Looks like New York isn't the first to dream up improbable city-center airports; Paris had the idea back in 1932. Instead of paving runways into Central Park, as the New York plan calls for, the old-timey Paris dream was to install a whole new airport island atop the current location of the Île des Cygnes in the Seine River, just off the Eiffel Tower.

Paris already has a notable island, Île de la Cité, which holds Notre Dame cathedral and more. The addition of this airport would have meant flying tourists onto a Seine island just so that they can go visit another Seine island. Thankfully, the plan for the airport island was scrapped more than half a century ago, and these days, the thin existing island holds the replica of The Statue of Liberty, a pleasant walkway, and a subway stop. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-07-22T13:49:22-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/7/21/10474/7035

Anyone living in the New York City area can vouch for the fact that our trio of JFK Airport, LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty makes for some very crowded air space. So perhaps we need another airport to alleviate the stress on those three—and maybe we'll plonk this new airport down right in the center of Manhattan to make it super accessible?

Of course a Manhattan airport, even another New York City-area airport, is a crazy idea, and so we're happy that the so-called Manhattan Airport Foundation is a joke ... or is it? The Foundation, a "land-use constituency committed to the immediate development of a viable and centrally-located international air transportation hub in New York City for the benefit of all New Yorkers," propose tearing up Central Park and turning this massive plot of primo land into an airfield. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-07-21T11:10:54-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/