The 1940s-vintage Art Deco passenger terminal at Long Beach Airport (LGB) is about to expand into the 21st century, as Aero Club members saw during an exclusive preview in early June.

Some 40 ACSC members and guests received a tour of the new construction project now underway at LGB, saw a demonstration of the airport fire department’s jumbo, high-tech crash trucks, were briefed by a Boeing official on current deliveries of C-17 transports at the nearby plant and had dinner on the outdoor terrace of the historic terminal building.

In a presentation for the Aero Club visitors, the airport’s operations and facilities manager, Carolyn Carlton-Lowe, explained that the current main terminal building will keep most of its charming, 1940s-style décor after the refurbishment work is done, and that it will be linked to a new, ecologically green passenger concourse that will replace the jumble of trailers and temporary structures used in recent years. A new automobile parking structure is to be built outside the terminal.

The $124 million construction project is on schedule for completion in 2013, Carlton-Lowe said. Passengers will continue to board and deplane—as now—with mobile boarding stairs or ramps leading to airliners parked just outside the new concourse structure.

Significant growth in passenger volume is unlikely, however, because LGB has been restricted for many years to 41 daily operations by full-sized airliners, in addition to a maximum of 55 flights by commuter-sized transports. The limits resulted from a court order that settled a suit by homeowners over airport noise.

During their visit the ACSC group also learned how Long Beach became a famous center of aviation before it had an airport. City Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, who has written a book on the city’s aviation history, described why Long Beach is celebrating its aviation centennial this year.

In 1911, Schipske said, the first airplane to make a transcontinental flight across the U.S.—a biplane flown by pioneering pilot Cal Rodgers—completed its journey from New York by landing on the sandy shoreline near downtown Long Beach. The Wright Brothers-designed airplane was named the “Vin Fiz” to promote a grape-flavored soft drink being sold at the time. The reconstructed airplane is now displayed at the Smithsonian in Washington. Several centennial-related events are being planned at Long Beach during 2011.