I'm riding in a vehicle with Bryan Day, executive director of the Little Rock Port Authority. We're looking at a barge on the Arkansas River when I notice a few other things. I can hear a train in the background. I can see a plane landing at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. I can watch dozens of big trucks crossing the Interstate 440 bridge over the Arkansas River.
This is a logistical paradise, I think to myself. River traffic, rail traffic, air traffic and ground transportation all come together right here. Our state should take better advantage of this.
If Little Rock's new mayor wants to spur economic development and achieve early victories, he should partner closely with members of the Little Rock Port Authority Board and Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission to ensure that the land surrounding the port and the airport is developed to its highest and best use.
Those who fly a great deal know that it's rare for cities the size of Little Rock and larger to have the main airport so close to downtown. Reagan National Airport, just across the Potomac River bridges from the center of Washington, D.C., is a notable exception. It would have closed long ago in favor of Washington Dulles International Airport, which is 28 miles west of downtown, if it were not for members of Congress who preferred the convenience of Reagan National. The fact that Little Rock's airport borders one of the country's major navigable rivers and is close to two interstate highways (Interstates 30 and 40) is an added bonus.
The city's first airport was operated by the U.S. Army Signal Corps and opened in 1917. What originally was known as the Little Rock Intermediate Air Depot expanded in 1926 because of the growing demands of the 154th Observation Squadron of the Arkansas National Guard.
"In 1928, the first aircraft manufacturing business arrived on site," Robert Sherwood writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "This was the first in a long line of manufacturing/aircraft overhaul services at the airfield. In 1930, the citizens of Little Rock purchased the airfield, and American Airways (now American Airlines) started service the following June. ... At the end of World War I, the airport covered only 40 acres. It now sits on 2,200 acres. The U.S. Department of War assumed control of the airport for the duration of World War II and subsequently returned it to the city at the conclusion of the war."
What by then was known as Adams Field had been named for Capt. George Geyer Adams of the 154th Observation Squadron, who was killed in the line of duty in September 1937. The commission voted in March 2012 to rename the airport for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Runways were resurfaced in 1953, and the airport's first instrument landing system was installed the following year. A terminal with 12 gates opened in 1972, and a second commercial service runway opened in 1991.
In the early 1970s, having run out of room to expand in Little Rock, Fred Smith relocated his fledgling company (first known as Little Rock Airmotive and now known by people around the world as Federal Express) to Memphis.
"It is arguable that this was the single most important economic development decision made in any major U.S. city in the past several decades," William Fulton wrote in Governing magazine. "Today, Memphis International Airport is the busiest cargo airport in the world. The freight volume in Memphis is 30 percent higher than in Los Angeles and Miami, 50 percent higher than at Kennedy Airport in New York and double that of London Heathrow. Almost 10,000 people in the Memphis area work for Federal Express, and it's estimated that one in five workers in Memphis works in air-related operations. Federal Express is the lifeblood of Memphis."
Memphis airport officials, who were considering an expansion at the time, loaned Smith about $6 million. Little Rock couldn't match that offer.
The story of Federal Express leaving the state has become one of the great "what ifs" of Arkansas history. Many people blame the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission for not giving Smith what he wanted, but that criticism is probably unjustified. Memphis is a far larger city and had more financial resources than the commission in Little Rock had at its disposal.
One thing Little Rock did do successfully in the years that followed Smith's departure was to attract thousands of aircraft modification jobs. Dassault Falcon's Little Rock facility is the home of the main completion center for Falcon jets worldwide. There's also a service center. The facilities occupy almost 1 million square feet. The jets are manufactured in France and then flown to Little Rock, where custom interiors are installed, optional avionics are added and exteriors are painted.
Smith had purchased a company called Arkansas Aviation Sales at the site of the current completion center in 1971. He began using the site as the completion center for a fleet of 33 Falcon 20s that he wanted to utilize as cargo planes. When Smith moved to Memphis, he sold the Little Rock facility to Dassault Falcon, a company that had been formed by Pan Am and Dassault in 1972.
"Dassault cited Little Rock Airmotive's extensive experience in completing and modifying Falcon jets and Little Rock's base of a highly skilled workforce in cabinetry, carpentry, leather and upholstery as its motive for purchasing the facility," Michael Kaiser writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Dassault Falcon Jet hoped the Little Rock site could become the nucleus of its production and completion operation. At this time, the site was a 61,500-square-foot hangar and office facilty. In 1985, Falcon Jet Little Rock modified some of the former FedEx freighters for a British company called Flight Refueling. These remodeled Falcons were used as target tows and simulators for the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force."
In my story on the cover of today's Perspective section, I write about the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. I outline the efforts that began in 1959 to create a river port. The Little Rock Port Authority now owns about 3,500 acres with 40 businesses employing 4,000 people.
Little Rock needs a strong mayor to team up with airport and port authority officials in a concerted push for additional development. After 45 years, it's time to stop crying about "the one that got away" in Federal Express. Let's instead attract the next big thing to the logistical paradise along the banks of the Arkansas River.
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Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 12/09/2018