Lindbergh, U.S. presidents part of Reno airport 75-year history RENO, Nev. (AP) =97 When Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis in= =20 1927 on what is now a golf course, he warned Reno's business leaders they'd= =20 better get a bigger airport. The next year they did, and 75 years later,=20 Reno-Tahoe International Airport is celebrating its diamond anniversary at= =20 the same location. Over the years it has welcomed Amelia Earhart, Marilyn=20 Monroe and three sitting presidents. It has hosted the 1960 Winter=20 Olympians and millions of passengers. Since 1977, the number of passengers= =20 departing from the Reno airport nearly tripled, from 787,000 to an=20 estimated 2.25 million last year, airport spokesman Adam Mayberry said.=20 Lindbergh visited Reno as part of his 82 city tour promoting commercial=20 aviation and the building of airports, Mayberry said. The famed aviator=20 landed south of downtown at BlanchField Airport, current site of the Washoe= =20 County Golf Course, where Ben Hogan won the Reno Open Invitational in 1948.= =20 "BlanchField, unless enlarged, will never do for a commercial airport,"=20 Lindbergh told a group of reporters when he landed, according to a Nevada=20 State Journal report Sept. 20, 1927. "The Reno field is entirely too small= =20 for planes the type of which will be seen in the near future. It must be=20 enlarged to take care of the gigantic airlines which are bound to come," he= =20 said. In 1928, Boeing purchased 120 acres at the current airport site about 2.5=20 miles east of Blanchfield Airport and opened Hubbard Field, named after=20 Eddie Hubbard, the company's vice president of operations. United Airlines= =20 acquired Hubbard Field in 1937 and renamed it United Airlines Airport.=20 "RENO" was painted atop rooftops around town to give pilots directions to=20 the field until an air traffic control tower was built in 1942, Mayberry=20 said. Over the years, entertainers who flew into Reno included Monroe, Jack= =20 Benny and Robert Redford. The airport terminal building was constructed in= =20 1960 to handle traffic for the Winter Olympic Games at nearby Lake Tahoe's= =20 Squaw Valley. The Air France supersonic Concorde landed in Reno in 1993,=20 then flew to Paris. Air Force One landed with Ronald Reagan in 1982, George Bush in 1992 and=20 Bill Clinton in 1997, Mayberry said. A historical slide show, including=20 Lindbergh's arrival, will be part of a Thursday night program when airport= =20 officials and community leaders plan a joint celebration of the airport's=20 75 years along with the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Airport=20 Authority of Washoe County. A special bust will be unveiled of Nevada=20 Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, who pushed an act through the=20 Legislature in 1978 forming a quasi-municipal corporation overseeing=20 Reno-Tahoe and Reno-Stead airports. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************