Although the first airplane to land in Savannah touched down in Daffin Park (14.8), the city’s first airport would evolve into one of the most significant military air bases in the country. Savannah purchased the 730-acre Belmont tract of rural land from J. C. Lewis in 1928 for a new airport at a cost of $30,000, and Savannah Municipal Airport opened in 1929. In 1940, the airport’s name was changed to Hunter Field, after Savannah native and World War I flying ace Lieutenant Colonel Frank O’Driscoll Hunter. The U.S. Army Air Corps established the Savannah Army Air Base on the site in 1941 and promptly erected military structures. Throughout World War II the airfield was used to provide training for various bomber groups and was the site of activation for the famous Eighth Air Force. The airfield briefly returned to civilian use after the war, but in 1950 Hunter was offered to the U.S. government, along with 3,500 additional acres, in exchange for Chatham Army Airfield (which became Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport), so that the military would remain in the Savannah area. During the 1950s, Hunter served as a Strategic Air Command base due to its 11,375-foot runway, now the army’s longest east of the Mississippi. In 1966, control of the airfield passed to the U.S. Army, and the site became Hunter Army Air Field. Covering an area of over 4,000 acres, the airfield played a decisive role in channeling the city’s suburban expansion to sprawl southward along Abercorn Street.