- City:
- Pensacola, FL
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Airports
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1935
- Completed:
- 1938
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
“The development of the Pensacola International Airport began during the Great Depression. Conner Hagler, owner of the San Carlos Hotel, and Harry Blanchard, a barnstorming pilot originally from Virginia, bought 504 acres of thick woodland on Skinner’s Mill Road (12th Avenue) in 1933. The first commercial flight in Pensacola landed on 7 April 1934, with a 14-passenger tri-motor Stinson of Atlantic and Gulf Coast Airlines. At that time, Pensacola’s airport began operation with of two grass-strip runways and an old hangar which had once belonged to the Navy. In 1935, the City of Pensacola sponsored a project through the Works Progress Administration to develop a permanent municipal airport. This project provided jobs for 400 Pensacolians in the midst of the Depression. November 1938 commenced regular commercial service to the Pensacola Municipal Airport with National Airlines’ twin-engine Lockheed Electras.” (flypensacola.com)
The airport has since then been developed from a municipal into an international operation.
Source notes
Pensacola International Airport Media Information Guide https://www.pensapedia.com/wiki/Pensacola_International_Airport#cite_note-PAFW-0Contribute to this Site
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