Historic Airports

The realisation of mankind's age-old dream of flight is probably one of the collective adventures that best characterises the century we have just left, its greatest novelty. In the space of only three or four generations aviation has conquered the entire planet and international airports have developed into sleepless cities.

At the beginning of 1999, the European Commission sponsored an international project on aviation's architectural heritage, set up at the instigation of the French Ministry of Culture together with English Heritage and Landesdenkmalamt Berlin, the official heritage body of the German capital. The project's primary aim was to contribute to the better understanding and conservation of aviation architecture, focusing on three pilot-sites: Berlin-Tempelhof, Paris-Le Bourget and Liverpool-Speke - all rare survivors from the late 1930s. An international network of expertise on aviation architecture grew out of three international workshops, the proceedings of which are presented here.

Through contributions from historians, architects, development agencies and airline companies, among others, the book examines how best to identify and preserve the sites worth keeping, the place of the airport in the 21st century city, and the future of our historic airports.