JF Ptak Science Books    Post 2134 

[Source: Popular Mechanics, June 1935, p 891.]

In the history of Mile High Things I doubt there are many entries for airports–or half-airports.  This if not highly questionable structure inverted the horizontal concept of airport into something else, or at least changed the take-off into quite something different while leaving the landing strips the same. (This is the “half-vertical” part of the title to this post; “half-vertical” doesn’t mean “horizontal”, though I like that idea.) The new method of getting a plane into the air was straightforwardly breathtaking:  haul the plane up one mile in an elevator and drop it through one of the “launching chutes”. After everything is said and done, this is one idea that really didn’t need to be three-dimensional.

There was a ride something like this on Coney Island that was very popular for years, a parachute ride where folks were hoisted skyward in a seat on a parachute and then dropped–a much better idea than this mile-high monster.

Here are a few other examples of Mile-High/Long Bits that are posts in this blog:

• Out-Eiffeling Eiffel  (above)
• Mile high pile of wood
• A 17 mile x 1 mile flying column planes
• 40 Miles of Warships