetical order by airport name, not city name.

So if one looked for KWJF, it was not under 'L' for Lancaster; nor was it under 'F' for Fox, the name everyone would associate with the airport. It was not even under 'W' for William J. Fox.

It was under 'G', for General William J. Fox Airfield.

:mad2:
 
Pancho Barnes! YES! I read a lot about her. Chuck Yeager and bob Hoover hung out at her place in their wild and Woolley days. Great read! Interesting person and quite a stick and rudder person.
 
when i first started learning approaches on long island, i was trying to find Long Island MacArthur Airport (KISP). i was looking everywhere for the airport in the approach plate booklet. i looked at L, I, M. finally found it in the N section. turns out they group kennedy, laguardia, and islip all under New York
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
From what I understand, John Wayne was dead set against the expansion of the OC Airport into an International Airport.
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John Wayne lived in Newport Harbor, under the approach / departure.

The county said they wanted to name the airport after him, and the joke goes that Wayne said "Over my dead body!"

That's just how they did it.
 
My home airport, Timmerman Field (KMWC) was originally Milwaukee Curtiss-Wright Field. KMCW was already taken by Mason City, so the ID was KMWC. Then, at some point the field was renamed after a long-serving county board president, Lawrence J. Timmerman. (The on-field VOR's identifier is LJT as well.)
 
Pilawt said:
Years ago, when NOAA started publishing approach plates in bound volumes, they were arranged in alphabetical order by airport name, not city name.

So if one looked for KWJF, it was not under 'L' for Lancaster; nor was it under 'F' for Fox, the name everyone would associate with the airport. It was not even under 'W' for William J. Fox.

It was under 'G', for General William J. Fox Airfield.

:mad2:
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Meh... It's not that much better now. RFD may be 68 miles from Chicago, but that didn't stop them from calling themselves the "Chicago Rockford International Airport" and thus placing their approaches not only nowhere near R, but mixed in with well over 100 pages of all the other Chicago and "Chicago" airports. (There are only two public airports left that are truly in Chicago - ORD and MDW. The rest are in places like West Chicago (DPA), Bolingbrook (1C5), Wheeling (PWK), Romeoville (LOT), etc. I think only Clow is listed under its actual city instead of Chicago.
 
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