It is hard

to imagine a time when airplanes and airports were a rare occurrence,

but in the late 1920s and 1930s air travel was just starting to be used

for mail delivery and most cities and towns did not have airports but

rather open fields or fairgrounds with a large enough area for airplanes

to land. This changed and one of the things that prompted the changes

was the National Air Tour.

This year the

historic national Air Tours are being recreated and 30 planes from that

era will land in Peachtree City at Falcon Field today at noon.

The National

Air Tours, also known as the Ford Air Tours, traveled from city to city

during the period of 1925-1931. as the airplanes and their pilot would

come to town, residents would turn out in record numbers to see them.

To accommodate the tour and to make sure their city got on the list, many

cities and towns would enhance or build runways and airports. The idea

for an air tour came about because in the early 1900s automobile tours

popularized highway travel. By 1925, cars were very popular and the people

behind the air tour wanted to make air travel just as popular.

The 2003 national

Air Tour began Sept. 8 in Dearborn, Michigan and stopping for the evening

in Lansing, Illinois. Since then they have stopped in such cities as Milwaukee,

Minneapolis, Wichita, Fort Worth and Little Rock. They are scheduled to

leave Birmingham this morning and will land in Peachtree City at noon.

They will head to Greenville, S.C., tomorrow. The tour is scheduled to

end Sept. 24 back in Dearborn.

There are 30

planes involved in the tour, many of which in airplanes that were also

involved in the original air tours. Among the planes that are in the 2003

tour are a Bellanca Skyrocket, a Bell 47, a Buhl Sport Airsedan, Stinson

and Bushmaster Tri-Motors, an Alexander Eaglerock Longwing, a DC-3, which

will be piloted by members of the FAA, a Travel Air 6000, a Sikorsky S-38

and S-39 C and two Aviat Huskys as scout planes among others. The pilots

flying the airplanes are from all over the country, from as far north

as Maine to as far west as Arizona.

The public

is invited to come out and look at the airplanes and meet the pilots on

Wednesday. For more information about the National Air Tour, visit www.NationalAirTour.org.

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