A Passion for Flying

It all goes back to the year 1915, when three people and two passions all came together to create the "Stinson School of Flying." The people were Marjorie, Katherine and Eddie Stinson.  All of them had a passion for flying but Katherine also had a passion for music and as fate would have it a newspaper article somehow managed to tie together those two loves.  The article said that barnstorming pilots or exhibition pilots were getting $1,000 dollars a show which back then was quite a bit of money,  says Stinson Airport Manager Tim O'Krongley. "So she wanted to take that money and go to Europe and eventually study piano and that was her entry into aviation." So with a plan in place Katherine got to work in starting the school. Her brother Eddie picked out a plot of land south of town just west of the San Antonio River.  Then she sent her sister Marjorie to City Hall to close the deal.  So Marjorie went to City Council to petition them to open up this school of flying and they rented her 500 acres for $5 per year.  It was a good deal,  O'Krongley says.  In the years that followed Katherine would finally make it to Europe but it was her love of flying and not her love of music that would take her there.  She flew to England as well as Japan and China, becoming the first woman to perform the loop-the-loop maneuver.  She set successive endurance and distance records and raised two million dollars for the American Red Cross.  Meanwhile her sister Marjorie and her brother Eddie continued to expand operations at the  "Stinson School of Flying,"  teaching civilian students like Jack Frost as well as dozens of pilots from the Canadian Air Force. But World War I eventually brought a ban on civilian flying, marking the end of the "Stinson School of Flying."

The “ Boom Years ”

After that the airfield was run by the City of San Antonio. “ The airport reverted back to the city. They took over operations, ” says O ’ Krongley. “ And it remained an airport used primarily by barnstormers and experimental pilots until the late 20 ’ s or early 30 ’ s and that ’ s when things really took off. ” Within a few years American, Braniff and Easter Airlines were all flying their business straight into the Alamo City and with a new Terminal being built by the W.P.A., San Antonio ’ s aviation business was booming at Stinson. Then in the 40 ’ s the U.S. military provided the next big boom. During World War II the Air Force took control of the airport as a training base and constructed more than a hundred buildings on site, some of which are still standing today. Once World War II came to a close, commercial airlines finally moved into their new home at San Antonio International Airport but that certainly didn ’ t mark the end of Stinson ’ s impact.

Still Growing Strong

Ninety years after its creation and each sunrise at Stinson Municipal Airport seems to bring with it even more growth. It now has two flight schools, an air cargo operator, an aviation museum and three fixed-based operators. Serving as the general aviation reliever airport for San Antonio International, Stinson now handles more than 150,000 aircraft operations annually. It ’ s recently seen a 110% increase in the number of aircraft based at the airport and a 100% occupancy rate has prompted plans for even more expansion in the near future. “ So the Master Plan has driven a lot of new capital programs, including expansion of the Terminal building, new T-hangars, a possible runway extension and a lot of runway improvements ” O ’ Krongley says. And of course behind it all is the spirit of the Stinson family, three people who had a love of flying so strong it continues to tower over San Antonio even today.