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    Dallas Aviation
    Dallas Aviation
    Dallas Aviation
    Ebook193 pages1 hour

    Dallas Aviation

    By Bruce A. Bleakley

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    About this ebook

    Since Otto Brodie s airplane flight at Fair Park in 1910, the city of Dallas has seen over 100 years of rich and diverse aviation activity. Many of those years were spent on a long and complex road to a consolidated airport for the Dallas Fort Worth area, an impasse finally resolved with the dedication of Dallas Fort Worth Regional Airport in 1974. Central to Dallas aviation history is Love Field, established as a military base in 1917. A waypoint for famous flights such as the first round-the-world flight in 1924, a venue for colorful characters like barnstormer and bootlegger Slats Rodgers, and the site of World War II s largest Air Transport Command base Love Field was all this and more. Although no longer the region s primary commercial airfield, Love Field remains a major aviation facility as the home of Southwest Airlines and several internationally recognized business aircraft operations.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateApr 11, 2011
    ISBN9781439624883
    Dallas Aviation
    Author

    Bruce A. Bleakley

    Author Bruce A. Bleakley, a 20-year Air Force veteran with 5,000 hours of flying time, is currently museum director of the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field Airport. The images in Dallas Aviation come from the Frontiers of Flight Museum, the History of Aviation Collection at the University of Texas at Dallas, and other individual and organizational sources.

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      Book preview

      Dallas Aviation - Bruce A. Bleakley

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      INTRODUCTION

      This volume presents the people, the aircraft, and the airports that make up the fascinating aviation history of Dallas, Texas. It would be impossible to include all of the unique stories of such a history, and this volume presents some of the well-known and the not-so-well-documented tales through a collection of images, many of which have never before been published.

      The first recorded aerial activity of any kind in the Dallas area (or in Texas, for that matter) occurred on April 16, 1861, when a person now known only as Professor Wallace reportedly made a balloon ascent. Almost 50 years would pass before the next reports of flights in Dallas by other lighter-than-air craft, meaning that their lift came from either hot air or hydrogen gas in a large envelope with a basket or other structure suspended below to hold the aeronaut, possibly an engine, and passengers, if any.

      Such an airship, called the Aerial Queen, made several flights over southeast Dallas in 1908. The following year, the 1909 Texas State Fair established a tradition of featuring aerial exhibitions when a young aeronaut flew his airship from the Fair Park site east of downtown.

      Various sources record different attempts to build and fly heavier-than-air aeroplanes (whose lift is derived from airflow over the wings) in Dallas in the years shortly after the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903. The first well-documented flight of a winged aircraft in Dallas took place in March 1910, when the Dallas Chamber of Commerce contracted with aviator Otto Brodie to present a flight exhibition at Fair Park.

      Due to gusty winds, Brodie had to limit his performance to a few straight, short hops instead of the advertised series of maneuvers. Conflicting reports characterize the spectators as pleased or disappointed, but their admission fees were refunded, and Brodie was not paid by the chamber since his contract had specified a successful exhibition.

      The chamber’s aviation committee arranged for another exhibition early the following year, this time by the Moisant International Aviators, a touring group led by American aviator John Moisant. The Moisant troupe would return in 1912, and other aviation events would follow, including flights by local pilots and exhibitions by well-known aviators during the Texas State Fair held at Fair Park each fall.

      The history of aviation in Dallas is inextricably linked to Love Field Airport, established seven miles northwest of downtown Dallas in October 1917 as an Army flight training base to support the need for pilots in World War I. The site, acquired by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and then leased to the U.S. Army, was a major training base for the remainder of the war. After a huge public open house that coincided with the armistice, however, hopes that Love Field would continue to be a training base after the end of hostilities did not materialize. All military flight operations were terminated, and only an Army aviation repair depot continued in operation, eventually ceasing its activities in 1921.

      For the first few years after the war, Love Field was used by barnstormers giving airplane rides and aerial exhibitions (and making occasional liquor runs across the Mexican border to circumvent

      Prohibition). Organizations offering flight instruction and aircraft services also began to populate the extensive hangar facilities. Some enterprising operators offered unscheduled air taxi flights to other cities, and a significant piece of federal legislation provided the impetus for organized commercial aviation activity as the 1920s progressed.

      The Air Mail Act of 1925 is often referred to as the birth certificate of commercial aviation in the United States because it allowed for commercial air carriers to be awarded contracts for the airmail routes currently being flown by the U.S. Post Office. One of the first contracts, for a route from Dallas to Chicago, began operating from Love Field in May 1926, and passenger service was added the following year.

      With public interest in aviation jump-started by Lindbergh’s New York–Paris flight in May 1927, Love Field became more of a commercial airport as emerging airlines began to offer flights to neighboring cities and states. Lindbergh himself was present for Love Field’s dedication ceremony as Dallas’s municipal field. The airport was also a waypoint or destination for several record-setting flights, such as the Paris–New York–Dallas flight of French aviators Dieudonné Coste and Maurice Bellonte in 1930.

      At the onset of World War II, Love Field became a major aircraft maintenance depot and hub for ferrying flights. It was the site of the largest Air Transport Command (ATC) base in the country, with a large number of service pilots (pilots flying for the military but not trained for combat) that included a group of the famed Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

      The postwar era brought an expanding role for Love Field as a commercial aviation hub. It also brought attention (again) to the need for a consolidated airport to serve the Dallas–Fort Worth area—something that at times seemed impossible to accomplish. The economics were sound, but disagreements between the two cities kept a common airport from becoming a reality for over 40 years after the first discussions on the subject in 1927.

      With the establishment of the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport Board, what is now the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) eventually became a reality in 1974. One of the most fascinating stories in commercial aviation history coincided with the emergence of DFW, that of an upstart airline whose first route structure was drawn on a cocktail napkin. Southwest Airlines, after a long legal battle brought on by other existing airlines, began flying from its headquarters at Love Field and stayed there—growing and prospering in spite of a unique piece of federal legislation known as the Wright Amendment.

      As one airline grew, another crumbled. Even though Braniff Airlines had been a high-flying fixture at Love Field and subsequently at DFW, the company overextended its reach, and the Flying Colors of Braniff were grounded on May 12, 1982. Even the promise of Concorde service to Europe was not enough to sustain public support, with many suggesting that the Concorde idea was only one of a series of bad business decisions.

      At present, aviation in Dallas continues a steady recovery from the dual impact of September 11, 2001, and a significant recession, with numerous aerospace-related industries in the area, significant improvements at DFW and Love Field, and business and general

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