Once the United States got involved in World War II, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia stated that New York did not have enough airfields for both the war and after the war. Although LaGuardia Airport was in operation, the Navy was still using it, making it necessary for an airport used mainly by civilians to become operational. The need for a new airport in the New York area was necessary, thus the location of Idlewild was chosen. Construction began in 1942, with plans using the airport for the armed forces once it was finished. The plans stated that after the war the airport would be used for air freight, air express and long distance planes with no inclusion of commercial flights.
The opening of the airport continued to be postponed due to the amount of work needed to be completed. On July 1st, 1948, the airport opened. There was much debate on what to name the airport. Some wished to name it the Colin Kelly Airport after an air force captain from World War II. Two years later LaGuardia decided the airport was called Idlewild, however the City Council didn’t allow him to name it and voted to call it the Major General Alexander E. Anderson Airport after a World War I and II hero. In 1947, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey signed a lease to develop the airport, coming with the right to own the airport. The Port Authority named it the New York International Airport at Idlewild. Idlewild became the official name of the airport until December of 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Two weeks after his assassination on December 4th, the name of the airport was officially changed to John F. Kennedy International Airport. After the official ceremony, the New York Times stated: ““The speedy change of name — whether it be of an airport or a bridge or a park or a cape — reflects the love that millions of people all over the world had for Present Kennedy; but, as we have previously stated, it is only debasing the subject of our grief to attach his name so hastily to a miscellaneous collection of public works, almost as if we were afraid that without these tangible reminders he would be soon forgotten.“
One of the most beautiful — and most imaginative — passenger centers in the world was unveiled when Trans World Airlines opened its iconic sixties modernist masterpiece: the TWA airport terminal at JFK in New York.
(The airport was originally going to be called Idlewild International, but was renamed Jon F. Kennedy International Airport after the president's assassination.)
Back in the sixties, the design was considered so uniquely advanced that Charles C Tillinghast, Jr., TWA’s president at the time, said he expected the airport to be “readily adaptable to the day when people will travel coast-to-coast in 90 minutes.”
Below, see this space-age architecture as it was built, how it looked in the bright and shiny early days, and how it appears now as the utterly unique Twa hotel.
Paradoxically, Kennedy's seven terminals with 60 million passengers a year did not have a hotel establishment within them. The grapefruit dear to Saarinen has therefore regained a central place in the heart of the New York airport. In the first few days, the hotel was already full, as was the legendary restaurant in the TWA terminal, Paris Café, relaunched by French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten . Many curious people wanted to get their hands on this 1960s legend that occupies such a special place in the history of American Aviation .
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