A race-track, a couple of daredevil pilots and a public servant with faith in the future of aviation gave Atlanta its modest start in life.

The pilots were Doug Davis and Beeler Blevins, the public servant William Berry Hartsfield. Without them the world class airport of today might never have existed. Their enthusiasm convinced the many sceptics that air travel would be vital to the growth of the City of Atlanta and it was Hartsfield who pushed the program through.

After being elected a city alderman in 1923 Hartsfield started the hunt for a suitable airport location and came up with an abandoned race-track owned by the Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler. Atlanta City Council looked at many other sites but in 1925 went with Hartsfield's choice.

They took a five-year lease, rent free, to develop Candler Field with the option to buy the 287 acres of land for $100,000. That option was exercized in 1930 and Hartsfield's vision was rewarded when he was chosen to head the city's new aviation committee. He went on to be a long-serving Mayor of Atlanta from 1938 to 1961, the year the airport terminal was built.

Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport lies at number two in the world's busiest airports list having been overtaken by Chicago O'Hare in 2002 as the world's busiest airport.