Question: The world’s first fixed location devoted to the landing and departure of flying machines that was referred to in the way we most often do now, that is by the term ‘airport’ was:
A) Wings Field, PA
B) College Park Airport, MD
C) Bader Field, Atlantic City, NJ
D) Hammonton Municipal, NY
E) Wright-Patterson AFB
Answer: College Park was the first aerodrome (and is still the world’s oldest continuously operating airport, although after September 11 2001, this claim is becoming less and less solid). Wings Field has been around awhile. Hammondton, New York is where Glenn Curtiss flew. But Bader Field was first called an ‘airport’ in about 1918. Before then, the term just wasn’t used, or didn’t even exist. It is believed to have been coined by a local newsman. And just for the record, the Air Force claims that the first airport was Huffman Prairie, where the Wright Brothers first built a hangar, rails, and kept an airplane. That site is now Wright-Patterson AFB. (It has not been in continuous use, and more relevant to the question, early references to it using the word ‘airport’ are not substantiated.)
