Bellaire Flying Field On South Main St.

[mrfootball]

Here's a great site detailing the first airshows held in our fair city (some of the first in the nation).

http://glennhcurtiss.com/id64.htm

http://glennhcurtiss.com/1cd6f4150.jpg

The first flight of an airplane in Texas occurred on the prairies just south of Houston on February 18, 1910. The Houston POST and Western Land Co. paid French aviator Louis Paulhan $20,000 (over $900,000 today) to demonstrate his aircraft...and a crowd of over two thousand gathered (at $1 a head) to witness the historic event of Paulhan flying his Farman biplane.

http://glennhcurtiss.com/1ccef4210.jpg

Of course this being Texas, one pilot and a few planes does not a grand air show make, so on January 27-30 of 1911 the

[FilioScotia]

Unfortunately, John Moisant - who started this 'flying circus' - died in New Orleans shortly before this Houston show.

And not long after that, New Orleans built its first airport and named it for him. It was Moisant National Airport until 1962, when the name was changed to New Orleans International. Now it's Louis Armstrong International.

I wonder if locals over there refer to it as "Satchmo" International?

I wonder if the site of the 1911 Houston air show is the same location that later became Sam Houston Airport? That old airport off South Main was plowed under after WWII when developers bought the land to build Westbury.

Edited December 24, 2006 by FilioScotia

[Heights2Bastrop]

There was a great segment on this airshow in

[TikiOwl]

I had heard from an old family friend that the first airshows were held quite close to where the Shamrock was.

[50_year_native]

I remember reading that Houston's first airfield (just a well-mown, fairly flat 20 acres or so) was situated in the late 1900s or early 1910s on the west side of S.Main, just south of the present Kirby Drive intersection. I would bet that's where these air shows took place, but I have no firm information on that.

[Houston1stWordOnTheMoon]

Great pics.

[tmariar]

The first time I saw these photos was on the Sloane Gallery website, along with some other early Houston aviation photos. I also remember some nice (albeit not as old) aviation photos on the website for the 1940 Air Terminal Museum (the old Houston Municipal Airport Terminal). All very interesting.

Edit: The Houston Post. July 13, 1919

Thomas Aircraft Corporation
General Office: 619 Binz Bldg.

Bellaire Flying Field
Two miles west of South End of Main Street.  Car line and splendid automobile drive direct to the field.