Aviation Beacon Tower

DFW International Airport’s aviation beacon tower serves as the airport’s official rotating beacon, which the Federal Aviation Administration requires every airport to operate and maintain under Federal Aviation Regulations Part 139.311. The beacon must be lighted and rotate during hours of darkness or when conditions are below Visual Flight Rules minimums, helping pilots locate the airfield, although modern pilots also rely on more advanced navigation aids. When the airport opened in 1974, DFW’s original aviation beacon stood just north of Founders’ Plaza on the west side of Texan Trail; it was replaced in 2009 by a new beacon tower in the airport’s observation area. Federal oversight of such air navigation aids developed from the Air Commerce Act of May 20, 1926, which charged the Secretary of Commerce with fostering air commerce, enforcing air traffic rules, licensing pilots, certificating aircraft, establishing airways, and operating and maintaining aids to air navigation through a new Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce. That branch improved aeronautical radio communications and introduced radio beacons, became the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1934, and in 1936 took over and expanded the nation’s air traffic control system. The Federal Aviation Act of 1958 then transferred aviation responsibilities to the new Federal Aviation Agency, which in 1966 became the Federal Aviation Administration. DFW Airport’s beacon tower is 50 feet tall, has a rotating lighted beacon, and displays alternating white and green lights to indicate a public use airport.

Grapevine, Texas · United States