Friendship Airport Updated 2010  ............................................................................................   Nothing presently exists of the original Friendship Airport building , currently known as BWI , Thurgood Marshall Airport. The airport, just south of Baltimore City, is on 3,300 acres of Anne Arundel County Maryland land. 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. Friendship Airport got it's name from the old Friendship Methodist Church that once occupied the site. When the airport was being planned in 1948, it was the second regional airport in the Baltimore Washington area, the first being Washington National Airport .  The main runway, when Friendship first opened, was reported to be 2 miles long. The newer - BWI - Thurgood Airport has been built over the same site. .............................................................................................. ..................................

........... .........The Good old days, pulling up in front of the Airport and waiting for a while.

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.......................... ..............................................................Aerial photo of Friendship soon after it opened

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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. . ...................................................... .........................................................................Lobby of Friendship Airport back in the 1950's.. ...................................................................... ....... Early aerial view of Friendship Airport ( below ) , shows only a few planes on the ground and one large hangar. The early days were not good for the airport as traffic was not quite what officials had expected, but with the advent of jet planes, such as DC8s. 707s and 727s, the airport became very successful. This entire building , which contained three piers and three levels, 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. ..............      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.

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Replacing the Dundalk Airport in Eastern Baltimore City and County ( listed below ) , Friendship Airport was quite an exciting opening day for folks all around Maryland. Below, Friendship's parking lot with a few 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. .................... .................Postcard view of the Lobby of Friendship Airport when it opened ( above 3 right ). Friendship Airport might have been where the first branch for a bank in a airport was located, with the opening of the Fidelity Trust Office, which was a bank branch enclosed in glass walls.  ( Information thanks to Ed ) .......................................................... ....................................................TWA ticket counter, Friendship Airport Baltimore Maryland circa 1950's

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A few new entries for the Friendship Airport page that 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. By 1963, Friendship airport boasted of a 9,450 foot runway, which could handle any jet at that time. For years the airport was owned and operated by the City of Baltimore, with 145 Municipal employees and 1,400 employees working there in 1963. At that time, there were 150 daily flights, 11 airlines and 19 gates available.  Ownership later went over to the State of Maryland. ..............................

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................ BWI in the 1980's,  prior to the building of a massive parking garage, which went up in the late 1990's to 2000. The early airport of the 1960's had a parking lot which would only hold 1,900 cars. To the right, a 1950's look inside the control tower.

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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, in Baltimore County. 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, as City Officials hoped that the airport would be one of the Country's largest airports as water landing were thought at the time to be the wave of the future in air flight. Baltimore offered better weather than NYC, and on occasion Harbor Field was used by planes to land when NYC had bad weather.

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Much of the airport was made by dredging  and for over 13 years, the attempt at making the world's greatest airport was hampered by runways that would not settle in and would sink.  Later, land operations started 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, as jets and landing runways took over at Friendship Airport in Anne Arundel County , with the old field being used by the Federal government for several years, until it was torn down and later made into the Dundalk Marine Terminal. Below right, you can see a map of the old airport, located at the intersection of Broening Highway and Dundalk Avenue. ....................................................

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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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............................................................ Looking south from Broening Highway , this view ( right ) today shows the Dundalk Marine Terminal ( Best view I could find ) , where if the plans had continued as were hoped, you would see in this view planes taking off and landing. A major port facility occupies the site today.

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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.     The field 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. The below right shot shows what I believe is a pilot of a Baltimore Airways plane at Logan Field, back in the 1920's

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......By the late 1920's, commercial flights ( above ) began at the airport, and by the mid 1930's, even American Airlines flew out of the airport. ............................................................. ........By the late 1940's, housing replaced the airport. The photo of the house, left below is of the intersection of Dundalk Avenue and Belclare Avenue, circa 2008, showing no trace at all of the old Logan Field.

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.......... ......A early 1920's road map showing the location of Logan Field, indicated by the # 2 in blue gray. This older map has no mention of Municipal ( Harbor Field ) Airport, to be built later just North of "Balnew". To the left, a late 1920's aerial shot of Logan Field.

.................................................................... ..................................................................So much for radar ! A local business shows pilots where the airport is.

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.......Also helpful for pilots coming into Logan Field were these very powerful lights, perched on top of the Standard Oil Building and Lord Baltimore Hotel, in downtown Baltimore, circa 1929. ..............................       A 1927 tribute to the crossing of the Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh, six small aircraft fly out of Logan field and across Baltimore to mark the occasion.

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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.

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Martin Airport ..............................................  ................................................................. Glenn L. Martin State Airport .....................................  ...................................Glenn L. Martin Airport Airport is still open to this day. More is coming for this topic.

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A few mysteries were under covered while investigating the history of Airports in Baltimore. Above left , plans for a Lindbergh Field in Baltimore, likely plans to update Logan Field or early plans for Harbor Field. ......Below, a few old postcards found of the first flight over Baltimore. The first is of Herbert Latham's "Antionette", likely the first  plane to fly over Baltimore. To the right, Aviator Radley flying his Monoplane in Halethorpe, which is is southwest of Baltimore, getting ready for the historic 1910 flight. Apparently the event drew a lot of attention in Baltimore and Halethorpe.

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