Original Lubbock Municipal Airport

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Original Lubbock Municipal Airport. It all starts with one man and one ocean. When Charles Lindbergh made his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, the whole world sat up and took notice.

Aviation wasn't just a curiosity anymore. It was something. And cities across the country, including a certain flat-topped West Texas town, started asking themselves a serious question: are we going to be part of this or not?

Lubbock answered that question by establishing a municipal airport about five miles north of downtown. Land was purchased in 1929, and by 1930, a brick hangar with Art Deco features was completed and the small airport was in operation. Now, this wasn't some plain corrugated box they threw up on the prairie.

The building featured solid masonry construction, cast concrete details, and parapet caps on the front and south facades. Style. Somebody insisted on style, even out here on the Llano Estacado.

The main portion of the hangar used a curved roof design, held up by steel truss girders. A well-known area contractor, the W.G. McMillan Construction Company, was awarded the contract and delivered something the city could be proud of.

In its early years, the airport primarily served local aviation needs, with the military stopping by periodically and commercial flights coming through only on rare occasion. The landing strips were grass, which, if you've spent any time in Lubbock in a dry summer, you might find somewhat optimistic. Those grass strips stayed in use until the mid-1930s.

Then in 1938, a federal grant from the Works Progress Administration, the WPA, led to the construction of concrete runways right alongside the hangar. A more permanent commitment to the sky. And sometime in the late 1930s or early 1940s, a second hangar, this one made of sheet metal, was added to the complex.

Now here's where the story shifts register entirely. In 1941, as the United States prepared to enter World War II, the City of Lubbock offered the army the use of the municipal airport. That offer mattered.

The South Plains Army Flying School, later known as South Plains Army Airfield, or SPAAF, operated here from 1942 to 1945 as an advanced training base for the U.S. Army Air Force Combat Glider Training Program. Gliders.

Silent, engineless aircraft carrying soldiers into combat. Young men trained right here, on this patch of West Texas ground, for some of the most dangerous assignments of the war. In 1948, the city regained control of the airport.

And in 1950, a new terminal building opened just north of the original hangar, a sign that Lubbock was ready to move forward into whatever the next chapter of aviation had in store. That original brick hangar, with its Art Deco caps and its curved roof, had already seen more chapters than most buildings ever do. Grass runways to concrete.

Local crop dusters to combat glider pilots. A city's ambition, answered in brick and steel.

What the marker says

Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 dramatically increased worldwide interest in aviation. To participate in this new and potentially significant technology, the City of Lubbock established a municipal airport about five miles north of downtown. Land was purchased in 1929 and a brick hangar with Art Deco features was completed in 1930. The small airport was in operation by the end of that year. A well-known contractor in the area, W.G. McMillan Construction Company, was awarded the contract to construct the hangar. When completed, the building featured solid masonry construction, with cast concrete details and parapet caps on the front and south facades to add style to the utilitarian structure. The main portion of the hangar was a curved roof design supported by steel truss girders. The airport primarily served local aviation needs but was periodically utilized by the military, with rare commercial flights. Grass landing strips were used until the mid-1930s. In 1938, a federal grant from the works progress administration (WPA) led to the construction of concrete runways adjacent to the hangar. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, a second hangar made of sheet metal was added to the complex. In 1941, as the U.S. prepared to enter World War II, the city offered the army the use of the municipal airport. The South Plains Army Flying School (later South Plains Army Airfield, or SPAAF) operated here from 1942 to 1945 as an advanced training base for the U.S. army air force (USAAF) Combat Glider Training Program. In 1948, the city regained control of the airport and a new terminal building opened north of this building in 1950.