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Great Terminals of the Jet Age:
United's T1 at Chicago 'O Hare

By Marnix (Max) Groot
Airport Development
Expert and Historian
Published: June 4, 2021
It will have been 50 years ago this month that Tampa's Jet-Age terminal was inaugurated. The complex has aged very well and today Tampa is still  considered one of America's favorite airports. In this photo special, we look back at the terminal in its early years!

Tribute to one of the world's great architects 

In 1962, traffic at Tampa International Airport passed the one million passenger mark for the first time. Hillsborough County Aviation Authority started thinking about building a modern Jet-Age terminal complex.

​They had three design requirements: walking distances had to be kept very short, the terminal should be able to expand in an easy and modular fashion, and the ultimate capacity would need to be 20 million annual passengers.


The chosen concept was called the Landside/Airside Terminal, which in its early incarnation resembled a snowflake.​

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