This is a quickie placed for visitors to Porto and those on
layovers at OPO, Welcome!
Francisco Sá Carneiro
Airport
Further to a preliminary design by Barbedo
Magalhães and the the decision to locate it in Pedras
Rubras, the aerodrome designed to serve the Porto region was opened
on December 2nd 1945.
It initialy consisted of two paved runways. It
was also endowed with clear, grassy areas. At the time the terminal
facilities were made up of an air terminal building which included
the Control Tower and a series of Technical Departments and an
hangar for small planes. The passenger terminal only came into
service in 1948, almost three years after the inauguration of the
aerodrome.
When it was classified as an international
airport in 1956 with the start of non-regular flights between Porto
and London, serving as an alternative to Lisbon Airport, it became
necessary to draw up projects for its expansion and enhancement.
This resulted in an initial extension and strengthening of the
runways and the construction of an apron set apart from the air
terminal building. Regular international traffic was to start up in
1960.
During the following years and decades the
airport was modernised and the runways were extended to comply with
the international regulations resulting in the structure that we
see nowadays, a modern airport with increasing passenger and cargo
traffic which is paramount for the social and economic development
of the Porto region.
What's Big
Porto?
Big Porto is the metropolitan area that has
developed around the city of Porto. It's like an enlarged city, a
place were the citizens have a strong sence of common identity.
This area is made up of the municipalities of Porto, Espinho,
Gondomar, Maia, Matosinhos, Póvoa do Varzim, Santo Tirso,
Trofa, Valongo, Vila do Conde and Vila Nova de Gaia.
Why the cache is outside the
airport grounds?
As some of you know and the others will now
know, for security reasons the Groundspeak guidelines don't allow
the placement of physical caches within the limits of airports,
this is to prevent false alarms and trouble to those seaking to
find the cache.
As you will see this cache is very near to the
airport bulding, you can walk to it and find it in a few minutes,
so if you want to find your first cache in Big Porto or if you are
waiting for your flight with time to spare why not go for it.
Before leaving please
make sure that the cache is well secure, and no spoilers besides
the more than generous hint.