Logan Field, Baltimore's first aviation facility, was a private enterprise founded in 1919 which utilized grass runways, crude terminal buildings, daylight hours operation, and no navigational aids. The ratification of an airport loan in 1928 led to the creation of a Baltimore Aviation Committee (later the Baltimore Aviation Commission), appointed by the Mayor. This committee recommended a 360 acre site adjacent to Logan Field for the development of the new airport, eventually known as Harbor Field. Harbor Field failed (despite expenditures of eight million dollars) due to rough and short runways and a lack of proper zoning regulations.

After this failure, Ord. 930 (1939) was passed allotting one million dollars to develop, improve, and equip a new airport. The need for a terminal for air transportation lines and a means of attracting industries and businesses were the main reasons for this expenditure. In May, 1941 a special committee was appointed by Mayor Howard W. Jackson to establish Baltimore as an Atlantic base for trans-Atlantic Bermuda seaplane operations and to strengthen domestic air services. Two years later, the committee recommended the construction of a new 3,200 acre airport at Friendship in Anne Arundel County about five miles southwest of Baltimore. Later, in 1944, this committee became a joint operation of city and state government and expenditures for the new airport exceeded fifteen million dollars, of which twelve million dollars came from the Baltimore municipal government. In 1958 the sale of Harbor Field to the Maryland Port Authority brought funds for additions to the Friendship facility, named after the demolished Friendship Methodist Church upon the suggestion of Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro, Jr.; it has since been renamed Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Further information may be found in the following sources: 1958 Annual Report - The Airport of Baltimore (n.p.: Friendship International Airport Dedication Committee, [1950]); Friendship International Airport - Ultimate Development Concept (Baltimore: J. E. Greiner Company/Consulting Engineers, March, 1968); W. Walter Pagan and Bancroft Hill, Report on Baltimore Airport 1931 (n.p.: October 5, 1931) ; Charles O. Schick, Meteorological Probabilities Near Linthicum Heights. Maryland (Washington, D. C., October, 1945). See also: RG.29, Series 1, Department of Legislative Reference, Subject Files.