Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) Sites

Delano Municipal Airport was built during the New Deal with funds budgeted for the Development of Landing Areas for National Defense. It was built by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) with the aid of the Works Progress Administration or WPA. Local sources say the airport opened in April 1940, but the WPA project was approved in early 1941. It could be that the project was accelerated ahead of schedule, as was often  the case with military projects by 1939-40. The airport covers 546 acres and has one paved runway measuring 5,651 by 75 feet.   In late 1943, the airport was turned over...

The first Washington DC airport was built during the New Deal.  Long known as National Airport, it was renamed for former President Ronald Reagan in 1998. Most locals still refer to it by its former name. Construction began in 1938, after "President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced at a press conference that he was 'tired of waiting for Congress' to select a site for the new airport and said that it would be built on mudflats on a bend of the Potomac River at Gravelly Point, 4 miles south of the District of Columbia." (Airport Authority website) Several federal agencies were involved in...