Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-24
President Will Law
Airport Cornerstone
At Bpm. Tomorrow
Elaborate Ceremonies
Are Arranged on Lond
And in Air

With elaborate air and ground
ceremonies. beginning at pm. to-
morrow, President Roosevelt will
lay the cornerstone of the Terminal
building at the s13,5OOO0O Washing
ton National Airport, Gravelly
Point. Present plans call for the
airport to be dedicated and put into
operation December II. the 37th
anniversary of the first airplane
flight, at Kitty Hawk, N. C.
In 5-minute address, the Presi-
dent is expected to point out the
Importance of the new air terminal,
which is expected to be the largest
and most modern airport in the
United States and to exceed in
size and facilities such world
famous airports as Croydon, at Lon
don; Tempelhof, at Berlin, and lie
Bourget, at Paris.
The President will arrive at the
airport. driving over the main north
south runway. shortly after 3 pm.
He will be driven to a temporary
earth mound 500 feet in front of
the 540-foot new terminal building,
where he will take microphone and
order the first landings by airplanes
on the new airport.
Fleet of Seven Airliners.
A fleet of seven TRANSPORT air.
liners, which will be circling the
area with party of distinguished
guests, will come in and land on
the newly paved runways. Assist
ant Secretary of Commerce Robert
H. Hinckley, in a Civil Aeronautics
Board airplane, will head the party.
This plane will be followed by air.
liners from each of the three trans
port lines now operating out of
Washington - American Airlines,
Eastern Air Lines and Pennsyl-
vania-Central Airlines Transport
and cargo airplanes of the Army,
Navy and Marine Corps will follow.
The party then will proceed to
grandstand erected in the rear of
the Terminal Building, where the
President will speak over Nation
wide radio networks and lay the
cornerstone. Admission to the stand
will be by card and will be confined
to officials, members of Congress
and aviation and civic representa-
tlveS who have been particularly in
terested in construction of the air
port.
The public will be admitted to the
new airport without cards. Visitors
can enter from the Mount Vernon
Highway at the point where the old
and new roads diverge. and follow
the old route of the highway to. the
high ground along the flying field,
the area around the traffic circle,
and part of the area Immediately be-
hind the terminal building, within
view of the grandstand.
Flying Ceremony Is Secret.
From these points there will be
ample opportunity to see, and hear
the ceremonies over loud speaker
system. Air ceremonies will be held
over the field following the corner
stone laying. The nature of these
flying events is being withheld as
a surprise feature.
I'VE will be glad.to have the pub
lie there" Col. Sunpter Smith,
chairman of the Interdepartmental
Engineering Commission, under
whose supervision the airport has
been built, said. Though this area
is ii anything but a completed state,
it is far enough along to show what
center of attraction it will be when
completed, with its Handicapped
lawns rolling down from the new
location of the boulevard to the edge
of the flying field"
Runways Nearly Complete.
The area available for fight OPP
erations tomorrow includes the en-
tire north-south runway, 6,855 feet
long. and 200 feet. wide. and most
of the northwest-southeast runway,
5,210 feet long and 200 feet wide.
These runways will carry rs per
cent of the. traffic on the completed
field, it is estimated. The other two
rurways, each to be $50 feet wide,
are the 4892-foot Notwithstanding
west runway and the 4,100-foot east
west runway.
The runways are 80 per cent COM
pleted. Col Smith announced. Re-
mainline work On the airnort in.
cludes leveling and planting of the
areas between the runways, COM
pletion of the terminal building and
roads, erection of the first hangar,
now in progress. and of five other
hangers, for which s2,700,00 has
been included in a deficiency bill
reported to the House last week.
All hangar space and all space in
the terminal already is rented or