Berlin Tegel Airport eminent aerospace engineers, which included German rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun. In 1937, the rocket pioneers left Tegel in favour of the secret Peenemünde army research centre. During World War II, the area served once again as a military training area, mostly for Flak troops. It was destroyed in Allied air raids. Plans for converting the area into allotment gardens were shelved due to the Berlin Blockade, which began on 24 June 1948. In the ensuing US-led Berlin Airlift, it quickly turned out that Berlin's existing main airport at Tempelhof was not big enough to accommodate all relief aircraft. As
Detroit Metropolitan Airport the county expanded the airport to become Detroit's primary airport. It renamed the facility Detroit-Wayne Major Airport in 1947, and in the next three years expanded threefold as three more runways were built. In 1949, the airport added runways 3L/21R and 9L/27R, followed by runway 4R/22L in 1950. In 1946–47, most airline traffic moved from the cramped Detroit City Airport (now Coleman Young International Airport) northeast of downtown Detroit to the larger Willow Run Airport over west of the city, and west of Wayne County Airport. Pan-Am (1954) and BOAC (1956) were the first passenger airlines at Detroit-Wayne Major. In