Love Field: World War I and the Early Years

Love Field: World War I and the Early Years. . , August 25, 1917 - The U.S. Army contracts with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce to establish a flight training field and aviation repair depot on approximately 670 acres south of Bachman Lake, to be bought by the Chamber and leased back to the Army. Construction begins within two weeks., October 19, 1917 - The Army dedicates Love Field, named for Lt. Moss Lee Love, an early Army aviator who perished in the line of duty in 1913. Flight operations begin on November 23rd as Commanding Officer Maj. Douglas Netherwood makes a 15-minute flight over his new command in a Curtiss JN-4D aircraft., November 12-13, 1918 - A two-day open house at the airfield, the "Flyin' Frolic," coincides with the end of hostilities in World War I, attracting approximately 30,000 visitors and causing Dallas's first recorded traffic jam., 1919-1920 - With Army flight training operations now terminated, management of the airfield reverts to the Chamber of Commerce, which forms the Love Field Industrial District to manage the 600-plus acre site. Part of the acreage is leased to the City of Dallas for a municipal airport., The early 1920s - Love Field's facilities begin to be populated by "fixed base operators," either local offices of national companies or individual businesses, offering aircraft sales, airplane rides, flying lessons, fuel, maintenance, and other aviation services. Many of these operations are run by former Army aviators with surplus Army aircraft., September 19, 1924 - The U.S. Army Douglas World Cruisers (DWC) Chicago and New Orleans arrive at Love Field near the end of the first-ever aerial circumnavigation of the globe, escorted by the DWC prototype, the Boston II. Two other DWCs that had set out westward from Seattle the previous April, the Boston and the Seattle, are lost enroute, but the crews survive., May 12, 1926 - Commercial aviation at Love Field (and in the state of Texas) begins as National Air Transport (NAT) pilot Herb Kindred takes off with a load of mail bound for Chicago with several stops enroute. Kindred also flies NAT's first passenger flight along the same route on September 1, 1927, as well as the first night air mail flight on February 1, 1928.