This airfield didn’t end up here by coincidence - but through the intense lobbying of the Houston Chamber of Commerce to the federal government. In 1917, when the US entered the Great War, the Chamber boasted about Houston’s excellent flying weather and flat land. They didn’t mention the frequent ground fog, thunderstorms, or occasional hurricanes!

Their sales pitch to the government worked: the Army purchased 1,300 acres here to construct an aviation training field. The fleet was all Curtis JN-4s, shipped in from Kelly Field in San Antonio. When Ellington Field opened, 10 planes flew in unison over downtown Houston. The spectacle drove Houstonians wild, who had never seen so many aircraft in flight!

Today, Ellington Field is one of the very few World War I air training bases still in use, currently used by military, commercial and NASA aircraft. Just outside the gates of Ellington Field, the Lone Star Flight Museum presents an extensive collection of fully operational military aircraft and the famed Texas Aviation Hall of Fame.

Lone Star Flight Museum