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mm mhm. 45 years ago, San Franciscans came to the spot to dig for clams but waited through waist deep mud in search of their quarry. On most any Sunday afternoon, a few Ernest birdwatchers could be seen stalking the marshy Tidland. They brave the swamp in

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hopes of glimpsing a rare specimen amongst the flocks of geese scuttling impatiently at the bays edge. Today, a different type of bird roams this landscape, and the people who come to the marsh wanna fly Mawr than they want to watch. Last year, San Francisco International Airport

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saw over 14 million leg weary people conquer miles of winding corridors and all in an effort to reach the first stop of their eventual destination, the airplane itself. The problems caused by this immense flow of humanity and machines is incredible. Three only hope of making the

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airport a smooth, flowing transfer point from ground to air travel lies with man's ability to manifest his intellectual and physical strength. So far, he has made great strides, but not always as promised. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking. Welcome aboard Flight 7

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16 for Chicago were experiencing a slight delay will be grounded for about 15 minutes. Mm. It don't realize what those little old airplanes were like in the open cockpits and what was called an airport days ally. They think of

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something tremendous large expanses of pavements. And there's nothing but beautiful term role structures. My name is Jorge de Bour. I went to work for M M o Shaughnessy, city engineer, San Francisco in June 1926. He assigned me the task of acquiring an airport site, designing and

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building an airport off course. In order to get a suitable site, we had Thio find one that was gonna have a city built on it. But it was the only place we could find that we could put in airport to San Francisco. The site we found

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waas partially on reclaimed Title Marchand, partly on title over Plug lowland. That creates quite a number of problems both from the construction point of view and also operation because it's necessary to develop techniques of putting structures in such a location and putting runways capable of carrying

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a tremendous load over this very soft material. Well, might say I lived in mud for something like 30 years. It was quite a rat race because as luck would have it, it rained almost continuously. And this being somewhat low lying area, all the equipment we had

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was bogged down in those days. The city business with much more informal it is now. We could do things, particularly in the emergency condition. That is somewhat hard to do. President of times. That's that old cloth Mills Field airport, isn't it? Right? That's the old original

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lobby clock in the old old frame building that was used from 1927 1937. My name was Jean Sullivan. Andi. I was the chief airport traffic controller, just airport from Well, I went there in 1928. Is a meteorologist became chief controller in 19. 39 on, uh, occupied

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that position until I retired in 1965. I think the significant year, as far as the field development is concerned, who was 1932? That was the year that the new charter for the city went into effect and the airport went under the Public Utilities Commission. At that

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time, there were, uh, nothing of significance in the way of commercial activity. Mister Ed Cahill was the manager of utilities on the selected Mike Dolan as the airport manager. One of the first things that he did waas lengthen the prevailing wind runway because a Z, we

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all know airplanes must land and take off to the wind. Well, this took care of things on a temporary basis, and a few years later assumes they could get the money. They added Mawr Runway became 60 ft long today. I guess it's over two miles long.

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The theme. One of the other things he did right away was get a radio. So this radio was used to give information to pilots. There was no such thing as traffic control in those days. Uh, give the pilot the wind direction velocity, and tell him whether

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or not there really obstructions on the field information of that sort. What gate to use? Well, everybody did a little bit of everything. You know, They I did various things around the field, met people of the at the counter, answered the switchboard. So when Mr Dolan

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took over, the first thing he did was get airlines in there, and they moved from the East Bay where they were okay at that time to San Francisco airport. He convinced him that that's where the traffic waas and uh from then on the field blossomed out

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and steadily grew. And we became, of course, international airport. Henry Bostwick, Junior. I'm with San Mateo County Development Association. I often come out to Sierra Point to watch the growth at the San Francisco into National Airport and see the flights that are now taking place and

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wonder what's going to happen in the next 15 years. Mhm. Well, it was evident in 1952 that something was happening fast, and something was sure 1954 when the now major terminal operation of San Francisco Airport opened way. We're wondering then what was going to happen in

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the Jet? A. On when we think of how quickly 1959 now these jets came upon US. Passengers went from two million in 1952 to 5 million in 1959 to 15 million and 1969 from from the mud and water of the bay. The airport was carved by

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men with sensitive visions and machines. They pushed forward a lingering city and maintain Northern California's reputation is a major Pacific port. Today, San Francisco International is the fifth largest passenger facility in the world. It's problems no longer reflect man against his environment. They reflect man struggle

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with time. What the airport faces is a constant need to keep up with the aviation industry, an industry which now really is beginning to fly E loading, unloading and quickly, please quickly, a kaleidoscopic pattern of a million hands and feet lifting, looking, checking, running the daily

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ritual of arrival. Mhm, George. It seems to me that this is the the area where I'm James K. Car, general manager of Public Utilities. One of the four major departments under my jurisdiction is the San Francisco International Airport, which is the fifth largest airport in the

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world. Well, I can't devote full time to the international airport because my responsibilities conclude three other major departments, and the enormous responsibilities of all these would prevent me from working full time on the airport or even halftime. It will soon be 40 years since they set

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up this particular structure governmentally within the city, And, uh, I'm thoroughly convinced that this is not the way to do it. And I'm elated at Mayor Ali Atto's decision that we should go ahead with a separate airports commission. There's too much at stake not to do

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this right. But in the next year or year and a half, we'll have 66 carriers with 7 47 on the possibility that we might get three at once. I'm not all international, period. Most people have different ideas about what an airport really is, and it's a

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transfer point between ground and air travel. And if that is kept in mind continually, then you don't get off on rabbit trails as faras. What should go on an airport? The biggest problem facing San Francisco International is, uh, financial. Wherever there's public money, you have to

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have full disclosure. You have a certain amount of politics in the best sense of the word when you spend public money and it just takes time, you don't have the freedom that you have in private enterprise. Bad night. 22 hours on West six year old four

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is ready to go on the left. 16 year old four. It feels to aid last ever taken. Okay, when Jim Lehmann, I've been in air traffic controller at San Francisco International now for 11 years. The biggest problem with San Francisco International is the airport itself, coupled

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with the way the airline schedules are operated. Inasmuch as controllers will sit around and do nothing for 15 minutes and suddenly on the hour, 20 airplanes want to take off all at one time, people are going to have to wake up to the fact that they

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can't all fly at nine o'clock in the morning. Somebody is going to have to start flying at night, even though they're going in different parts of the country. They still take off on the same runway from the controllers viewpoint. One of the biggest problems in San

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Francisco is the Tower cab itself. We're standing on one of the shoulders. We have to peer around one another, walk around, step over the chords. Our visibility has cut down by one of those heads. We're jammed in so close, and we're so bottled in with equipment

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that you can't see what you're doing. And of course, when a controller is working a runway that's behind him on also a runway that's in front of him, and he has to turn around and look over seven or eight heads to see the operation. It's difficult.

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Some people have to climb on top of the chairs to see what they have to see. Every airplane it departs has a his route and altitude written on a slip of paper. We have to use that to keep track of it. They could get lost. They

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get lost in the shuffle. It's unbelievable. Is there passed along as an airline exec for T. W. A. Milk Chandler sees the problems at the airport from a different angle. In San Francisco, there's still many things which need to be done to improve the ability to

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handle passengers on the ground. We need, for example, new access roadways into the airport if you're out here at the airport during peak periods on weekends, if you have been during this past year, you'll find the traffic backs up. To a considerable extent, it causes a

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great deal of inconvenience to our customers and to those people who just want to come out to the airport and see airplanes. It's my opinion that the 7 47 is here at least five years before we wanted or before we need it. What I am speaking

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of is the pure economics of whether the airline industry can make the airplane and economic success as a transportation system. The matter of service onboard our aircraft is again a problem of trying to keep up with the Joneses. We see many instances where one airline will

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provide a service on an airplane and another airline, tw a being no exception will provide the same service just to keep pace. We do not necessarily always provided because our passengers want or demand that service. Knowing that today's problems air small in comparison with tomorrow's. Several

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groups are now working on a master plan for Bay Area Air Travel Base. Are is a joint exercising powers agreement among San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Its purpose is to study the need for more airports within the immediate area. It marks the first time that

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the three main airports have come together to identify what they think is going to happen in the future and what possible inter relationships will develop. As a result, when all of the data is in which we hope will be provided by bass are well jointly be

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able to determine what part of the needs of the Bay Area the three airports can satisfy. And at what point in our future way may need another one or more airports in the community. There's no question, but that way cannot look at solutions of each individual

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area to satisfy our own requirements. Solutions must be that which will best satisfy the problem in the entire Bay Area. San Francisco International is an airport caught in the usual paradox of our times. It is a modern structure with modern capabilities. Yet it's operating structure is

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ancient, and its ability to change and adapt to change is archaic. Ah, separate airport commission would help streamline the ports, daily business and its overall goals. The problems of ground access to the port itself must be solved by the Bay communities, perhaps with bark. But the

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shortcomings of air travel itself must be attacked by the airlines themselves. In a moment, we'll look at what's ahead at SFO, right? Expansion is the word at San Francisco International. Approximately $363 million of it over the next five years. The reasons are twofold. The airport has

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had an explosive growth rate in the last six years. The passenger traffic is increasing at an annual rate of 8% and the cargo total will be over £1.5 billion. Hauled in a single year by 1974. Several administrators and planners air now at work to develop terminal

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facilities that will include 5000 more parking places, 34 new jet gates and special rotunda's capable of handling nine big jets an hour in planning for any airport, it seems mandatory that the ease and speed of passenger movement be highly considered. We believe that with the kind

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of ground transportation we're going to be providing that an airport could well be 30 miles, 40 miles or even Mawr outside the metropolitan city provided that we have a proper integrated transportation network to bring passengers to and from the airport and around the airport a people

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mover, if you will. This is Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D. C. More than any other airport in the world, it has people movers. They're known as mobile lounges, and they're capable of moving an entire planeload of passengers from terminal to plane. In fact, the

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mobile lounge becomes a part of the terminal, avoiding the need for long tunnels and corridors and the long walking, they imply. So now I have to use, actually really haven't had time to move on. That's going up, not a. There are 21 mobile lounges of Dallas,

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and each unit cost $234,000. The movable passenger bridge allows this model to be used even in servicing the 7 47 or larger plane. Yeah, mhm, Yeah, San Francisco hasn't seen the need or the feasibility of the lounges yet. Perhaps enough tired feet will manifest to change.

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The biggest problem for both Dallas and San Francisco International and for most airports in the country is the lack of rapid transit to and from the facility itself. Many people have to walk and ride too far, too slowly. People, movers of all descriptions are needed. For

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now, man has machines to move himself, and have you seen the need for more? In the future, he will build traveling devices that go almost a fast life. But far into tomorrow it will be different. Man will use himself to travel. Tele mobility will be commonplace.

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Traveling will be nothing mawr than disassembling and reassembling the bodies electromagnetic circuit. Man himself will speed through the air from point to point until all points become one and time is shrunk to nothing. Yeah, thank you. But it started in the late twenties, on a muddy

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strip of land next to the bay. It grew sporadically through the thirties and forties. Hundreds of San Franciscans gave most of their lives to carving the obvious landmark of the future. Suddenly, the mud was gone on the concrete was there. The small boxes with wings were

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replaced with streamline pieces of steel. The airport grew up on the complexity of man's lifestyle. Increased Onley. 25% of the American population has had a plane ride, but no one is unaffected by the industry. The food we eat for dinner

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tonight was more than likely flown into the city at breakfast time On the dimmer side, problems of pollution and noise remind us all of the air industry. But speed is the game of today. And unless San Francisco responds to the needs of the airport departure SFO

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maybe an all day proposition. Everything. Mm, yeah,