Qualla: Charlotte Douglas International Airport

Charlotte Douglas International Airport: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap.org, CC BY-SA 2.0. The largest single project the Works Progress Administration ever funded in the United States was not a bridge or a dam. It was an airport in Charlotte. In 1935, with the country still climbing out of the Depression, WPA workers laid out a terminal, a hangar, a beacon tower, and three runways on 5,558 acres of red Carolina clay west of town. The hangar they built in 1936 still stands on the field, watching American Airlines jets push back from the same ground where Eastern Air Lines began scheduled service in 1937.

Image: Peter Fitzgerald, OpenStreetMap.org | CC BY-SA 2.0

Charlotte Douglas International Airport: Morris Field Goes to War

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USGS, Public domain. The Army Air Forces took the field in early 1941 and renamed it Morris Field after Pearl Harbor. Over the next five years, the military poured more than five million dollars into the airfield - runway extensions, hangars, dispersal pads, training facilities. When the war ended an...

Image: USGS | Public domain

Charlotte Douglas International Airport: Piedmont Picks Charlotte

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USGS, Public domain. Airline deregulation hit in 1978, and passenger numbers at Charlotte nearly doubled in two years. In 1979 Piedmont Airlines made the decision that would define the next half-century of the city: it chose Charlotte as the hub for its expanding network. A new 325,000-square-foot te...

Image: USGS | Public domain

Charlotte Douglas International Airport: The Airbus from the Hudson

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nascar1996, Public domain. In June 2011, the Sullenberger Aviation Museum on the airport's grounds acquired N106US - the US Airways Airbus A320 that Captain Chesley Sullenberger ditched in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, after a bird strike took out both engines. The aircraft was donated by AIG and d...

Image: Nascar1996 | Public domain

Charlotte Douglas International Airport: Destination CLT

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USGS, Public domain. Between 2007 and 2015, CLT spent $1.5 billion on construction. Then it kept going. Destination CLT, the current master plan, represents another $2.5 billion. A new sixteen-lane terminal roadway opened in late 2019. Concourse A North added nine gates the year before, anchored by a...

Image: USGS | Public domain

Charlotte Douglas International Airport: The Overlook and the Rocking Chairs

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USGS, Public domain. Two small details make Charlotte stand out among American hubs. The first is the Overlook, a public viewing area where visitors can watch aircraft taxi to runway 18R/36L. There are bathrooms, food trucks, a children's playground, and a restored F-4 Phantom II on display. The seco...

Image: USGS | Public domain