Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-15
GRAvELLY PLAN HELD CHEAPER
Hinton Tells Women's City Club Meet
ing Comparative Airport Costs.

ing Comparative Airport Costs.
Gravely Point can be developed foE
airport purposes for 5000 per acre
less than the purchase and develop.
Tnent cost at the proposed Washington
Airport-Hoover Field site, Walter Hin
ton, chairman Of the aviation commit
tee Of the Washington Chamber Of
Commerce, told members Of the avia-
ton section Of the Women's City Clut
in an address last night.
The District will have to pay approx
mately 90, 900 per acre for the $50 acres
of land In Washington Airport and
Hoover Field, Hinton said, half the
$2,500, 900 cost estimate made by the
joint congressional commission going
for the land.
When the Washington Airport Hoover
Field Airport is completed, at o cost OF
$2,500, 900, we will have only $50 acres
at the maximum" Hinton said. 81 have
engineering estimates which show that
this amount could be used to produce
an airport Of 500 acres at Gravelly
Point, filled, graded, drained, sodded
and ready for use within two years, at
. cost of $4,000 per acre"
Hinton declared that there is q
~strtng attached to the offer of the Fed
eral Government to lend the District
funds with which to develop the Wash
The District Of Columbia" he said
will be required to pay for the site
and to develop 1t, but the title will re-
main with the Federal Government. II
we pay for the field we should own it. u
The combined site will not be suit
able for airport purposes for the Ma
tional Capital, even II developed to its
maximum area of $50 acres, Hinton de.
clared. The field, he said, Is Of tnSuff-
EfnY1t al "a ~ A
from the Department Of Commerce. II
Is unsafe for development as q 6eaplant
base because the river in front of thu
site is narrow and the Highway ar1c
Arlington Memorial Bridges constitute
permanent distractions, he said. More
over, he pointed out, If the Mount Yer
non boulevard, to be constructed alons
Columbia Island, is to be beautified By
the planting of trees, the effective land
ing area both of the airport and the
river would be reduced by at least sever
times the height Of the trees, cutting
several acres from the available land
ing area.
Development of the proposed two leve
junction Of the Washington Alexandra
road and the Mount Vernon boulevard
at the southern end of Highway Bridge
he said, would constitute another haz-
ard at that corner of the field.
Hinton urged that the Womens City
Club follow up its invitation to entrants
In the 1880 women's air derby, In con-
nection with the national air races TX
be held in Chicago late in the Summer
to start from the National Capital. He
predicted that there would be more thar
100 woman pilots entered In the derhy
as against 16 last year.
Opportunities for women In aviation
were discussed by the speaker, who hal
written a text book on the subject o.
opportunities in the aviation industry
He told of the many fields open to wom'
en- in the manufacturing, designing
finishing, operation, sales and advertls'
ing of aircraft. He pointed out that onG
woman, Miss Amelia Earhart, now u
paid SIS, 900 a year by one company u
develop passenger travel by air.