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Show C A A Draws Up Program For 3000 New Airports William . -A.. (M. Burden, assistant assist-ant secretry .of commerce, said -anday that the civil aeronautics administration soon will recom. mend to congress billion dollar program for building 3000 new airports, all but 100 to be small fields largely intended for private pri-vate flying. :' The naticn presently has 3086 airports, Burden said in an address prepared for broadcast over CBS, and the CAA will propose pro-pose improvements for 1625 of these. Calling attention to pending-legislation pending-legislation for funds to aid the states in an airport program, Burden Bur-den urged every community to examine its aviation future, saying say-ing that it "is distinctly not a job which can be done by Washington Wash-ington alone." The CAA program divided airport air-port needs into five technical classifications based on size of runways- and other features, the commerce official said, but in general there are two major categories, cate-gories, the small fields or "airparks" "air-parks" for personal flying and local air service, and thej larger air terminals. The over-all program for the nation's air transport service calls for. 1827 cities with airports deemed adequate for commercial air operations ranging from charter- and local or feeder lines to transcontinental express service, Burden said. At present only 286 cities have been certified as airline air-line stops, and the fields at 174 of these must be improved to meet safety and efficiency standards. stand-ards. The construction .program for the 1827 cities will cost an estimated esti-mated $630,000,000, Burden said, and will serve an additional 5000 near-by communities. He cited sample programs for two states to illustrate what the CAA report will show. The Massachusetts Mas-sachusetts plan, costing $30,000,-000, $30,000,-000, will add 36 new airports to the 54 fields now there and improve im-prove 10 others. The CAA has a $11,700,000 program for Minnesota Minne-sota which, would add 114 airports to the 45 now in the state and improve 36 others. All but one of the new fields in each state would be in the two smallest classes. The proposal represents the CAA response to a request from the house of representatives for a survey of needs and preparation of a postwar program. No particular particu-lar legislation is now in sight to implement it, Burden said. He added, however, that it would fit closely into the framework of a measure now pending which would appropriate to the CAA $100,000,000 a year for the next 10 years, to be used in matching match-ing state funds - for airport work. Enactment, of that legislation,' he said, woulti . permit r execution of the plan in 5 years if state carried car-ried their proposed share of the cost. |