Coordinates: 38°56′40″N 077°27′21″W / 38.94444°N 77.45583°W / 38.94444; -77.45583
Washington Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD , ICAO: KIAD , FAA LID: IAD ) is a public airport located 25 miles (40 km) west of the central business district of Washington, D.C., in Dulles, Virginia (Loudoun County and Fairfax County, Virginia, United States). It serves the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The airport is named after John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Dulles main terminal is a well-known landmark designed by Eero Saarinen.
Dulles airport occupies 11,830 acres (47.9 km 2 ) of land, straddling the border of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia. It is located within two unincorporated communities, Chantilly and Dulles. The airport is west of Herndon and southwest of Sterling. Dulles airport is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Dulles is served by nearly a dozen U.S.-flagged carriers and nearly two dozen international carriers. Airlines serving Dulles provide non-stop service to over 80 domestic destinations and to over 40 international destinations. United Airlines maintains its East Coast hub at Dulles and handles 62% of passengers at the airport. JetBlue, which considers Dulles a focus city, handles 6% of passengers, and American Airlines is the airport's third largest carrier and handles 4%. The airport has 143 gates and 14 hard stand locations from which passengers can board or disembark using the airport's trademark PlaneMate airfield vehicles. On a typical day, Dulles sees 1,000 to 1,200 flight operations.
History and background
Origins
At the end of World War II, growth in aviation and in the Washington metropolitan area led Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act of 1950, providing federal backing for a second airport. After preliminary proposals failed, including one to establish an international airport at what is now Burke Lake Park, the current site was selected by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958. As a result of the selection, the former unincorporated community of Willard, which once stood in the airport's current footprint, was torn down.
Design and original construction
The civil engineering firm Ammann and Whitney was named lead contractor. The airport was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy on November 17, 1962. Its original name, Dulles International Airport, was changed in 1984 to Washington Dulles International Airport. The main terminal was designed in 1958 by famed Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and it is highly regarded for its graceful beauty, suggestive of flight. In the 1990s, the main terminal at Dulles was reconfigured to allow more space between the front of the building and the ticket counters, and additions that more than doubled the terminal's length were built onto each end. The original terminal at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan was modeled after the Saarinen terminal at Dulles.
The original design included a landscaped man-made lake to collect rainwater, a low-rise hotel, and a row of office buildings along the north side of the main parking lot. The design also included a two-level road in front of the terminal to separate arrival and depature traffic and a limited access highway connecting the terminal to the Capitol Beltway (I-495) located approximately 17 miles to the east. (Eventually, the highway system grew to include a parallel toll road to handle commuter traffic and an extension to connect to I-66). When the access road was designed, it featured a wide median strip to facilitate the construction of a passenger rail line, which is expected to be completed in 2016.
Notable operations and milestones
- The first flight at Dulles was an Eastern Air Lines Super Electra turboprop arriving from Newark International Airport in New Jersey.
- Dulles was initially considered to be a white elephant due to its limited flight destinations in the 1960s and its 26-mile (42 km) distance from downtown Washington, but the airport has steadily grown at the same time that suburbs of the city have grown along the Dulles Technology Corridor and the Capital Beltway. Perimeter and slot restrictions placed on flights arriving at and departing from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport have meant that most long-distance flights to the area must operate at Dulles or Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland.
- The era of jumbo jets in international aviation began on January 15, 1970, when First Lady Pat Nixon christened a Pan Am Boeing 747 at Dulles in the presence of Pan Am chairman Najeeb Halaby. The event did not feature the traditional champagne bottle christening, instead, red, white, and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft. The first Boeing 747 flight on Pan Am from Dulles was to London Heathrow.
- Another milestone in aviation took place on May 24, 1976, when supersonic air travel commenced between Dulles and Europe. On that day, a British Airways Concorde flew in from London and an Air France Concorde arrived from Paris. The two sleek aircraft lined up at Dulles nose-to-nose for a photo opportunity.
- On June 13, 1983, the Space Shuttle Enterprise "landed" at Dulles atop a modified Boeing 747 after completing a European tour and prior to returning to Edwards AFB. In 1985, the Enterprise was placed in a storage hangar near Runway 12/30 pending the construction of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
- During the 1980s, a United States Senate resolution to change the name of Washington Dulles to Washington Eisenhower was defeated.
- When the SR-71 was retired by the military in 1990, one was flown from its birthplace at United States Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California to Dulles, where it was placed in a special storage building pending the construction of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, setting a coast-to-coast speed record at an average 2,124 mph (3,418 km/h). The entire trip took 64 minutes.
- The inaugural flight of the Boeing 777 in commercial service, a United Airlines flight from London Heathrow, landed at Dulles in 1995.
- In December 2003, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles. The museum annex houses an Air France Concorde, the Enola Gay B-29, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the Boeing 367-80, which was the prototype of the Boeing 707, and other famous aerospace artifacts, particularly those too large for the main building on the National Mall.
- On April 19, 2006, United Express began moving its operations from Concourse G to Concourse A. The latter was formerly used by the now-defunct Independence Air, which ceased operations on January 6, 2006. The transition was completed on May 1, 2006. Concourse G was later demolished.
- The launch of low-cost carrier Independence Air in 2004 propelled IAD from being the 24th busiest airport in the United States to 4th, and one of the top 30 busiest in the world. Independence Air ceased operations in January 2006. Southwest Airlines began service at Dulles in fall 2006. In 2006, Dulles ranked 29th in 2006 in traffic movements. In 2007, 24.7 million passengers passed through the airport.
Planned development
Since the 1980s, the original design, which had mobile lounges meet each plane, was not well-suited to Dulles' role as a hub airport. Instead, midfield concourses were added to allow passengers to walk between connecting flights without visiting the main terminal. Mobile lounges were still used for international flights and to transport passengers between the midfield concourses and the main terminal. An underground tunnel (consisting of a passenger walkway and moving sidewalks) which links the main terminal and concourse B was opened in 2004. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) began a renovation program for the airport, to include a new security mezzanine to help relieve the heavily congested security lines that are familiar to passengers traveling through the airport.
There will also be a new train system, dubbed "AeroTrain", which is currently being developed by Mitsubishi. The system, which uses rubber tires and travels along a fixed guideway, is similar to the people mover systems at Singapore Changi Airport and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. The train is intended to replace the mobile lounges, which many passengers find crowded and congested. The initial phase will include a main terminal station, a permanent Concourse B station, temporary access to the temporary C&D concourses (via a tunnel wi
Spartanburg County Find a Contractor, Contracting - Contractor ...
BuildingPros.com: Find a Contractor Spartanburg County, South Carolina (SC), Construction Firms, General Contractors and Building Contractors
Spartanburg Building Remodeling & Repair Contractors in Spartanburg ...
Directory of Spartanburg Building Remodeling & Repair Contractors in SC yellow pages. Find Building Remodeling & Repair Contractors in Spartanburg maps with reviews, websites ...
Spartanburg home improvement contractors
Here you will find a listing of contractors who are available for Spartanburg; the list includes deck building.
Building Contractors - Spartanburg SC, South Carolina Local Yellow ...
Building Contractors in Spartanburg SC, South Carolina Local Yellow Pages by Yellowbook. Having a Yellowbook Moment? Find the Building Contractors you need when you need them.
Spartanburg County Find a Building Pro - Building Professional ...
We have a licensed general contractor also a kitchen and bath designer on staff ... See the benefits of joining. Building Professional Spartanburg County: Quick tips
Julie Stockman ("Blaze Realty Group"/DAKOTA BUILDING CONTRACTORS, INC ...
CO-OWNER OF DAKOTA BUILDING CONTRACTORS, INC.--NC & SC Spartanburg, Landrum, Inman, Boiling Springs, Rutherford NC, Polk C About Me: Hello, I'm Julie Stockman, I grew up in ...
Spartanburg, South Carolina Contractors | Free Kitchen Remodeling ...
Spartanburg Roofing Contractors: Plumbing Contractors in Spartanburg, SC: Spartanburg Hot Tubs Contractors: Custom Home Building Contractors in Spartanburg, South Carolina
Spartanburg Find a Building Pro - Building Professional Spartanburg ...
Sommercraft Construction: Contractor ... in the Building Pros Directory. See the benefits of joining. Building Professional Spartanburg ...
Spartanburg County's Building and Fire Codes
Building Permit Sign-up through BluePrince Online Services: Spartanburg County signed a contract with BUILDERadius Inc. to offer this service to all contractors free of charge.
Build a Deck Spartanburg SC | Deck Building Contractors
Decks and Porch Contractors Directory for Spartanburg,South Carolina SC. Find Customer-Rated, Prescreened Home Improvement Professionals for Spartanburg, SC. All Decks and Porch ...