John Gilbert "Tex" Rankin and his associates established the Rankin Aeronautical Academy here on a 960 acre site, beginning on February 12, 1941, to fulfill Tex's dream of training Army Air Force cadets. A three day event marked the opening on May 18, 1941, and the original cost estimate of $350,000 had risen to $800,000 by completion. The arrival of Army cadets, officers, and instructors, along with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor later that year, increased the demand for pilots and secured the academy's future. Hangars, shops, classrooms, a mess hall, infirmary, recreation center, and administration buildings stood here. More than 10,000 pilots trained here, and 250 Stearman PT 17 bi-plane trainers flew from here at the height of activity. Twelve Army Air Corps aces trained here as cadets, including World War II's most decorated ace, Col. Richard I. Bong, who shot down 40 enemy planes and began his training here. The academy ended its military training program in 1945. Tex Rankin had planned to operate a number of commercial airports, with this intended to be one of them, but his untimely death in February 1947 in an airplane crash at Klamath Falls, Oregon, ended that enterprise and the career of a great airman.