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On July 3, 1925, the Fort Worth city council approved a lease on 100 acres of property on Decatur Road for the city’s new municipal airport. It was built to replace the city’s first municipal airport at Barron Field, a World War I-era flying training field near Everman. After passage of the Air Mail Act (Kelly Act) in 1925, airlines began flying the mail over Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes. As headquarters of the 11th district of the U.S. Post Office Railway Mail Service, Fort Worth offered an ideal location to tie together ground and air distribution. On May 12, 1926, National Air Transport Co. (later United Airlines) flew the field’s first air mail flight to Chicago. On July 16, 1927, the airport’s name changed to Meacham Field, in honor of former Mayor H. C. Meacham. Soon several airlines began to offer passenger service on the CAM routes. By 1931, the airport had expanded to 280 acres. On April 4, 1937, Meacham Field’s new Art Moderne Terminal (the first air-conditioned passenger terminal in the U.S.) and control tower were dedicated. During World War II, in April 1943, American Airlines was awarded a contract to train U. S. Navy pilots at the airport on the Douglas R4D (DC-3) transport. In May 1943, the navy commissioned the airport as a naval auxiliary air facility and established a ferry service unit to coordinate cross-country fighter and torpedo bomber deliveries to the pacific and seaplane ferrying services at nearby Lake Worth. When Fort Worth International Airport opened in April 1953, commercial airline operations moved there. Afterward, Meacham Field Developed into one of the world's leading airports for general and corporate aviation, flight training and aircraft repair. |
