1942 Fort Worth, Texas. Meacham Field. Instructor and students
Fort Worth Municipal Airport began its operations in July 1925. Originally composed of just 100 acres, the early days of the facility saw aircraft operating from runways composed of dirt and sod. The young airport was founded by former Fort Worth mayor, Henry C. Meacham (1869-1929) and was renamed Meacham Field in his honor in 1927. He pledged $1,200 of his own money to build a caretaker’s cottage at the airport in 1925.
National Air Transport’s first air mail flight leaves Fort Worth Municipal Airport for Chicago with stops in Wichita, Kansas City, St. Joseph and Moline.
In February 1928, the first airline passenger to ever fly out of Texas on a scheduled airline flight departed from Meacham Field, headed for Oklahoma City. This event soon ushered in the era of regularly scheduled airline passenger service at the facility, beginning in 1929.
Meacham was the scene of the first aerial refueling as a world’s flight endurance record was set. In the first year of available records, Meacham had 4,511 aircraft and 5,446 passengers and crew use the field.
In 1932, the airport saw significant growth when American Airways (now American Airlines) relocated half of its southern division headquarters personnel and two of its airmail routes to Meacham from Love Field. American Airways dedicated a new hangar and office building in October 1933 and by 1936, the airport had paved its runways and constructed a new terminal building.
In 1937, Meacham opens a new terminal drawing a large crowd for activities dedicating the field’s new terminal facilities and runways.
When World War II started, Meacham Airport became part of the U.S. Navy’s network to move fighter planes and torpedo bombers built in New England across the country to the Pacific fleet.
The airport handled 80,576 military aircraft in 1944 and another 63,540 in 1945.
In 1946, Meacham recorded its busiest year with 167,267 private and military planes carrying 718,671 passengers.
With the airplanes also came the airplane repair businesses to Meacham, including Broadie's Aircraft which serviced Beech 18 and DC-3 planes, offering aircraft overhauls and fixing engines to keep planes running. The company is one of the oldest continuously operated businesses at Meacham, and moved into a new 64,000-square-foot hangar in 2012. (source)
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Musical background during the process
The Facedancers. The Facedancers 1972
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