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On November 22, 1940, Amon G. Carter, owner and publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, received a letter from William B. Wheatley, Consolidated Aircraft’s chief test pilot in San Diego, California. Wheatley outlined their immediate need for a seaplane facility and layover point to support delivery of long-range maritime patrol aircraft from San Diego to England. The first consolidated PBY-5 destined for the Royal Air Force landed on Lake Worth on the afternoon of November 30, 1940. Over the next five years, Fort Worth’s seaplane facility would make a significant contribution to the United States and Allied war efforts, both in Europe and the Pacific. The Fort Worth Seaplane Facility was supported by personnel from Meacham Field, the city’s municipal airport. Aviation gasoline and other supplies to service the aircraft were trucked over from Meacham Field. On May 12, 1943, the Navy commissioned Meacham Field as a Naval Auxiliary Air Facility and established an 81-man Ferry Service Unit at the airport to coordinate cross-country aircraft deliveries to Navy and Marine Corps air stations and fleet embarkation points. The unit personnel also serviced U.S. Navy and Royal Air Force seaplanes at the facility on Lake Worth. Although there are no official records of the number of military seaplanes which used Lake Worth, by the end of the war, the Royal Air Force acquired almost 500 seaplanes from consolidated aircraft in San Diego. The last recorded shipment of aviation gasoline from Meacham Field to the Lake Worth facility occurred in May 1946. |
