The area of the airport was originally known as St Johns, after an early landowner. The airport was proclaimed as Essendon Aerodrome by the Commonwealth Government in 1921. For some time prior to proclamation, the aerodrome had been used by the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Aero Club (renamed the Royal Victorian Aero Club), having initially been based at Point Cook. The Aero Club remained at Essendon until the late 1940s when it transferred to Moorabbin Airport. Originally the airport had grass runways with the first tenants moving in from December 1921, including H.J. Larkin, Captain Matthews, Bob Hart, and Major Harry Shaw. The 1920s period saw the great pioneering aviation flights of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith who visited the airport on several occasions. On 16 August 1926 70,000 people swarmed across the grassy fields of Essendon Aerodrome upon the arrival of aviation pioneer Alan Cobham when he landed his de Havilland DH.50 floatplane, flown from England to Australia. Essendon Aerodrome was the location of the first parachute jump by a woman in Australia. On 21 November 1937 Jean Burns, a seventeen year old member of the Aero Club, leapt from a DH4 in front of a crowd of hundreds of people and landed in a nearby paddock. The Aerodrome was extended with additional land during the 1930s. Further construction of the runways was undertaken in 1946: at the request of the Commonwealth, the Country Roads Board (later VicRoads) undertook the construction to upgrade and lengthen the original north–south grass runway to concrete tarmac, 4,800 feet (1,500 m) in length by 150 feet (46 m) wide. On completion of the north–south runway, a new east–west runway, 6,100 feet (1,900 m) in length by 200 feet (61 m) wide was constructed. Owing to non-availability of cement however, this runway was constructed in flexible-type pavement, primed and sealed with bitumen. Essendon became Australia's second, and Melbourne's first, international airport in February 1950. The airport was renamed Melbourne Airport, and the first international commercial flight arrived from New Zealand a year later. In the 1950s Essendon Airport was too small for the larger pure jets, such as the Boeing 707. The airport was surrounded by housing and expansion was impossible. In 1959 Cabinet approved the acquisition of 2,167 ha (5,350 acres) in Tullamarine for the purpose of a new international airport, which began construction in the 1960s and was ready to handle aircraft by 1967, but not passenger flights. At this time, Essendon was no longer named Melbourne Airport, with the new airport rapidly taking shape. Commercial international flights were transferred to the new airport in 1970, with commercial domestic flights following the next year. The major passenger airlines using Essendon in the postwar years until scheduled air services were transferred to Tullamarine were Ansett Airlines and Trans Australia Airlines. A variety of aircraft were used through Essendon in the 1960s – Lockheed L-188 Electras; Vickers Viscounts; Fokker F27 Friendships; Douglas DC-3s, DC-4s, and DC-6s; de Havilland Comets, and from 1964, Boeing 727s. Douglas DC-9s were introduced later in the decade. International flights departed mainly from Sydney during Essendon's years of operation, and there were regular daily flights between the two largest metropolitan areas in Australia. Some notable arrivals at the airport include: 1964 – The Beatles, upon arrival, waved to thousands of teenagers from the viewing deck of Essendon Airport's main terminal building. 1967 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson for the memorial service of Prime Minister Harold Holt. Johnson's aircraft Air Force One landed at Essendon Airport on 22 December 1967 then flew empty to Tullamarine as its weight when refuelled was too heavy for Essendon's tarmac. 1972 – Sir Robert Helpmann co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev, The Australian Ballet film of Don Quixote in F hangar.