Aviation history

Int’l Women’s Day Aviation Round-Up

March is Women’s History Month and March 8 is International Women’s Day.

Here’s how some airports and aviation museums and others marked the day.

There’s a lot you can learn in a quick scroll.

Aviation lore & more at St. Petersburg Museum of History

In Florida, the St. Petersburg Museum of History displays a replica of the Benoist XIV airboat used for the first scheduled airline service, which operated nearby.

On January 1, 1914, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line began flying across Tampa Bay.

The flight covered 18 miles and 23 minutes. That journey was 11 hours faster than making the trip between St. Petersburg and Tampa by rail.

(Courtesy Smithsonian Institution)

That plane is just one of the treasures we spotted at the museum when we visited. The museum is home to the largest collection of signed baseballs: 5,036 and still growing; a great exhibit about the artists known as the “Florida Highwaymen,” a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy, artifacts from Webb’s City – a local roadside attraction – and much more.

Airports mark Black History Month

As you travel to and through airports throughout the U.S. in February, keep an eye out for events, exhibits and special programs marking Black History Month.

Here are some of the profiles, tributes and Black History Month campaign kickoffs we spotted on airport social media feeds already.

Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport’s 75th Anniversary

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and plans to keep the party going all year long with in-terminal events, music, entertainment, community partnerships, artwork, and other activities. As part of the anniversary kick-off, the Port of Seattle is sharing photos from the airport’s history. Here are a few of our favorites.

United Airlines plane landing at the dedication ceremony for the new administration building at Sea-Tac.

Opening Day at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on July 9, 1949

SEA Gift Shop sometime in the 1950s.

Early SEA Bag Claim. Even then people crowded the bag delivery spot.

SEA Barber Shop – 1950s

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport turns 50

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) turns 50 on January 13 and is kicking off a year-long party to celebrate.

Events begin Saturday morning with 50th-anniversary giveaways including a special limited edition Coca-Cola bottle, selfie stations, and surprise performances in select terminals during the day.

Passengers arriving onĀ AA Flight 3589 from Little Rock, Ark., will receive a special water arch celebration and greeting at the gateĀ in honor of the first flight to arrive at DFW from the city in 1974.

Then, on Saturday night, buildings in both Dallas and Fort Worth will be lit with DFW Airportā€™s primary brand color ā€“ orange ā€“ to commemorate the airportā€™s golden anniversary. This includes the Omni Dallas Downtown, Bank of America Plaza, One Arts Plaza, KPMG Plaza, AT&T Headquarters and Discovery District, Hunt Building, 1900 Pearl Street, 1900 N. Akard Street and Reunion Tower in Dallas, and City Hall and the 7thĀ Street Bridge in Fort Worth.

While we wait for more details about what other anniversary surprises will roll out the rest of the year, here are some photos and history about the airport, courtesy of DFW and the Frontiers of Flight Museum.

Here’s a shot of Braniff Jets lined up at DFW in the late 1970s.

THEN AND NOW

1974 2023 
 Worldā€™s largest airport by land area  Third largest airport by land area 
 Four terminals  Five terminals (sixth to break ground in 2024) 
 Three runways  Seven runways 
 66 gates  171 gates 
 Nine airlines  28 airlines 
 6.8 million passengers  80 million passengers (estimated)
 75,000 tons of cargo  791,192 tons of cargo (FY)

More tidbits about DFW Airport

DFW was the first US Airport to be visited by the supersonic Concorde

Courtesy Frontiers of Flight Museum

On September 20, 1973, the first day of a four-day dedication ceremony that took place before DFW officially started commercial operations in January 1974, the airport welcomed a supersonic British Airways/Air FranceĀ Concorde. Two days later, on September 22, 1973, tens of thousands of people attended a dedication ceremony that included an air show and exhibits.

The DFW dig

(Courtesy Frontiers of Flight Museum)

During the DFW excavation, workers uncovered an almost complete fossil of a 70-million-year-old plesiosaur, a 25-foot-long reptile that lived in the ocean during the time of dinosaurs. For a while, the fossil was displayed in Braniffā€™s Terminal 2W (now Terminal B), but today, DFWā€™s plesiosaur is locked away in storage at an area university.

For more great photos and stories about Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, see Bruce Bleakley’s book published on DFW’s 40th anniversary. It’s chock full of photos, appropriately titled Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and is part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of Aviation series.