A Very Important 3-Part Documentary On The Most Famous of the
"DC-3"
They called them the 'DC-3.' Three of the nation's most
interesting and vital airports were restricted, strangled and
severely punished for the fact that they were located in somewhat
close proximity to the nation's capital... and after 9/11, that was
a bad thing, indeed. The most celebrated of these airports is
College Park Airport, in Maryland... and is none other than the
world's oldest continuously operated airport.
College Park Airport's history is a storied one... as 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 facility is now the world's oldest continuously operated
airport, and is the site of many significant aviation firsts.
College Park Airport, known as the "Cradle of Aviation," is an
active airport serving the needs of aircraft pilots, and is also a
site for history buffs and aviation enthusiasts. In 1977 the
airport was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
In the paranoia that followed the tragedy of 9/11, the kneejerks
in Washington decided that severely restricting a lovely little
airport on the outskirts of DC was somehow a major security issue.
College Park Airport Manager Lee Schiek wrote ANN, several years
ago, of the travesties foisted upon his and the two other DC
airports in the name of national security... "After 93 years of
operation, our federal government has decided that this bucolic
little general aviation facility must be slowly choked out of
existence and sacrificed on the holy alter of National Security.
The year-old temporary flight restrictions imposed upon
College Park Airport(CGS), Hyde Field (W32) and Potomac Airfield
(VKX) have now been arbitrarily extended for another two years.
That action may very well destroy three previously vibrant general
aviation airports, no doubt to the subtle satisfaction of our
federal architects of security. The airports' assassinations will
not be quick and humane, but slow and drawn-out, Inquisition-style.
Not wanting any bureaucratic blood on their hands in the event of
negative press, the feds are now free to shrug their collective
shoulders and claim "lack of market response" as the "real" culprit
leading up to the government's Final Solution for these airports.
The fact that federal zealotry resulted in the seizure of 99+% of
their customer-base won't even qualify as a footnote in any future
administrative autopsies."
For nearly seven years, College Park has held on, barely, to its
existence... and even started to recover a bit -- so very slowly...
as a few pilots begin to understand the value of an airport great
enough to jump through all the ridiculous security hoops TSA places
in front of them.
So... will they survive? Aero-TV spent some time with Lee
Schiek, who talked openly about what they endured and what they
must have, in the future, if they are to survive. Join Aero-TV and
Lee Schiek in a frank discussion of the trials and tribulations of
College Park Airport.
Join Aero-TV In Part
One
Of The Whole Story Of College Park's Struggle
About Aero-TV: It's DEFINITELY Show
Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... we are NOW initiating the first
feature programming series for Aero-TV... we're going to take it
slow, but we're also going to try and be steady about this. DO
UNDERSTAND that this is the most complex media program we've ever
undertaken and what you're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg...
but from here on out, we will be doing our best to educate,
inform, and entertain YOU about all aspects of the exciting worlds
of aviation and aerospace.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and so we've been
building and planning a massive new organization within ANN. That
said, we're hiring talented new people as
fast as we can find them (a far more difficult
task than we had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find),
and we're brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting
Space Shuttle feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we wanted to
do this right, rather than right-now, and that the development of
this program has been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've
ever undertaken.
E-I-C Note: The
complete feature shown above is embedded in this
story, with most of the slick and useful functionality
otherwise available on the main Aero-TV site (which will be
upgraded aggressively over the next few weeks). The ability to
embed a video on another web page is but one of the hundreds
of amazing little features that we've worked hard on, for many
months now, to implement in different phases of the initial
release of Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy
unaltered Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we
have extensive plans for future functionality, but this
feature allows those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or
Feature program to embed it on a different web site, though we
must note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those
sites or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper
mission of the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are welcome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want Aero-TV For
MY Website! link.
Coming Soon!
ANN Is Proud to Present An EXTENSIVE Three Part
Series On The College Park Airport Controversy!, Aero-TV Shows You
How To Build A Glasair Sportsman 2+2 in RECORD TIME, Flies The
Piper Matrix, Hears What's Hot At Blue Mountain Avionics, Gets
Some GREAT Rotax Lessons, Gets Updated On ALL Things Lopresti, Has
A FUN Chat With Corkey Fornof, Sees What Happens When AMTs Compete,
Checks Out The Ltest in Life-Raft technologies, Checks Out
More "HIGH" Tech at I/ITSEC 2007, Hears From AOPA On Critical
Aviation Issues, Spills Some Juicy (and HIGHLY Detailed) Cirrus G3
Info, Scores A BUNCH of LSA Reports, and SO MUCH
MORE!!!!! Do NOT Miss Them!
NTSB Final Report: Cozy Cub
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