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“Reinventing the Airport?”: Annex 14, Dulles Airport’s “Mobile Lounge” and Other Jet-Age Paradigms, 1946–1962

  • Victor MarquezEmail author
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Abstract

This chapter introduces the airport culture of the post-Second World War period as a framework for understanding the growing demands of aircraft innovation (jet propulsion) and the implications of the air travel boom of commercial aviation during the 1950s and 1960s. As the number of airplanes grew, so did the number of passengers, in the same proportion, pushing the terminals to lengthen endlessly as long docks. Passenger discomfort became a constant; thus, saturation and delay problems took over the airport. Engineers developed in response faster ways to enplane and deplane passengers, now known as jet bridges. This section also emphasizes the experimental planning behind the new Washington Dulles Airport in the late 1950s. Marquez also recount how the era’s faith in technology as a vehicle for progress was the main force behind the invention of the “Mobile Lounge” and how this artifact was seen as the ultimate solution for the ideal airport.

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© The Author(s) 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Mexico CityMexico

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