From the San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...es_larger.html
Stinson airport now four times larger
By Patrick Driscoll - Express-News
The terminal of the nation's second-oldest city airport just got four times larger.
A ceremony Wednesday marked the finish of a $4.8 million project that started in 2006 to add two wings to the Stinson Municipal Airport tower and terminal,
first built in 1935 and expanded six times since.
The two-story extensions added 24,000 square feet to the old hub's 7,000, providing room for retail areas, car rental counters, more offices and conference rooms, a larger restaurant and a new home for Palo Alto College's aviation program.
The modern metal-clad wing buildings fan out lower than the four-story stone structure and leave the historic facades open on both the airfield and street sides.
The juxtaposition is a nice contrast of new and old rather than a clash, said Marcie Ince, president of the San Antonio Conservation Society.
“It's an exciting design,” she said after the ceremony.
Up next will be a $5 million project to lengthen a runway to 5,000 feet, which should start and finish next year. That way, insurance companies will feel more comfortable about corporate jets landing at Stinson as the city encourages such flights to shift from San Antonio International Airport.
Last year, Stinson handled 150,000 flight operations, up from 45,000 in 1995.
“This is what we need on the South Side,” Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos said at a City Council meeting held just prior to Wednesday's ribbon cutting. “It's going to bring more economic development.”
Stinson airport was started more than 90 years ago when the Stinson family of aviators — including Katherine, the fourth woman licensed to fly in the United States — paid the city $5 to lease 500 acres.
Early on, the Stinsons gave flying lessons, but barnstormers also used the airport.
Charles Lindbergh kept his Canuck plane, Yellow Bird, there after the Brooks Field commander booted the craft because of its condition.
In 1928, Texas Air Transport, later to become American Airlines, started mail and passenger flights. During World War II, the Army Air Corps used the airport for training.
By 1946, with the opening of San Antonio International Airport, commercial flights moved out. Today, Stinson is a general aviation reliever airport.
“You're sitting at one of the cradles of aviation history in the whole United States,” Mayor Phil Hardberger told a crowd on the tarmac.
Minutes later, with the air filled by the roar of a taxiing jet, the rumble of a prop engine warming up and the thumping of a hovering copter, a line of officials grabbed oversized scissors and snipped the ribbon.
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