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Stinson Field, Mission Parkway
Hangar 9, Brooks Air Force Base
Randolph Field Historic District
Space Environment Simulation Laboratory
Stinson Field, dating from the latter part of 1915, was San Antonio's first municipal airport. It has remained in operation since that time, being the only airport in San Antonio, Texas, for many years. It was established by the Stinson family of aviation pioneers. Hoping to finance her musical education with money earned from exhibition flying, Alabama native Katherine Stinson (1891-1977) convinced famed flight instructor Max Lillie of Chicago to take her on as a student in 1912. Katherine became the fourth licensed female pilot in the U.S., began touring as a stunt pilot and became one of the country's most famous female aviatiors. Her family--mother Emma, sister Marjorie and brothers Eddie and Jack--established the Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Marjorie and Eddie trained at the Wright Flying School in Ohio and also became pilots (Marjorie becoming the ninth licensed female pilot in the world). In 1913, Max Lillie encouraged the Stinsons to move to San Antonio where the army had granted him permission to use the parade ground at Fort Sam Houston. According to the San Antonio Express (December 1 and 5, 1915), Marjorie (age 19) and Edward Stinson ran the flying school, utilizing the drill field at Fort Sam Houston, from 1914 to 1915.
Marjorie Stinson petitioned the City Council to lease land for use as an airport. Once approved, the family leased 500 acres of farmland from the city in 1916 and established Stinson Field. Marjorie founded the Stinson School of Aviation, thus being the first woman to own and operate a flying school in the United States. During its first years in operation, the Stinson family flying school trained many World War I pilots. After the ban of civilian flights during World War I, Stinson Field became the city's civil airport in 1918. Charles Lindbergh kept an airplane and flew out of Stinson while he was stationed at Brooks Field.
Stinson Field's name was changed for nine years to "Windburn Field" following the October 15, 1927, airplane crash of reporter, Bill Windburn. It was into Windburn Field that the first scheduled airmail flight in San Antonio arrived on February 6, 1928. In the 1930s, commercial airlines began using the airport and construction of a new terminal building with Works Progress Administration funds enhanced the facility. On July 15, 1936, the airfield was renamed Stinson Field in commemoration of its original founders. During World War II it once again became an Army Air Corps training facility. Returned to civilian use after the war, Stinson Field became the primary general aviation airport for the city of San Antonio. Part of Stinson Field was utilized by the National Guard for a couple of years, accounting for the barracks still present on the southwestern portion of the field. Although the San Antonio International Airport is the primary airport in the San Antonio area today, Stinson Field has remained an important commercial and recreational air center.
Stinson Airport, part of the Mission Parkway, is located at 8535 Mission Rd. in San Antonio, Texas. It is still operated as a general aviation airport, open during normal business hours. Also located at the air field is the Stinson Branch of the Texas Air Museum, presenting the history of flight from the early days of aviation to the present. It is open Monday-Saturday 11:00am to 5:00pm, closed major holidays; there is a fee for admission. For further information call 210-977- 9885 or visit the museum's website.
Kelly Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, has been a vital center for American military aviation throughout its history. As World War I raged in Europe, the United States began to build up and expand its military aviation forces. In his search for a new army aviation training site, Maj. Benjamin Foulois found 700 acres of flat farmland with a water supply near the Missouri-Pacific rail line, then seven miles south of San Antonio. Aviation operations began here on April 5, 1917, the day before the United States declared war on Germany. Kelly Field, named for George Edward Maurice Kelly, the first military pilot killed in an airplane crash at nearby Fort Sam Houston in 1911, was one of 14 schools in the country conducting primary flight training during World War I. The school trained aviators, mechanics and support personnel for war duty. After additional land was acquired, the field was divided into Kelly Number 1 (later renamed Duncan Field) and Kelly Number 2. The Air Service Advanced Flying School, which headquartered at Kelly Number 2, trained pilots including Charles Lindbergh, Curtis LeMay and numerous future Air Force chiefs of staff. By the end of World War I, more than 250,000 men had passed through the facility. After World War I, rapid demobilization followed, and primary training at Kelly was discontinued. In 1922 the U.S. Air Corps decided to consolidate its flight training at two fields, Kelly Field and Brooks Field, named the Air Corps Training Center. Later, in 1931, all primary training was consolidated at the newly completed Randolph Field, to the north of San Antonio, Texas.
The area designated as the Kelly Field Historic District reflects the base's strategic importance during the late 1930s and early 1940s as a training center for America's military pilots, and contains buildings from the "new permanent area" or "reconstruction" of Kelly Field. The base experienced growth at this time to meet the needs of a developing air force and, later, a nation at war. In the time period between the two world wars, the organization and role of the air arm of the U.S. military was the focus of heated debate--whether or not the Air Service should function as an independent military branch and whether or not the Air Service should undertake bombardment operations independent of surface operations. As a result of this debate, Kelly Field was reconstructed on the eve of World War II, and that addition is the core of the Kelly Field Historic District. The district is located near the center of the present-day base, and contains a mixture of 39 buildings. Most of these were constructed between 1940 and 1943 to provide training, administrative, repair, supply and residential facilities for recruits, instructional and maintenance personnel, and both commissioned and noncommissioned officers. The buildings are constructed from a variety of materials including concrete, hollow-clay tile and stucco, and wood frame. Many are well designed examples of Art Moderne, Mediterranean or Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, while others reflect more utilitarian International style elements.
During World War II, Kelly saw a tremendous increase in its civilian and military workforce, including women, who were known as "Kelly Katies." Kelly Field continued to serve an important role in the war effort after it was consolidated into the San Antonio Air Depot in January 1943. By 1943, it had become the largest maintenance and supply facility in the country. At that time supply depot activities became the primary mission of the base and flight training activities were transferred elsewhere. After the Air Force was established as an independent military service in 1947, the field became known as Kelly Air Force Base. Personnel at Kelly were significantly involved with air transport and maintenance during the Korean conflict, the Cold War, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Once the largest employer in San Antonio, Kelly Air Force Base was realigned in 2001 in response to peacetime defense spending priorities. Part of the base has been converted into an industrial center for both commercial and military businesses and the rest has been combined with neighboring Lackland Air Force Base.
The Kelly Field Historic District roughly encompasses the 1600 and 1700 areas of the former Kelly Air Force Base, roughly between Billy Mitchell Blvd., Wagner and Luke Drs. in San Antonio, Texas. Lackland Air Force Base is not open to the public.
Brooks Field, in San Antonio, Texas, was one of a number of U.S. Army airfields established during World War I to train Army pilots. Construction began at the site in December 1917, which was officially established as Brooks Field in February 1918. In addition to providing primary training for flying cadets, Brooks also trained flying officers as instructors in the Gosport Method of flying, a system developed in England to improve the high mortality rate of fliers. Hangar 9 is the only surviving building of more than 60 constructed here during World War I. Many renowned airmen graduated from the Primary Flying School at Brooks Field during the 1920s, including Generals Nathan F. Twining, fourth chief of staff of the Air Force, 1953 to 1957, and first Air Force officer to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Curtis E. LeMay, chief of staff of the Air Force, 1961 to 1965; and Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, who made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, New York to Paris, in 1927. Rapid demobilization followed World War I, and most of the Army's wartime airfields were abandoned. From 1919 until 1922, Brooks Field was the site of an Army Balloon and Airship School. In 1922, the Army Air Service consolidated primary flying training at Brooks Field, which continued until 1931 when all primary training was transferred to Randolph Field, north of San Antonio. Randolph was an entirely new Air Corps station, conceived and designed as a model airfield for flying training. It also became the headquarters location of the Air Corps Training Center.
Hangar 9 was hastily constructed in December 1917 and January 1918 to house the Curtiss JN-4 airplane, the "Jenny," which became the basic training plane for thousands of American pilots during World War I. The hangar was one of 16 constructed at Brooks and is recognized as the oldest existing airplane hangar on a U. S. Air Force installation, although a brick hangar at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, also completed in 1918, is a rival for this distinction. Hangar 9 was considered temporary construction when it was built, but its solid wood frame construction insured its longevity. It has a bolted wood truss roof in a modified gambrel form, with large sliding wooden doors at the ends that slide open to the full width of the building by means of exterior door carriers. The side walls are framed with stacked double sash windows with exterior braces or buttresses.
In the summer of 1926, the School of Aviation Medicine relocated from Mitchel Field, New York, to Brooks Field. The school trained medical personnel in the specialized field of aviation medicine, and also conducted research to improve physical and technological problems experienced by fliers. The School of Aviation Medicine also transferred to Randolph Filed in 1931, but returned to Brooks when a new expanded school opened in August 1959. In October 1959, Brooks became the headquarters for the Aerospace Medical Center, a single organization to address all fields of science related to aerospace medicine. It combined aerospace medical research, education, training, and a clinical facility at one location.
Hangar 9 was restored in 1969. It currently houses the U.S. Air Force
Museum of Aerospace Medicine, an extensive collection of photographs and
equipment related to aviation and aerospace medicine, as well as information
on the early history of Brooks Field. The museum was dedicated as a memorial
to Edward H. White II, a native of San Antonio who was the first American
to walk in space in June 1965 on Gemini IV. White died in 1967 in a flash
fire inside the Apollo command module during training for the first manned
flight of the Apollo program. For a complete copy of the National Historic
Landmark registration form for the Hangar 9, Brooks Air Force Base, click
here.
Hangar 9, Brooks Air Force Base, a National Historic Landmark, is located at 8008 Inner Circle Dr. in San Antonio, Texas. The Museum of Aerospace Medicine is open Monday-Friday from 8:00am to 4:00pm and Saturday by special arrangement, groups larger than 10 please call 210-531-9767. For further information call 210-536-2203 or visit the museum's website. You can also download (in pdf) the Hangar 9, Brooks Air Force Base National Historic Landmark nomination.
Randolph Field, Texas, played an exceptional role in the development of the air arm of the U.S. Army, which eventually achieved its independence as the U.S. Air Force in September 1947. It was conceived and designed as a model airfield for flight training in the mid-1920s for the fledgling Army Air Corps. The completed "Air City" became the site of unique Air Corps schools for flying training and aviation medicine, as well as a landmark in airfield planning and design. In addition, administrative headquarters at Randolph Field, including the Air Corps Training Center, the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center and the Army Air Forces Central Flying Training Command, were keystones in the organizational structure of the Army Air Corps and the Army Air Forces. Their roles were pivotal in the Army air arm's 40-year campaign to become an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces.
The Army began a flying training program soon after delivery of its first airplane to the Signal Corps in the summer of 1909. By the end of World War I there were 27 flying fields for training in the United States, however, all instruction at the schools ceased immediately with the signing of the Armistice (November 11, 1918). Rapid demobilization followed and flying training during the postwar period was erratic for several years. The Army eventually established a flying training system with two levels. Primary Flying Schools were located at Carlstrom Field in Arcadia, Florida, and March Field in Riverside, California. Three Advanced Schools were planned to provide training for pilots specializing in pursuit, bombardment, and observation. However, the Observation School at Post Field at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, was the only one to provide advanced training during this period because funds for training were so scarce. To conserve resources, the Army Air Service decided to centralize its flying training in 1922 at two fields about seven miles apart in San Antonio, Texas. Brooks Field provided primary flying training and the Advanced Flying School was located at Kelly Field. Passage of the Air Corps Act in July 1926 led to further reorganization of the flying training program, and the schools at Brooks and Kelly Fields became part of a new organization, the Air Corps Training Center.
Brig. Gen. Frank P. Lahm, one of the two assistants to the Chief of the Air Corps authorized by the Air Corps Act, became the Training Center's first commanding officer. Lahm was a pioneer in American aviation history, the first military officer taught to fly by Wilbur Wright in 1909 and the first American to win an international balloon competition (1906). On April 18, 1927, Lahm appointed a board of five officers to submit plans for a model field for flying training, including housing, administrative and school buildings, hangars, and associated support buildings and infrastructure. War Department General Order No. 12 (September 27, 1928) designated the planned flying field as Randolph Field, named in honor of Captain William M. Randolph, killed in an airplane accident at Gorman, Texas, on February 18, 1928. The dedication ceremony for Randolph Field was held on June 20, 1930, even though less than half of the construction was completed. The Air Corps Primary Flying School opened at Randolph Field on November 2, 1931. Flying training was no longer conducted at Brooks Field, but the Advanced Flying School remained at Kelly Field.
The Air Corps' need for an airfield specifically for flying training led to a radical new concept of airfield layout and design. It broke all previous precedents at Army posts and air stations. Over several years, the original idea for a field with a circular shape evolved into a model airfield for flying training that also incorporated the most advanced principles of the new profession of city planning. The final plan for Randolph Field produced a unique military installation that was an exceptional achievement for Army architects, planners, and Air Corps officers. Buildings and structures were generally constructed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style with hollow core tile and concrete block covered with stucco and roofs of Mission red clay tile. Hangars, however, were built in the Art Deco style and originally had checker-board painted roofs. Most of the buildings were built according to standardized plans designed by the Army Quartermaster Corps in the late 1920s. However, Randolph Field's most prominent buildings--the Administration Building, Chapel, School of Aviation Medicine and Cadet Academic Building--were designed by local architects. This was partly because the Quartermaster Corps did not have standardized plans for these special types of buildings, local architects were more familiar with local building conditions and materials, and the timetable for completing the Air Corps' new field. The entire installation was built in less than three years.
In the 1930s, Randolph Field was the location of the administrative Headquarters for the Air Corps Training Center, as well as the Air Corps Primary Flying School. The Air Corps Training Center was in charge of the entire Army pilot training program in the United States from 1931 to 1939. The Air Corps Training Center developed an efficient, well-coordinated flying training program that focused on the quality of its pilots.. The program was not only critical to the development of military flight training, but also to the training of American pilots, who after graduation spread out over the world, some to commercial airline jobs in Latin America and the Phillipines, others to government or industry occupations that took them to Europe and Asia. However, the program only produced about 200 pilots a year. Hitler's actions in Europe and America's belated recognition of the importance of air power led to a rising demand for rapid expansion of the Army Air Corps. The subsequent growth of the Air Corps prior to Pearl Harbor was phenomenal. Randolph Field's exceptional facilities allowed it to become the largest school for basic flight training in the United States until the Air Corps Training Center was broken up and flying training was expanded with new training centers in the southeast (Maxwell Field, Alabama) and on the west coast (Moffett Field, California).Randolph Field Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, is located at the center of Randolph Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas. Requests for tours must be received in writing at least three weeks prior to the tour date. Tours may be tentatively scheduled by calling 210-652-4407. For more information visit the base's website or contact the 12th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs Office at 210-652-4410.
Located in Corpus Christi, Texas, the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16) participated in almost every major World War II naval campaign in the Pacific from 1943 to 1945. The ship was a highly decorated warship, receiving numerous citations acknowledging her exemplary service. As an Essex-class carrier, Lexington is also important for illustrating the development of aircraft carrier design, the refinement of multi-carrier operations, and the integration of aviation as a primary strike weapon in naval strategy. As early as 1910, the U.S. Navy, recognizing the potential value that flight would have in naval operations, appointed non-flyer Captain Washington Irving Chambers to keep informed of developments in aviation. Chambers worked closely with Glenn Curtiss, aircraft manufacturer Eugene Fly (an associate of Curtiss) and Lieutenant T.G. Ellyson, the first naval aviator (trained in aviation by Curtiss at no cost to the government) to demonstrate the advantages of aviation to the Navy. Although naval aviation was utilized during World War I, aircraft assigned to warships generally provided only reconnaissance support for the fleet.
The possibility of using planes as a naval strike weapon did not begin until the 1920s when aircraft capable of performing heavy bombardment against land or sea targets were built. Naval vessels capable of carrying several squadrons of such aircraft were developed concurrently. Thus the first eight carriers constructed by the U.S. Navy varied in size, speed, protection and aircraft complement in order to provide the greatest number of carriers capable of launching the greatest number of air strikes, yet still comply with treaty-imposed tonnage restrictions. Essex (CV-9), the ninth U.S. carrier authorized, was a product of these earlier designs. A total of 26 Essex-class carriers were ordered by the U.S. Navy between February 1940 and June 1943 and 24 were completed. This was the largest class of carriers ever built by the United States and over half, including Lexington (CV-16), served as part of the Pacific Fleet during World War II.
Prior to World War II, the Navy had no practical battle experience for its carriers. It was in the Pacific Theater that aircraft carrier operations were developed and refined. Serving as mobile air bases, carriers could maneuver aircraft around the open waters and scattered island chains of the Pacific. By employing a combination of scouting, fighter or bomber aircraft to control the enemy's air power, groups of carriers, screened by surface ships, could open the way for island invasions, cover and support amphibious operations, and help to hold the conquered areas. Thus carriers became an integral compound of nearly every campaign throughout the Pacific War. With aircraft that extended the fleet's firepower beyond the range of large caliber battleship guns, the carrier's status was elevated from reconnaissance platform to that of major surface combatant.
World War II and the carrier campaigns of the Pacific firmly established the role of aviation within naval operations and the aircraft carrier replaced the battleship as the Navy's primary strike weapon. With postwar advances in nuclear arms and jet propulsion, the Essex carriers were upgraded to facilitate these new weapons and aircraft. Thus with modifications, Lexington continued to serve through the Cold War where air power played an increasingly important role in the major wars and limited engagements of the period.
USS Lexington (CV-16) was launched in 1942 as a welded, steel hull, Essex-class aircraft carrier with an overall length of 872 feet and a length along the waterline of 820 feet. Lexington had hangar deck capacity for 103 aircraft. Lexington's first air group (AG-16), consisted of 89 aircraft that included 32 F6f-3 Hellcat fighters, 35 SBD-5 Dauntless dive-bombers and 18 TBF-1 Avenger torpedo bombers. On November 26, 1991 Lexington was decommissioned. After making the successful bid to preserve, display and interpret Lexington, the city of Corpus Christi, Texas prepared a new life for the carrier as a museum ship.
The USS Lexington, a National Historic Landmark, is now the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay, located in Corpus Christi Bay at 2914 N. Shoreline Blvd., just off Hwy. 181, in Corpus Christi, Texas. The museum is open daily, 9:00am to 5:00pm; from Memorial Day-Labor Day is it open until 6:00pm; closed Christmas Day. There is a fee; please call 361-888-4873 or visit the museum's web site at http://www.usslexington.com/general.shtml. for further information.
The Apollo Mission Control Center, in Building 30 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Manned Space Flight Center in Houston, Texas, consists of a mission operations wing (MOW), operations support wing (OSW) and an interconnecting lobby wing. This facility was used to monitor nine Gemini and all Apollo flights, including the flight of Apollo 11 that first landed men on the moon. The Apollo Mission Control Center, provided critical support to the success of the mission, exercised full mission control of the flight of Apollo 11 from the time of liftoff from Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center to the time of splashdown in the Pacific.
The technical management of all areas of vehicle systems of Apollo 11 including flight dynamics, life systems, flight crew activities, recovery support and ground operations were handled at the Apollo Mission Control Center. Through the use of television and the print news media the scene of activity at the Apollo Mission Control during the first manned landing on the moon was made familiar to millions of Americans. When Neil Armstrong reported his "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" to Mission Control his words went immediately around the world and into history. After the end of the Apollo Program this facility was used to monitor manned spaceflights for Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and all recent Space Shuttle flights. For most Americans the Apollo Mission Control Center and Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center symbolize achievements of the manned space program. For a complete copy of the National Historic Landmark registration form for the Apollo Mission Control Center, click here.
The Apollo Mission Control Center, a National Historic Landmark, is part of the Lyndon B.Johnson Manned Space Flight Center, located at 1601 NASA Rd. approximately 25 miles south of downtown Houston in the NASA/Clear Lake area. Space Center Houston, the Official Visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center, is open from 10:00am to 7:00pm weekdays in June, 9:00am to 7:00pm in July, 10:00am to 5:00pm in August, and on summer weekends from 10:00am to 7:00pm. During the winter it is open weekdays 10:00am to 5:00pm and 10:00am to 6:00pm on weekends. There is a fee for admission. Please call 281-244-2105 or visit the space center's website for more information. You can also download (in pdf) the Apollo Mission Control Center National Historic Landmark nomination.
Located at Building 32 at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston,
Texas, the Space Environmental Simulation Laboratory (SESL) was part of
the manned spacecraft program of the United States. The SESL was designed,
built, and used to conduct thermal-vacuum testing for all United States
manned spacecraft of the Apollo era. The large size of both chambers in
the SESL meant that full scale flight hardware could be tested for a variety
of design and development programs involving such factors as operating
temperatures, fluid leak rates, changes in absorptive or emissive properties
of thermal coatings and other materials.
The testing was absolutely essential
to man rate, a higher safety level used for manned aviation operations,
flight hardware. The safety of the astronauts and the success of the manned
space program depended on information that resulted from these tests in
the SESL.
The SESL Chamber A is the largest of the Johnson Space Center thermal-vacuum test facilities. Its usable test volume and high-fidelity space simulation capabilities are adaptable to thermal-vacuum tests of a wide variety of test articles. The major structural elements of the chamber are the rotatable floor, the 40-foot diameter access floor and the dual manlocks at the floor level and at the 31-foot level. Test articles are normally inserted into the chamber by means of overhead cranes and a dolly and track. The dual manlocks are chambers that provide a means for the test crew to move from ambient air pressure to the thermal-vacuum environment and back. When the inner door is bolted, either of the manlocks can be used as an altitude chamber for independent tests. Chamber B, the smaller man-rated chamber, has the same basic capability as Chamber A and can accommodate a variety of smaller scale tests more economically and with faster responses. Major structural elements of the chamber are the removable top head, the fixed chamber floor, and a dual manlock at the floor level. For a complete copy of the National Historic Landmark registration form for the Space Environmental Simulation Laboratory, click here.
Space Environmental Simulation Laboratory, a National Historic Landmark, at NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is located on NASA Rd. 1, approximately 25 miles south of downtown Houston in the NASA/Clear Lake area. Space Center Houston, the Official Visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center, is open weekdays from 10:00am to 7:00pm in June, 9:00am to 7:00pm in July, 10:00am to 5:00pm in August, and on summer weekends from 10:00am to 7:00pm. During the winter it is open weekdays 10:00am to 5:00pm and 10:00am to 6:00pm on weekends. There is a fee for admission. Please call 281-244-2105 or visit the space center's website for more information. You can also download (in pdf) the Space Environmental Simulation Laboratory National Historic Landmark nomination.
Sources: U.S. government, public domain information from Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms - National Register of Historic Places