The story of the failed Lake Erie International Jetport is one that generated a flurry of political interest but ultimately succumbed to the grandeur of its own ambition. Mayor Ralph Locher first introduced the idea of a new airport for Cleveland in June 1966. Dr. Abe Silverstein, the director of NASA's Lewis Research Center, revived the idea three years later. Silverstein's comprehensive plan, estimated at $1.185 billion, located the jetport one mile north of downtown Cleveland. The circuitous lifecycle of the jetport-in-the-lake plan represents the midcentury promises that large-scale construction and redevelopment projects offered for metropolitan economic growth. Several such projects swirled around Cleveland in the latter half of the twentieth century, but not all of them reached fruition. For example, Tower City Center was conceived in the 1970s but languished until it was finally opened in 1990.

Both Locher's and NASA's plan assumed that by the 1990s Cleveland Hopkins International Airport would be insufficient for the region's commercial air transportation needs. In addition, an offshore jetport would reduce the roar of the supersonic jets that people assumed would become the air travel of the future. In March 1972, Cleveland created the Lake Erie Regional Transportation Authority (LERTA) to facilitate plans for a jetport. Dr. Cameron M. Smith, LERTA's executive director, presided over a board of trustees appointed by the county commissioners and the city of Cleveland. The Federal Aviation Administration underwrote the funding for LERTA's $4.3 million feasibility study in 1972. The study, completed in 1977, recommended building the jetport five miles offshore in Lake Erie on a stone-and-sand dike. The proposed 13-mile dike would surround a manmade landmass, a massive undertaking that would stretch contemporary technology to the limit. The jetport would be accessible by a causeway carrying an RTA rapid transit line and an extension of the Innerbelt Freeway.

Proponents of the jetport cited the additional jobs that would be created by the jetport, positive effects for Cleveland's image and economy, and the practical need for a new airport. However, by the 1970s, the jetport had strong opponents including Mayor Dennis Kucinich. Opponents pointed out reasonable barriers to the construction of the jetport including the project's expense compared to renovating Cleveland Hopkins, weather conditions on the lake, and the failure to explore alternative forms of transportation. The FAA finally predicted that Cleveland would not need a new airport at least until the year 2000 and withdrew support in 1978. LERTA dismissed its employees and the board met only once a year. The Lake Erie International Jetport proved to be a pie-in-the-sky dream that was too expensive and impractical to be built. The promise of improving the infrastructure to serve a growing city's strong economy and prepare Cleveland to leap into the twenty-first century could not overcome admittedly reasonable opposition.

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When Cleveland Municipal Airport opened on July 1, 1925 it became one of the first municipally owned airports in the country. City Manager William R. Hopkins took much of the credit for this feat, and the airport was named for him on his 82nd birthday in 1951. Earlier in 1925, Hopkins convinced Cleveland City Council to approve a $1.25 million bond issue that was used to purchase the 1,040 acres of land near the intersection of Brookpark and Riverside roads where the airport would be constructed. Skeptics scoffed at the long distance (nearly 11 miles) between downtown Cleveland and the new airport, but this proved to be a non-issue. Streetcars and other forms of public transportation could cover the distance in about a half hour.

The first flights at Cleveland Municipal Airport carried mail for the U.S. Air Mail Service. Beginning in 1919, Air Mail planes had landed in a section of Woodland Hills Park near East 93rd Street and Kinsman Road. This small airfield soon proved to be inadequate though, providing a major impetus for a new municipal airport. Henry Ford's commercial air mail service, the nation's first, conducted flights between Cleveland and Detroit right from the time that Municipal Airport opened. These early commercial airlines also carried passengers, but the cost of a plane ticket precluded all but the wealthy from partaking in these early flights.

The number of planes using Cleveland Municipal Airport jumped from a few thousand in its inaugural year to nearly 20,000 by 1929. A new terminal building constructed that year contained the world's first air traffic control tower — a tall, glass-enclosed structure with a 360-degree view of the air field. Soon after its construction, two-way radio was installed in the tower, the first time this had been used in the aviation field. This proved to be an important addition, as in its early years the airport used the "allway" landing mat process, which allowed multiple planes to land simultaneously on different parts of the air field — a process designed to prevent pilots from having to wait mid-air for space to land.

During World War II, the area around the airport's periphery became a key part of the war effort. In 1941, a laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) opened on its western end. The laboratory originally conducted research on airplane engines before turning into the NASA Lewis Research Center in 1958. The center was to play a crucial role in the drive to put a man on the moon. In 1942, the Cleveland Bomber Plant also opened nearby in what is now the I-X Center. Here, workers built B-29 aircraft bombers which when finished would take off from the airport to wherever they were needed. Cleveland Municipal Airport was also the regular site of the National Air Races between 1929 and 1949.

By the mid-1950s, all of the original structures at the airport had been razed to make way for expansions. The original Cleveland Municipal Airport was gone, but Cleveland Hopkins International Airport remained a thriving center of the commercial aviation industry that served one of the nation's largest concentrations of corporate headquarters. In 1968, Cleveland-Hopkins became the first airport in the U.S. to have a direct rapid transit connection to downtown. Since the airport lost its hub status in 2014 following a merger of Continental and United Airlines, it has experienced a lower volume of air traffic, leading to ongoing plans to revitalize.

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The NASA Glenn Research Center opened west of Cleveland, adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, in 1941. Initially called the Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory, the facility first served as a National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) research laboratory and was responsible for key aeronautic jet propulsion advancements during World War II. During this period, using wind tunnel testing, NACA developed airfoil shapes for wings and propellers, which simplified aircraft design. The shapes eventually found their way into the designs of many U.S. aircraft of the time, including a number of important World War II-era aircraft, such as the P-51 Mustang.

NACA existed since World War I and responded primarily to military aviation needs and challenges. The success of the Cleveland lab earned it a bright future with the advent of rocketry initiatives during the post war years. Abe Silverstein was appointed Director of Research for the lab in 1949. Over several years, he organized the program, personnel, and facility to focus upon guided rocket propulsion and the development of hydrogen and nuclear fuels for rockets. In 1957, the laboratory was recognized as a leader in these systems and the October launch of Sputnik propelled America’s entry into the space race powered by the rocketry work at the lab and at Plumbrook—a partner facility near Sandusky, Ohio.

In October, 1958 a legislative act was passed creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a result, the facility was absorbed by NASA and renamed the NASA Lewis Research Center in honor of George Lewis, NACA’s Director of Aeronautical Research. NACA and its missions and projects were incorporated into the new agency. The new agency would be responsible for civilian human, satellite, and robotic space programs, as well as aeronautical research. Abe Silverstein joined NASA headquarters in Washington and brought broad influence upon formative NASA policies and projects. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Lewis Research Center built and utilized the Rocket Engine Test Facility (RETF) to conduct experiments and develop technologies in support of the space program for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs to reach the moon and the ensuing STS (Space Shuttle) program. The center played an important role in perfecting the use of liquid hydrogen upper stage rocket fuel used in the space missions leading to the lunar landings beginning in 1969.

Completed in 1966, the Zero Gravity Research Facility (Zero-G) at Lewis has also been utilized in support of space flight components and fluid systems in a weightless or microgravity environment. The Zero-G is a ground based microgravity facility, the largest of its kind in the world. It is one of two 432 feet drop towers located at NASA Glenn. The facility is currently used by NASA-funded researchers from around the world to study the effects of microgravity on physical phenomena such as combustion and fluid physics, to develop and demonstrate new technology for future space missions, and to develop and test experiment hardware designed for flight aboard the International Space Station and future spacecraft.

The RETF earned a National Historic Landmark designation in 1984 to acknowledge its developments during the space missions of the 70’s and 80’s. However, neighboring airport expansion forced its closure in 1995 and demolition in 2003, and the withdrawal of its National Historic Landmark. The Zero-G, however, continues to hold the designation of a National Historic Landmark. In 1999, the Lewis Research Center was renamed NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in honor of Ohio Senator John Glenn, the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. Today, NASA Glenn Research Center continues to conduct experiments to support the aeronautics and aerospace industries.

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