Major W.F. Long

Long's business life is a family tree of Texas airlines. A Braniff timeline says he founded Long and Harman, Inc., as a flight school in 1934, and that Long and Harman Air Lines flew Airmail Route AM15, 1,125 route miles across Texas, until Braniff bought it in December 1934; his school kept operating. The same source says he founded Essair in 1939, where the plaque says he acquired it during the war. Essair became Pioneer Airlines, which merged with Continental in 1955. Harding Lawrence, later Braniff's president, started under Long as an instructor in 1940.

What the plaque says

Major W.F. Long MISSOURI NATIVE WILLIAM FRANCIS "BILL" LONG WAS 17 WHEN HIS FAMILY MOVED TO TEXAS. DURING WORLD WAR I, HE WAS AN AERIAL OBSERVER AND PILOT IN THE 24TH AERO SQUADRON, FIRST ARMY OBSERVATION GROUP. AFTER THE WAR, HE ESTABLISHED SAN ANTONIO AVIATION AND MOTOR SCHOOL AT STINSON FIELD. IN 1925, HE BOUGHT 251 SURPLUS CURTISS AIRPLANES AND A HANGAR AT LOVE FIELD AND MOVED HIS FLIGHT TRAINING SCHOOL THERE AS DALLAS AVIATION SCHOOL AND AIR COLLEGE. NEVER IDLE, LONG, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS "MR. LOVE FIELD," BUILT A NEW AIRFIELD, CURTISS-WRIGHT FIELD, WITH PARTNERS IN 1929 AT GRAND PRAIRIE. IN 1939, LONG ATTENDED GEN. "HAP" ARNOLD'S WASHINGTON, D. C. BRIEFING ON THE USE OF CIVILIAN CONTRACT SCHOOLS TO TRAIN U. S. ARMY PILOT CADETS IN ANTICIPATION OF WORLD WAR II. LONG RECEIVED A CONTRACT AND THE PROGRAM'S SUCCESS LED TO A SECOND CONTRACT, FOR A SCHOOL AT THE REACTIVATED HICKS FIELD IN FORT WORTH AND FOR AN AIRPLANE MECHANICS TRAINING SCHOOL AT LOVE FIELD. LONG OPENED ANOTHER SCHOOL AT CURTIS FIELD IN BRADY IN MARCH 1941. ENGLAND ALSO SENT ITS ROYAL AIR FORCE (RAF) CADETS TO TRAIN IN THE U. S., CONTRACTING WITH LONG TO OPEN THE NO. 1 BRITISH FLYING TRAINING SCHOOL AT TERRELL. DURING THE WAR, LONG AND ASSOCIATES ACQUIRED ESSAIR AIRLINES WHICH PROVIDED AIRMAIL SERVICE FROM HOUSTON TO AMARILLO, WITH STOPS ACROSS TEXAS. RENAMED PIONEER AIRLINES IN 1946, THE CARRIER ATTESTED LONG'S BELIEF THAT SUCH FEEDER AIRLINES WOULD PROMOTE PASSENGER FLIGHTS WHEN IT EXPANDED TO DOZENS OF CITIES IN TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO. UNDER SIGNIFICANT PRESSURES OF TIME AND WARTIME SHORTAGES, LONG OPERATED FOUR SCHOOLS, TRAINING ABOUT ONE-TENTH OF U. S. ARMY AVIATORS AND ONE-THIRD OF RAF CADETS IN THE U. S. HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS GARNERED HIM HONORS FROM PRESIDENT HARRY S. TRUMAN AND KING GEORGE VI, AS WELL AS A PLACE IN TEXAS AVIATION HISTORY. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 0.5 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 18 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.

More markers nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School — 0.5 mi
• William Henry Burnett — 1.3 mi
• The American National Bank of Terrell — 1.8 mi
• Homesite of Gov. Oscar Branch Colquitt — 1.9 mi