Grand Prairie Airfield

The Curtiss Flying Service Corporation of New York purchased 275 acres of land one mile west of the Grand Prairie city limits in 1929, and the Curtiss Wright Airport of Fort Worth-Dallas opened there in 1930. Although the airport and flying school were initially a sensation, they closed late in 1930 because of the Depression, and the field became the Grand Prairie Municipal Airport. In 1940 Lou Foote bought the property to establish his own flying school, and in June 1942 the U.S. Navy chose the airfield as a primary training facility and purchased the land from him for $120,336. Naval development cost about $823,000 and included two 1,500-foot hexagon landing mats, two personnel barracks, a hangar, new maintenance and operations buildings, roadways, sidewalks, and utilities. About 1,000 men trained there during World War II, some flying at night without permanent landing lights, and the field was regarded as an excellent training ground for its capabilities. After World War II, the Navy ended its training operations at the Grand Prairie site and used it instead as an emergency landing field. In 1953 the Navy authorized the Department of the Army to use the installation for the air section, later the 149th Aviation Battalion, of the 49th Armored Division of the Texas National Guard. In 1962 the Army authorized the City of Grand Prairie to use 195 acres as a public airport. The city sold 127 acres in 1964 and built a larger airport south of the site, and the 19th Aviation Battalion remained until the airfield closed in 1976.

Grand Prairie, Texas · United States