Originally published in 2002
By Elizabeth J. Murray
Last October the Houston Endowment and Southwest Airlines both approved major grants for the 1940 Air Terminal Museum located on Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU). The grants gave the Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society the green light to begin restoration on the city’s original art-deco air terminal, transform it into a civil aviation museum and illuminate its pioneering role in Houston’s civil aviation history.
The terminal has served as the cornerstone of civil aviation in Houston. Both Howard Hughes and Eddie Rickenbacker were fixtures there, and a hangar just south of the terminal became the flight school and original home to the first three classes of Women’s Air Service Pilots (WASPs). Earl McKaugn, owner of Aviation Enterprises, leased the aforementioned hangar, and there founded TransTexas Airways, which eventually became Continental Airlines.
Plans for the initial phase of restoration are to restore the north wing of the terminal itself and build an adjacent museum-grade hangar. Groundbreaking on the new wing is slated for this spring.