A onetime Logan director, Garvey is caught between local leaders who don't want the noise and traffic of another runway and the business interests and airlines that want relief. The debates are fueled by AIR 21, a transportation bill President Clinton signed into law this spring. It provides the necessary funding the airports and FAA expect will be needed for the next decade. All this money is intended to usher in the second century of the nation's aviation system. However, some argue that the plans will perpetuate the mistakes of the first.
Modern airports require vast tracts of land.
Fuel-heavy jumbo jets headed for distant destinations require runways of 1.5 to 2 miles to take off. Safety standards require runways to be spaced nearly a mile apart if jets are to use both runways at the same time in bad weather. Such parallel operations have become critical in handling the steady increase in flights. Most of the nation's largest airports began as landing fields surrounded by miles of empty space. O'Hare International was originally Orchard Field, a World War II bomber-training base established in the apple orchards north of Chicago.