Ranger Municipal Airport is listed by the Texas Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division as the third oldest operating airport in Texas. The earliest documented airplane landing in Ranger occurred on November 24, 1911, when early aviator Robert G. Fowler landed his Wright biplane on the V.V. Cooper, Sr. field just west of the present airport building on the eastern edge of Ranger College during his transcontinental attempt to win publisher William Randolph Hearst’s $50,000 prize for the first flight across the United States in 30 days. In the spring of 1928, C.J. Moore and other aviation boosters seeking an airport for Eastland County purchased the 135-acre V.V. Cooper, Sr. tract, and the airport was officially dedicated on Armistice Day, November 11, 1928. Known as Haugland Airport in the 1930s, it was renamed Ranger Municipal Airport in September 1939 when the Ranger Flying Service, owned by Russell B. Miller, Hall Walker, and O.G. Lanier, opened a civilian pilot training program there. Notable events at Ranger Field included Amelia Earhart’s June 16, 1931, landing in her Pitcairn autogiro, its role in the 1930s as a midway point for glider races from Grand Prairie to Sweetwater and back, and repeated practice visits during World War II by Army Air Forces Piper L4 Cub pilots in the clear skies around Ranger. Since World War II, area citizens have worked continuously to make Ranger Municipal Airport an asset to the city, county, and state.