Dang and you folks call us hillbillies sound like you'll from the SOUTH TOOOOO.

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Jay&Shelby 95 Regency 34ft. 300 hp.

No passport or visa required to visit America in Miniature....We're proud of the variety the Free State offers visitors. Mountains in the west, Revolutionary and Civil War history, the beautiful Bay for crabbing and fishing, vineyards producing world-class wines, tranquil parks, big cities ("Look, Lamar, SEE-ment!"), the Eastern Shore, the oldest operating airport at College Park, right, Lee? Museums honoring just about anything the can name (railroads, Babe Ruth, oysters, lighthouses). Local cuisine includes steamed crabs, crab cakes, stuffed ham (they make slits in the ham, pack it with greens and bake it -- wonderful), striped bass from the Bay. Some day I'm going to retire and take time to sightsee and visit my own home state. Y'all are welcomed anytime.

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Bev

You're right-on Bev.......Anyone who was born & raised within eyeshot of the Chesapeake Bay wouldn't want to live anywhere else...(James Michner said so!)

(THERE.....THAT ought bring some interesting responses....)

And eugarps from Hagerstown is right...we ought to drum-up a Murlin/Atlantic Coast Barth rally...College Park Airport has acres of grass, adjacent 75 acre lake, hiker-biker trails, swimming pool, ice rink, up-scale restaurant and it's an 18 minute Metrorail ride from the airport to the middle of the Mall in DC....not to mention about 30 minutes to the Bay......Hmmmmm, any interest out there?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by BevBarth:
[B] the oldest operating airport at College Park, right, Lee?

Hmmm, More lies out of Wash. DC, I guess?;-)
Vancouver, WA. has the oldest continuosly operating airport... 1905! Lincoln Beachy even piloted a drigible across the Columbia River to it that year. It was the Fort Vancouver drigible/baloon field until airplanes started using it in 1911. Maybe because the name was changed to Pearson Airfield in 1924, DC can claim it's the oldest?
Cheers, John

Oh, well....Maybe Lee can back this up....It's on the National Register of Historic Places.

According to the College Park Airport website, it was established in 1909 after Wilbur Wright came to the field to train two military officers to fly in the government's first aeroplane. The airport is the site of many significant aviation firsts --

First woman passenger, 1909;
first military officer to fly a govenrment plane, 1909;
first test of a bomb-dropping device from a plane, 1911;
first test of a machine gun from aircraft, 1911;
first mile-high flight by military pilot, General Hap Arnold, 1912;
US Air Mail Service, 1918;
controlled helicopter flight, 1924;
radio navigational aids developed and tested by Bureau of Standards, 1927;
and Amelia Earhart flew out of College Park at some point before her fatal trip (don't know exact dates).

Maybe the catch phrase is "continuously operating?" They have some exciting air shows there; I attended one with wing-walkers and dog-fights with biplanes years ago. I don't know if they still have those. The wing-walking plane crashed at a show in Warrenton, VA a few years ago. It was a father/daughter team named "Shelley."


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Bev

Southdale in Edina, MN was the first indoor shopping mall in the US. Established in 1955

Let's get our priorities straight here..



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Hi John,

Lies out of Washington?....Surely, you can't be serious John....Remember your history...it all depends what the meaning of the word "is", is........ ;-)

Your history zealots & my history zealots have been fighting over this "oldest airport" issue since before I came to College Park Airport in the late '70's. The operative terms are "in continuous operation".....We go back to the Wright Brothers teaching the Army Signal Corps (troops like Hap Arnold) how to fly. Since that time, 1909, we have been a public airport in continuous operation as an airport. Obviously, Kitty Hawk & Hoffman Praire in OH predate us, but they're no longer functioning airports.....The historians at Nat'l. Historic Registry also determined that Vancouver, although beginning earlier, had experienced lapses where it did not function as an operating airport. Hence, we claim the title.

If we close tomorrow, the oldest airport in continuous operation would default to a little field in France....If for that reason alone, PLEASE don't rock the boat on this!

I invite you to Barth your way College Park Airport....I'll set you up on the field where you can kick-back, hand feed the local deer and we'll continue this intellectual & historical sparring......

Or, we could meet half way at Dave's world famous shopping center, call it a draw and have Dave buy us dinner to celebrate......

Lee, Mgr.
College Park Airport
"World's Oldest - Since 1909!"