The Scholes International Airport at Galveston

wealthy and the Hollywood elite. In 1938, the Air- port was briefly renamed Corrigan Airport, in honor of Galveston native Douglas “WrongWay”Corrigan, a skilled flyer and aircraft mechanic,who made both history and ignominy,when he flew an unauthorized transatlantic flight from NewYork to Ireland, and forever after claimed that he had merelymade a 26- hour,“navigational error,” in heavy cloud cover. DuringWorldWar II, the Airport was re-designated a United States ArmyAir Corps base and named Galveston ArmyAir Field.The 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 run- ways to accommodate army aircraft. It was officially deactivated on November 15, 1945,with ownership reverting to the City of Galveston.The existing ter- minal was completed in 1949 and renamed Scho- les Field in honor of Airport Manager and aviation pioneer, Bob Scholes. Today, the Scholes International Airport at Galves- ton, located close to the island’s central business district and many of its most popular tourist attrac- tions, is a city-owned and maintained, general avia- tion airport that leases hangar and ground space to various tenants. For many years, both before and after WWII, the Airport had many different commer- cial passenger airlines flying in and out, including the forerunners of Braniff, Southwest, and Continen- tal Airlines, all of which pulled out after the airline industry was deregulated in the late ‘70s. Yet, even with no commercial traffic, the Airport has remained self-sufficient over the ensuing years.“The City hasn’t put in any general revenue funds into the Airport for quite a long time,”notes Shahan.Today it splits its income between the GA