Friendship Airport   Nothing presently exists of the old Friendship Airport building , currently known as BWI , Thurgood Marshall Airport. The airport, just south of Baltimore City is in Anne Arundel County Maryland. When the airport opened in 1950 , it was said to cost $15,000,000, and was said, at the time,  to be four times larger than New York's La Guardia Airport and five times larger than Washington D.C.'s National Airport. The runway, when Friendship first opened, was reported to be 2 miles long. The newer BWI Thurgood Airport has been built over the same site.

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Postcard View

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Above, several opening day promotional shots of Friendship airport in Anne Arundel County Maryland. Below left , an early postcard of the airport, and below right, a view from the runway and the observation deck.

. Postcard View	............. ..Postcard Views ................. Lost are the days when you were allowed to go right out on the roof of the airport and view the activity from the Observation Deck. I never made it to the old observation deck at Friendship, but today's BWI observation area is enclosed, which is ok, but probably not quite as exciting.
Early aerial view of Friendship Airport , shows only a few planes on the ground and one large hangar. This entire building has since been torn down and replaced with Baltimore Washington International Airport. The airport was named after the area, known as Friendship, in Anne Arundel County, just south of Baltimore City.    ........   ..................................................................... Postcard Views    Replacing the Dundalk Airport in Eastern Baltimore City, Friendship Airport was quite an exciting opening day for folks all around Maryland. Below, Friendships parking with a view spots visible, and well within walking distance of the airport. Times have changed as the parking lots are now multi- storied garages and the airport has satellite lots for long term parking as well. Below right, a look at the runways when the airport first opened, and far below left, the airport with two planes awaiting passengers. ...................	....................A postcard view of Friendship Airport when it first opened.   .......................................................................... Postcard View ...................... ....... Postcard View  .................Postcard view of the Lobby of Friendship Airport when it opened. Fridenship Airport might have been where the first branch for a bank in a airport was located, with the opening of the Fidelty Trust Office, which was a bank branch enclosed in glass walls. ( Information thanks to Ed ) Please feel free to email Kilduffs with any questions or comments . Updated 5-25-2008
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A few new entrys for the Friendship Airport page, as of May 25, 2008 .I obtained a opening day booklet for the Baltimore Convention Center , now known as First Mariner Arena. The booklet had all sorts of material on early 1960's Baltimore, which included these three pictures of a typical day at Friendship Airport.	....
Before Friendship Airport, ( later known as B.W.I. / Thurgood Marshall Airport ) opened up in 1950 , Baltimore had several smaller airports around town. The largest and most used was Harbor Field in Dundalk Maryland, located just Southeast of the City. The airport, also known as Baltimore Municipal Airport and even Baltimore Airport, was located on the Patapsco River at Colgate Creek. The site is now a part of the Dundalk Marine Terminal. The airport opened for seaplanes in the early 1930's, with land operations starting at the airport in the early 1940's. The airport simply went by the name of Harbor Field by 1950 and closed for good by 1960, after being used by the government for several years. Below right, you can see a map of the old airport, located at the intersection of Broening Highway and Dundalk Avenue.	.................... ..............................................................Postcard View
............ .....................................Photo from the Collection of the Maryland Room - Pratt Library - Baltimore Maryland	....... ....
........... ......................................Photo from the Collection of the Maryland Room - Pratt Library - Baltimore Maryland	.............. ................. Postcard View

.......................   By 1939, the Yankee Clipper planes began to fly into the airport. The first three pictures are off those planes, while the fourth ( below right ) is of a smaller seaplane landing at the airport, circa 1939.	............
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Logan Field     In the 1920's, Baltimore realized it needed an airport, and Baltimore's first airport, Logan Airport, located in the Dundalk area around Dundalk Avenue and Belclare Road was built. The airport first opened as the Dundalk Flying Field, but the name was changed in honor of pilot Lt. Patrick Logan, who died when his biplane crashed near the location in the 1920's.      By the late 1920's, commercial flights ( below ) began at the airport, and by the mid 1930's, even American Airlines flew out of the airport. The airport went by the name of Baltimore Municipal Airport for a while, but by the mid 1940's, closed down to be replaced by nearby Harbor Field. By the  late 1940's, housing replaced the airport.	.............................................
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Curtiss Wright    I'm still gathering the details on this small airfield located in Northwest Baltimore, but I have located a map, which clearly shows the airport, and a picture of a shopping center, that is now located on part of the old airport. The rest of the airport was developed into housing. One emailer wrote Kilduff's to tell of playing in the abandoned hangars of this airport many years ago.	..............

Martin Airport   Glenn L. Martin State Airport.  Glenn L. Martin Airport Airport is still open to this day.
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Few few mysteries under covered while investigating the history of Airports in Baltimore. Above, plans for a Lindbergh Field in Baltimore, likely plans to update Logan Field or early plans for Harbor Field. Any ideas would be appreciated ! Below, a few old postcards found of early Baltimore flight. The first is of Latham's Antionette, one of the earliest planes to fly over Baltimore. To the right, Aviator Radley flying his Monoplane in Halethorpe, which is is southwest of Baltimore.
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