Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-02-06
Airport Dispute

sAOAt Va LiiC PIOpCI 1OCdJlOIl
for a new Washington airport
to emphasize several things
which Senator Spessard L.
Holland and his committee
members brought to light for
the first time.
Messrs. Rothschild and Pyle
of the Commerce Department
and the CAA revealed they
had made no effort to divert
noncommercial flights to fields
other than National Airport,
such as Friendship: nor had
these officials sought to have
any commercial fights ar
ranged to try Friendship as an
experiment to relieve the con-
gestion at National. They re-
ported that the operations of
the Military Air Transport
Service out of National had
been about so per cent trans
ferred to Andrews ALB and
that the other MATS flights
are to be transferred within
six months. However, during
1856. out Of a total of about
100000 flights using National
Airport. the military and nom
commercial flights totaled
about 10000. of which $4,000
were noncommercial. AS CAL
culated by Secretary Roths-
child, the noncommercial
flights made up about IL per
cent of the total. Inasmuch
as the Senate Appropriations
Committee last year had di-
rected the CAA to make the
experiment of eliminating as
much traffic from National as
possible by diverting some of
it to Friendship. and in view
of the official admission that
this had not been even at
tempted, would it not appear
that Senator Holland and
Senator Margaret Chase Smith
were entirely justified in char
acterizing these bureaucrats as
"recalcitrant"?
An amazing revelation by
these witnesses was that nom
commercial flights at National
are accorded the same privi-
leges as commercial planes. A
private plane with one or two
passengers, desiring to land at
National instead of at any
number of smaller fields, is
accepted into the flight pat
tern and is stacked" among
the regular airline flights to
take a regular turn with them.
thereby delaying the arrival
and to that extent haZarding
the safety of large numbers
OF passengers in commercial
flights 1t is as though boys
with a hand-car on a rail-
road track took precedence
over the express trains.
When representatives Of the
c. A. B.. an agency of the leg
islative branch were asked
what efforts they had made
to observe the request that
Friendship Airport be tried
experimentally, the senior wit
ness replied that c. A. B. had
done nothing because it was
their opinion that it was not
advisable.
At no time did any of the
committee give indication that
they were impressed with
claims made for the site at
Burke. On the other hand, it
was apparent from the back
ground and the testimony of
most Of the proponets of the
Burke site that it is a project
OF the real estate and building
interests.
Among the directions given
by the Senate committee previ-
ously to the c. A. A. and the
c. A. B.. was an order to con-
suit with local authorities of
the region where the airport
was proposed to be established.
Disregard of this was estab-
lished by the testimony of
County Supervisor Joseph Free
hill who stated that the Fairfax
Board of County Supervisors
had never been approached or
consulted in any way. Mr..
Freehill recalled at the Board
meeting Of January 81 that
the Supervisors have seven
times opposed the Burke prof.
ect.
The recent tragedy as Los
Angeles emphasizes that we
want as little flying overhead
as possible. The possibility of
similar holocausts in Fairfax
and Arlington Counties caused
me to testify in favor Of a new
airport to the westward, even
as far out as Herndon or over
IN Loudoun county.
Richard L. Feldman.