This week in Michigan history: Detroit’s airport is dedicated
Wayne County Airport, called Detroit Metro Airport today, was dedicated on Sept. 4, 1930.
The county Board of Supervisors had issued a $2-million bond to buy a square mile of land at the corner of Middlebelt and Wick.
According to the book “Detroit Metro Airport” by Daniel Mason, Edward Hines, chairman of the Board of County Road Commissioners, said at the dedication, “Huge transcontinental airliners will dock here; great freight carriers will zoom down from the sky; smaller craft of every description will follow the air lanes to this port.
“Passengers and freight will be speeded along the broad highways leading from this terminal to the metropolitan center. A great new industry will make this airport one of its important ports of call.”
The airport was home to a post office, a U.S. Weather Bureau outpost and part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. According to DTW spokesman Michael Conway, both Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh landed planes at the airport, and some B24 bombers built at nearby Willow Run flew there before continuing on their way overseas.
Wayne County Airport was renamed Detroit-Wayne Major Airport in 1947 and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, its current name, in 1958, when it became the first airport in the Midwest to build a runway for jets.
DTW currently handles 32.4 million passengers annually and is ranked 12th in North America in takeoffs and landings and 18th in the world.