The Aggie Story Behind Easterwood Airport

Any College Station resident knows that driving down Harvey Mitchell Parkway South guarantees a picturesque view of planes taking off from and landing at Easterwood Airport. For 85 years, the airport has served as Aggieland’s connection to the rest of the world by air.

But its proximity to Texas A&M University isn’t the airport’s only Aggie connections. Owned by The Texas A&M University System, Easterwood Airport boasts the name of a distinguished former student and aviator. And through its research facilities and emergency trainings, the airport continues to provide Aggies with endless opportunities to fly high.
 

Flying High

Long before his name became synonymous with aviation in College Station, Lt. Jesse Easterwood, Class of 1909, was just a boy growing up in the small Texas town of Wills Point. In 1905, he enrolled in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, where he joined the B Company Infantry and was an outfielder on the Aggie baseball team.
 

An Airfield Takes Flight

But that was far from the end of Easterwood’s legacy. The Aggie’s life had left a lasting impact on his high school friend, Gibb Gilchrist, who became dean of Texas A&M’s then-School of Engineering in 1937 and helped establish the school’s Department of Aeronautical Engineering.

But the dean’s hopes for Texas A&M aimed higher. He envisioned a flight-training program for the college and in 1939 met with officers of the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) to initiate the funding of an airport for Texas A&M. Before the airport was officially established, Germany invaded Poland and a second world war loomed, bringing with it the need to train more civilian pilots. In October 1939, the CAA notified Texas A&M that it would house one of the Civilian Pilot Training Program locations that was focused on funding ground school and flight training among different colleges and universities, including Texas A&M. But Aggieland was missing just one core component for this program to proceed: an airfield.

Construction soon began in early 1940 on what was then a grass field, which soon transformed into a true training facility complete with concrete runways. When the time came to name the new airfield, Gilchrist knew there was no better namesake than Easterwood, Aggieland’s early expert aviator. On May 22, 1941, the new airfield was dedicated, forever cementing Easterwood’s sky-high legacy.
 

Taking Research to New Heights

Today, Easterwood Airport offers daily commercial flights to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and is the main airport for all Texas A&M operations. But beyond connecting College Station by air, Easterwood expands upon Gilchrist’s original vision of a training facility by providing a space for leading research in engineering fields and beyond.
 

Take, for instance, the Department of Aerospace Engineering’s Land, Air and Space Robotics Laboratory that seeks to solve problems in astrodynamics and robotics and is affiliated with NASA and the Air Force Research Lab, or the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center housed on airport grounds that conducts academic and commercial research in nuclear fields. And every year, thousands of emergency responders receive hands-on training at the airport through the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service’s fire training opportunities.

Then there’s the Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel. Currently undergoing revitalization, this subsonic wind tunnel has been used for everything from undergraduate education to commercial tests since it opened in 1961. “This facility is critical to maintaining U.S. leadership in aerospace and energy innovation, supporting both civilian and military research and development,” noted Dr. Abraham Atte, assistant professor of aerospace engineering.
 

Through the years, the wind tunnel has tested the aerodynamics of designs for jets, golf clubs, city landscapes, rocket boosters, race cars and more. NASA has regularly partnered with the wind tunnel, and in 1999, the facility even welcomed Lance Armstrong for bicycle testing.

By enabling pioneering research like this, Easterwood Airport will continue to contribute to Texas A&M’s engineering legacy by helping the university, like its namesake, aim ever higher.