The Portland Project Of all these projects, that at Portland is the most ambitious which has yet taken shape. Portland is probably the first city where the harbor authorities have taken the attitude that a port is a port, whether for marine or aerial traffic, and that it is the port commission's duty to supply facilities for both.

Following out this idea, the Commission is transforming Swan Island into one of the most modern airports in the country. This block of land long had been an obstruction in the Willamette, forcing the stream's main flow into a narrow and crooked channel where several marine accidents had occurred. The Commission, to straighten the channel, decided to pump the island over itself by suction dredge methods, cutting away from one bank and depositing the spoil on the other, until the whole island had been moved about 1,200 feet.

In depositing the spoil, care is being taken to lay out the re-created island in such shape and position that it can be used by aircraft, crowning the fill to assure good drainage and topping it with a 2-foot layer of earth which will grow turf. The new airport will be 6,300 feet long and 1,224 feet wide and will stand about 5 feet above the highest high-water mark of the river. From one end a causeway will lead to the main

land and this will be built wide enough to serve as a runway for planes.

Thus there will be available a 6,000-foot runway along the axis of the island, which parallels the prevailing wind direction, and a 5,000-foot runway partly on the causeway and partly on the island, which will accommodate the planes under all other wind conditions experienced at Portland. A still-water behind the island wil! afford a harbor to seaplanes, which has caused naval authorities to take great interest in the development.

The island will be devoted entirely to landing and taking off, hangars and the necessary service facilities. Industrial developments having to do with aviation will be confined to a manufacturing area just across the causeway. The land involved in this project has an estimated value of $20,000 an acre, the most costly ground space devoted to aviation anywhere in the West. The island offers several important advantages as an airport site. It is easy of access from the air, as there are no obstructions near it, and it is more visible in thick weather than a site on the mainland, the difference in color between land and water readily revealing its position. It is only 11⁄2 miles from the business section of the city.

All improvements at the port will be of the

highest type. "We have plenty of money and will spend whatever is needed," said J. H. Polhemus, Chief Engineer of the Port Commission. Mr. Polhemus made a tour of eastern airports, studying their improvements, before plans for the Portland project were laid down.

The exact nature of some of the facilities to be installed has not been determined as yet. For instance, neon tubes are being considered for use as boundary markers. The port will be in usable condition within a short time and will be completed early in 1928.

The San Diego Airport

Like Portland, San Diego plans to develop its airport as a part of, and contiguous to, its harbor. The site is a triangular fill lying between the waterfront industrial district and the United States Marine base. The southern portion of this latter area is devoted to aviation and, taken together, the base and the municipal airport will afford a clear space 21⁄2 miles long for planes to land or take off, probably the longest runway in the country. A part of this fill has been placed.

This airport will lie only a mile and a half from the San Diego post-office and will have broad street connections with the industrial district and the center of the city, while a main highway along one side will give ready access to interior points. A railroad and electric car line are only 100 yards from one border, and deep water along another will afford opportunities for handling seaplanes.

The main landing field will be circular, 3,000 feet in diameter, and will be bordered by two height limit zones in which hangars and aircraft factories can be located. The height limits are such that planes can glide over the buildings into the field at as low a ratio as one

foot of descent for each ten feet advanced. Subsidiary areas are to be devoted to handling and servicing of planes and to erecting planes turned out by the factories. Financing is to be handled initially by a bond issue, $200,000 worth of bonds to be sold each year for four years as the work progresses. Eventually the cost of the field will be repaid out of rentals from factory sites, rents of hangar space and similar items. However, the field is not regarded as a direct revenue producer, but rather in the light of an indirect benefit to the community through increasing its transportation facilities.

San Francisco Temporary Flying Field

This also is the attitude of San Francisco, where the city has spent $100,000 in leasing and improving Mills Field as a temporary airport site pending completion of an exhaustive study which will determine the permanent site. The investigation includes a survey of meteorological conditions at nine proposed sites, to be made under the Weather Bureau's direction and to cover a year's time, and test flights thrice a week for a year over each of these sites by military fliers.

The present field was dedicated May 7, 1927. It is a 150-acre area 13 miles south from the post-office and lies between the Bay Shore Highway, now under construction, and the bay of San Francisco. It is approximately 5,000 by 1,500 feet in size and permits planes to make a run of 3,000 feet into the prevailing wind in landing or taking off. Being located beside the water and with meadows on the other sides, it is unusually free from obstructions in its aerial approaches.

The city has installed one of the best lighting systems in the country to make the field avail