Imaginations soar with airplanes

Like most of America, Sacramento was gaga over aviation during the first part of the 20th century.

A plane called the Black Demon had wowed a State Fair crowd in 1910 by flying at a speed of more than a mile a minute, and by the mid-1920s, planes were being used to deliver mail and passengers from point to point.

But they needed a place to land. On April 12, 1930, The Bee reported the dedication of a new municipal airport on Freeport Road:

With ideal flying weather and thousands of people already thronging the field for the Sacramento Municipal Airport dedication ceremony, officials anticipated a two-day crowd of 100,000 spectators.

... Fifty commercial ships had already landed on the field early today, and more were arriving every few minutes. Army officials were unable to estimate how many ships would be here during the two days, but it is anticipated there will be more than 100.

Now known as Executive Airport, the field was supplanted in what is now Sacramento International Airport, which opened on Oct. 21, 1967.

From The Bee archives

This story was originally published July 20, 2017 at 7:06 PM with the headline "Imaginations soar with airplanes."