Scholes International Airport at Galveston: Difference between revisions

Scholes International Airport is the former Galveston Municipal Airport that dates back to 1932. It was renamed Corrigan Airport in 1938 for Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, a Galveston native who worked at Ryan Aeronautical Company and helped to build Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis". Later he piloted his 1929 Curtiss Robin OX-5 monoplane named "Sunshine" from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland due to a "compass error" after being denied permission to fly that same trans-Atlantic route by the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce many times before.

During World War II, it was redesignated a U.S. Army Air Corps base and named "Galveston Army Air Field", United States Army Corps of Engineers, using funds made available by Congress through the Civil Aeronautics Authority, constructed three 6,000-foot-long, hard-surface runways at the airport to accommodate army aircraft.  

In January 1943, Galveston AAFld. was officially activated had the 46th Bombardment Group (Light) flying A-20s in the anti-submarine role in the Gulf of Mexico until replaced by the 10th Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy), flying RM-37 Lockheed Venturas.  

The Field was primarily used for replacement crew gunnery training by the 407th Fighter-Bomber Group, with targets being towed to the gunnery range at nearby Oyster Bay. The installation cost $7 million and at its peak had some 2,500 personnel assigned. It was officially deactivated on November 15, 1945, with ownership reverting back to the City of Galveston.

As late as 1948, it was an active seaplane base per Sectional Aeronautical chart SA SAC O-5. The earliest reference to GLS being named Scholes Field is in 1943.

GLS is now a general aviation airport serving diverse aviation segments. GLS is operated and maintained by the City of Galveston, Texas.

Once served by Houston Metro Airlines and Braniff Airways, GLS's Master Plan considered the potential return of commercial airline service as well as the increasing trend of corporate aircraft and oil industry helicopter activity. In preparation for increased corporate activity, the ultimate plan considers the extension of the primary runway ( 17/35 )from 6001 x 150 ft. to 7,100 feet. Currently, it can accommodate most aircraft, up to a Boeing 767.

GLS is an Airport with 24 hour Air Traffic Control and an "A" ARFF Index. The 1,200-acre airport offers a terminal, 24 hour fixed base operator, 24 hour weather services, a U.S. Customs agent on call, and state-of-the-art navigational aids with precision approaches providing all-weather capabilities. It is a fairly popular fueling stop for transient military aircraft due to a Military Area of Operations in the Gulf of Mexico. It is also the destination airport for fixed wing ambulances tranfering patients to the Shriner's Burn Center.

Of the 220+ aircraft based at GLS, 50+ are helicopters belonging to Air Logistics, EVA, Evergreen, PHI, and other oil industry vendors.  

There are currently NO official spotting locations for GLS. I have never been run off while photographing aircraft at GLS, either on or off grounds.

Light general aviation aircraft, and the occasional bizjets frequent GLS.

The most frequent traffic is that of the helicopters that support the off shore petrochemical industry. Of the larger vendors:

AIR LOGISTICS flies Sikorsky S-76s, Hueys  

ERA flies Augusta A-119s, Eurocopter EC-135s, Sikorsky S-61s  

EVERGREEN flies Eurocopter AS-350s, Hueys, Sikorsky S-61s  

PHI (Petrolium Helicopters Inc.) flies Bell JetRangers, Messerschmidt BO-105s, Eurocopter EC-135s, Sikorsky S-76s,

* [http://www.houstonspotters.net/ Houston Spotters regional aviation spotters and photograper's webpage]