of these were built in preparation for any possible war against the United States - from the east (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) or from the west (the Empire of Japan). In 1940, the CAA offered to build a modern paved airport in Cobb County if the local governments provided the land. Due to the potential labor force for defense factories in this area, local officials also hoped to attract a large aircraft factory adjacent to the site. On October 24, the government of Cobb County announced the existence of this airport project, and it also revealed that purchase options had been signed for three prospective sites. The Atlanta City Council also passed a resolution endorsing this project on January 2, 1941. Since the Army Air Corps had recently taken over part of Candler Field (now Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport), the principal municipal airport for Atlanta, the new airport in Cobb County was also seen as a reliever airport for Atlanta. In May, the local government issued bonds to purchase located miles southeast of Marietta along the western side of the new four-lane superhighway, U.S. Highway 41, linking Marietta with Atlanta. The CAA next allocated $400,000 for construction of two -long runways on the land. The W. L. Florence Company of Powder Springs, Georgia, the low bidder with a bid of $290,000, won the contract. This bid, well-below the estimated cost of $400,000, allowed the CAA to add the third runway to this construction project. The construction began on 14 July 1941. In the next month, the Gulf Oil Corporation and Georgia Air Services agreed to lease the airport, once completed, for $12,000 per year. In September 1941, Eddie Rickenbacker, America's leading flying ace of World War I, and then the president and general manager of Eastern Airlines, agreed to have this airport named Rickenbacker Field in his honor. In the same month, the U.S. Navy requested permission to use this airport for the flight training of Naval aviators. (The Navy had established the "Naval Aviation Reserve Base Atlanta", at what is now the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, in March 1941.) In October, Georgia Air Services signed a $70,000 contract for two 180x160-ft. airplane hangars to be built. Although it was far from completion, the dedication of this airfield took place in October 1941 After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, work on this new airfield accelerated rapidly. In January 1942, Lawrence