Fort Worth's First Flight

Fort Worth's first flier was also a tennis player. Roland Garros, a Frenchman, took off in a Blériot XI monoplane from the Driving Park racetrack on Thursday, January 12, 1911, in a strong, gusty wind. A crowd of about 17,000 watched him circle the field and then head out on a seven-mile cross-country flight at 1,200 feet. The Paris tennis stadium that hosts the French Open, Stade Roland-Garros, carries his name. A full-size replica of the Blériot stands in the park, about 600 feet west of the original site.

What the plaque says

Fort Worth's First Flight FORT WORTH'S FIRST FLIGHT IN DECEMBER 1903, THE WRIGHT BROTHERS ACHIEVED POWERED FLIGHT, BUT BY 1910, MOST PEOPLE STILL HAD NOT SEEN AN AIRPLANE. IN OCTOBER 1910, JOHN MOISANT OF CHICAGO FORMED A TOURING AERIAL DEMONSTRATION TEAM KNOWN AS THE MOISANT INTERNATIONAL AVIATORS. A GROUP OF AVIATION ENTHUSIASTS LED BY AMON G. CARTER, SR. PAID THE AVIATORS TO COME TO FORT WORTH. ON JANUARY 12, 1911, ROLAND GARROS OF THE MOISANT INTERNATIONAL AVIATORS, FLYING A BLERIOT XI, BECAME THE FIRST PERSON TO PERFORM A POWERED FLIGHT IN FORT WORTH. THE FLIGHT TOOK PLACE AT THE FORT WORTH DRIVING PARK, A RACETRACK NEAR CARROLL AND WEST SEVENTH STREETS. FROM THIS FIRST FLIGHT, FORT WORTH AND NORTH TEXAS DEVELOPED INTO AN AVIATION CENTER. ENCOURAGED BY AMON CARTER, BEN E. KEITH AND LOUIS J. WORTHAM, THE U.S. ARMY SERVICE CONSTRUCTED THREE WORLD WAR I PILOT TRAINING AIRFIELDS NEAR SAGINAW, BENBROOK AND EVERMAN BY OCTOBER 1917. THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS CANADA ALSO USED THE FIELDS FOR PILOT TRAINING DURING THE WINTER MONTHS. AFTER WORLD WAR I, EVERMAN FIELD BECAME FORT WORTH'S FIRST MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. HELIUM WAS DISCOVERED IN TEXAS DURING WORLD WAR I AND THE NAVY BUILT A LARGE EXTRACTION PLANT IN FORT WORTH. THE NAVY ALSO BUILT A DIRIGIBLE MOORING STATION NEARBY AND FROM 1924 TO 1929 FORT WORTH BECAME A STOP ON TRANSCONTINENTAL AIRSHIP FLIGHTS. DURING THE 1930s, FORT WORTH BECAME A FLIGHT-TRAINING CENTER FOR THE CIVILIAN PILOT TRAINING PROGRAM. CARTER NOT ONLY CONVINCED THE NAVY TO USE LAKE WORTH AS A SEAPLANE BASE, BUT WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN SECURING A LARGE DEFENSE PLANT TO BUILD B-24 BOMBERS DURING WORLD WAR II. THE SITE, KNOWN AS AIR FORCE PLANT #4, HAS BEEN IN CONTINUOUS USE SINCE 1942. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimbell Art Museum — 0.7 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 1.1 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 1.3 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 2.4 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.

More markers nearby

• Ahavath Sholom Hebrew Cemetery — 0.7 mi
• Royal Flying Corps — 0.8 mi
• Ormer Leslie Locklear — 0.8 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth — 0.8 mi