AUSTIN – The Frontiers of Flight Museum was selected by the Texas Transportation Commission- Chairman David Laney, members Robert Nichols and John Johnson – to receive a grant of $7.2 million from the Texas Department of Transportation on Jan. 27, 2000. Funding through the Transportation Enhancement Program will enable the creation of a new museum at Love Field
in Dallas, Texas.
Pending approval of the Dallas City Council, the 6.3-acre site at Love Field will be leased to the museum from the City of Dallas. The new museum will be located at the comer of Lemmon Avenue and University with easy access to both air and ground transportation. Public transportation – DART bus service – will available to the public, in addition to free parking adjacent to the museum.
“The funding approval means [that] the museum is ready for take off’, said Senator Kay Hutchison, one of the founders of the museum. ” … manned flight helped open Texas’ wide frontier to exploration and the museum is the right place to chronicle this history. I became involved with the museum to give children a love of flying and to spark a curiosity that can lead to careers in aviation and science.”
Phase I of the proposed museum will feature exhibits on aviation history from Icarus and Daedalus to the Space Age, emphasizing the history of Love Field and the development of aviation in North Texas. The major part of the 60,000 square foot hangar will provide space for full-size aircraft, as well as space for restoring and repairing artifacts; and a model-building area for youngsters of all ages. Meeting rooms, offices, an auditorium for lectures and movies, a gift shop and an educational wing will also enable the museum to better serve the community. An observation deck designed for visitors to watch airplanes take off and land is in the planning stages.
The landscaping plans call for xeriscape plantings, since water is such a precious commodity in this part of the country.
Buffalo Grass, which was growing at Love Field in 1917 and is a native grass, will complement the xeriscape concept today very well.
Frontiers of Flight Museum Ready…
The support for a new museum has been phenomenal–from private citizens, to state, county, and city government, to the private sector – all have contributed greatly to the expansion of the new museum.
Currently, an estimated 20,000 people visit the museum yearly. It is anticipated that after the existing dilapidated hangar has been razed, the new museum will attract more people from the community to participate in its aviation activities. The museum staff members include Executive Director George Lodge, Curator Col. Knox Bishop (USAF ret.), and other museum personnel, Dr. Sharon Spalding, Jack Hamilton and Brenda Magee.
Congratulations go to Frontiers of Flight Museum’s staff for their efforts to honor those legendary pioneers of flight, and to preserve and interpret aviation history for future generations.
The target date for the grand opening of Phase I is mid- 2001.
