"Kelly No. 2" Flight Line

Kelly's later history ran far past the training years. In 1927 the Academy Award-winning film Wings was shot at the base. During World War II women, nicknamed the "Kelly Katies," held more than a quarter of its jobs, doing sheet metal work and instrument repair. Kelly became a supply and repair depot, and to service bombers and the huge C-5 transport it built a million-square-foot hangar, the largest structure in the world without center columns. In 1995 the base closure commission recommended closing it, and Kelly, long San Antonio's largest single employer, shut in 2001.

What the plaque says

"Kelly No. 2" Flight Line In November 1916, Maj. Benjamin Foulois of the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army's Signal Corps chose a tract of land approximately three-fourths of a mile to the southeast of this spot to serve as a flying field for the Army Aviation Corps. In 1917, the site was named Camp Kelly and later Kelly Field in honor of Lt. George E.M. Kelly, who in 1911 had become the first American aviator to lose his life while piloting a military aircraft. Activities at the camp included both flight training and aircraft maintenance. In September 1917, Kelly Field's training activities moved north to this area, called "Kelly No. 2" to distinguish it from the original field. The new flight line, extending 125 yards east and 2400 yards west of this site, consisted of numerous hangars, warehouses, barracks, repair shops, classrooms, and maintenance buildings. "Kelly No. 2" retained its training function from 1917 through 1942. Its Air Corps Advanced Flying School produced many prominent American aviators, including Charles Lindbergh and Claire Chennault. In 1955, the advent of new and larger aircraft prompted the extension of the existing runway, this necessitating the demolition of the old "Kelly No. 2" flight line. (1986)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Concepción — 5.0 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.
• King William Historic District — 5.2 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 5.3 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 5.5 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.

More markers nearby

• Station "X" — 0.3 mi
• Lydia Mendoza — 2.6 mi
• Moses Lapham — 2.6 mi
• Our Lady of the Lake University — 3.4 mi