the Olmsted Air Force Base handling all types of large jet air- craft, with the exception of the supersonic passenger plane Con corde. This runway was com pleted in 19S8 and is still in use at the Harrisburg International Airport. The 600 acres of Olmsted were given over to the state while the Air Force was phasing out the base. The Harrisburg Area Chamber of Commerce wanted to bring in a university, and more businesses to the area. Then Governor William Scranton of- . fered some of the land to Penn State and a total of 177.5 acres were formally transferred to the . University. On August 28, 1966, the. Air Force held its last retreat at their Headquarters Building, now the Olmsted Building, and then gave Penn State the keys. They left only the few dozen airmen to complete the phase-out. The proposed expansion of the campus, with the addition of three new buildings and renov tions to existing structures are further steps in the process that took farmland, built on it to useful purpose and now, in a sense, has returned the land to growing. The farmer /professors plant their seeds in what fertile ground is available and pray for rain. First Lt.. Robert Olmsted, worked at the Middletown Air Depot prior to his death in a balloon crash on September 23, 1923. The depot was later renamed Olmsted Air Force Base in his honor. ■ - -10*1 * Aircrafts of post-WWI era lined up for manuevers at the Middletown Air Depot in the late 1920's and early 1930's - Jilfife /* * ; r,' **■ * . %-' a\, ' *• m :#• • *■ of Harold Hickernell Photo court*! « X* ** ■' * Photo courtesy of Harold Hickernell
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers