Charlotte Douglas International Airport
Facts on CLT
Charlotte's first municipal airport was built in the mid-1930s with Works Progress Administration funding and was, at the time, the largest single WPA project in the United States -- a terminal, hangar, beacon tower and three runways all at once.
Source: Wikipedia
The second name on the airport comes from Ben Elbert Douglas Sr., who was Charlotte's mayor from 1935 to 1941 -- the first directly elected by voters after a city charter change -- and used New Deal-era funds to build the city's airport, complete American Legion Memorial Stadium, and establish its first hospital, later Carolinas Medical Center.
Source: Wikipedia
Douglas had overseen the airport's 1936 opening as Charlotte Municipal Airport; in 1954, twenty years on, it was renamed Douglas Municipal Airport in his honor. It took its present name, Charlotte Douglas International, only in 1982, when a new terminal opened.
Source: Wikipedia
The U.S. Army Air Forces took over the field in early 1941 and renamed it Morris Field soon after Pearl Harbor, investing more than $5 million in improvements before returning it to the City of Charlotte in 1946.
Source: Wikipedia
A 139-foot digital display in Concourse A North runs 'Interconnected,' an ever-changing artwork by Refik Anadol built from the airport's live network of aircraft movements -- one of the largest digital artworks of its kind anywhere.
Source: Wikipedia
A monumental bronze statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz -- the city's own namesake -- by sculptor Raymond Kaskey was placed in front of the main terminal during the early-1990s expansion, and is slated to move to a new 'Queen's Court' area once the current terminal renovation is finished.
Source: Wikipedia
After American Airlines merged with US Airways in 2013, Charlotte became American's second-largest hub, behind only Dallas/Fort Worth; American Eagle's operation at Charlotte is, by the airline's own account, the largest regional flight operation in the world.
Source: Wikipedia
Charlotte Douglas is one of the few U.S. hub airports with its own aviation museum on site: the Sullenberger Aviation Museum holds N106US, the US Airways Airbus A320 that Captain Chesley Sullenberger ditched in the Hudson River in January 2009, delivered to the museum in June 2011.
Source: Wikipedia