South Texas Airfield One Of Only Two To Reach The Century Mark

Many of us won’t reach 100, but when someone does, we honor them for they have achieved distinction. In the aviation world seldom do you hear anything being old since it is a relatively new adventure both in mind and spirit.

Stinson Municipal Airport (KSSF) in South Texas has reached that milestone. There is only one other airport in the United States that can make that claim, College Park Airport in Maryland.

There were many other airfields that came and went during the last one hundred years, but only these two have survived the times, good and bad. And, hat off to those who established these historical airports or flew in and out of them and made them what they are today.

Stinson Field has served the aviation community well and provided those services when desperately needed in times of crises and economic decline, and therefore impacting the overall community tremendously.

In 1915 Marjorie Stinson, coming from a aviation minded family, convinced the San Antonio City Council to lease 500 acres to the family in order to further advance their efforts to promote their passion in aviation.

Even though Marjorie got things started, it was her younger sister Katherine who made the most impression on this young and growing adventure, the spirit of flight. She had not initially aspired to fly, but rather to become a musician. To finance the educational cost to achieve entry into that field, she found an opportunity to earn the money needed through the new sport of barnstorming.

So, she learn to fly and in 1912 earned her pilot’s license becoming the fourth women in the U.S. to achieve such a feat in a field that, at the time, not many men had yet to reach. That was just the beginning. During her barnstorming days she was the first woman to perform the “loop” and to do it over 500 times without an accident. When Katherine’s family moved to San Antonio she continued to focus on the family's interest in aviation and along with her sister Marjorie established a flight school in 1915 on the property leased from the city of San Antonio. The flight school opened and Stinson Field was born. Their role in aviation history had an enormous impact on our society – progress of flight began right here in South Central Texas.

Marjorie and Katherine trained over 80 American and Canadian pilots to fly in preparation to travel to Europe and fly for the Allies during World War I. Eddie, their brother, went on to design and manufacture airplanes. In 1917, the U.S. involvement in the war imposed a ban on civilian flying, marking the end of the Stinson School of Flying, and the airport came under the control of the U. S. Army.  Katherine volunteered to fly in the war, but was denied – in those days pilots had to be men. With the end of WWI in 1918, the City of San Antonio assumed control of the operation of the airfield. In the early 1930s, commercial airline flights began at Stinson and remained the only airport for commercial operations in San Antonio for many years.

During World War II, the U.S. Army Air Corps used Stinson as a training base and constructed over 100 hangar-type buildings, some of which are still standing. After WWII, all heavy commercial flights and airline operations moved to the new San Antonio International Airport; Stinson was once again returned to the City of San Antonio; and the airport began catering to private pilots, light commercial operations, and civilian aviation. Stinson Field was also the base of operations for many Civil Air Patrol (CAP) search and rescue missions in the 1960s and 1970s, and still operates here today.

Stinson has seen its share of aviation superstars. Among the more famous pilots that have landed on the runways of this airport include: Charles Lindbergh, first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean non-stop, and more recently, Bud Anderson, WWII triple ace; and Chuck Yeager, WWII double ace and the first to break the sound barrier, both flew into Stinson in two P-51’s baring the nose art, “Old Crow” and Glamorous Glen III, that they once used on their aircraft during their combat days in World War II.

Stinson Municipal Airport is turning 100 years old this year and while history may look at it as a relic from the past, Stinson continues to reinvent itself. The airport has gone through a series of retrofits in recent years, including the addition of office space, conference rooms, and the creation of an area for a restaurant or café. These additional facilities were very tastefully added to the existing terminal building that was originally constructed in the 1930’s. One of the runways (9/27) was extended to accommodate jet traffic and the second runway (14/32) is being refitted to improve the runway lighting and to be able to accept heavier aircraft loads. Later this year Stinson will be receiving a brand new state-of-the art control tower, funding coming from both the City of San Antonio and the Texas Department of Transportation. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.

Future plans include the construction of additional hangars to accommodate the rapidly growing General Aviation Community. As we all know progress usually leads to more progress and there is now talk of future development of the city-owned property that runs along Mission Road immediately adjacent to the airport, for both city use and commercial development. This of course will further enhance not only the airport growth but also the Brooks City Base, a commercial development of the old Brooks AFB, just to the east of Stinson.

To an aviator the celebration of anything that can fly, or anyplace that will launch an airplane into the air, or just about anything aviation is worthy of honoring. So, San Antonio will honor Stinson Field in a yearlong celebration. A number of events have already occurred and several more will take place over the course of the next year, even until the spring of 2016. The first was the recognition of this historic milestone during the San Antonio City Council meeting on February 12. On February14th, the Alamo Chapter of Women in Aviation invited the public to celebrate Katherine Stinson’s Birthday at the Stinson Airport Terminal.

The next event will be on April 18th at Stinson beginning at 8:00 am. This public event will feature the local chapter (35) of the Experimental Aircraft Association’ s (EAA) support of the youth of America and future aviators. They will be giving orientation flights to students at one of the High Schools near Stinson that are in the aviation program. Along with the EAA’s program, there will also be static aircraft displays from a number of other aviation affiliated programs such as: Women in Aviation, Civil Air Patrol, DPS (helicopter), City of San Antonio (helicopter), EAA aircraft, Bird Dog Association Aircraft, U.S. Army and Air Force and the Texas Air Museum that is located on the airport. These organizations will exhibit their role in the future for aviation.

Other events later in the year will include the 4th of July, when the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) will exhibit several World War II vintage aircraft such as the Yellow Rose B-25 Mitchell light bomber, AT-6 Texan Trainer, and more. Several special guests will be honored. Veterans Day will also be celebrated with aircraft displays and special guests being honored. There will be several Fly-ins throughout the year by a variety of aircraft associations.

While Stinson Field has carved out a place in history, it is not standing still; it is continuing to offer a place for the future to make new history. For this reason the City of San Antonio and all of the South Central Texas will have a yearlong celebration of what once was, and what will be.

(Images provided by the authors, Harry & Linda Kaye Perez)

FMI: www.sanantonio.gov/SSF.asp