For the past few days the airport has hosted one of history’s most famous airplanes: a B17 Flying Fortress. The Liberty Bell is one of only a handful of B17s that still fly. This Saturday, August 28, the Liberty Bell is open for tours at the airport’s General Aviation Complex. More information is available from the Liberty Foundation.
Liberty Belle at Springfield-Branson National Airport
Art Deco design with Varga inspired femininity
This morning the airport community gathered to dedicate the airport’s new fire station. It’s only the second fire station in the airport’s 63 year history. It replaces the one located next to the old terminal. That old station has served since the mid-1960s.
The new building supports up to five fire trucks, as opposed to three at the old fire house, and its location is more centralized. This central location should reduce emergency response times. Built at a cost of $4.5 million, the new station should serve well into the mid-21st Century. While the new fire station is a great thing, it’s important to remember that it means nothing without the selfless, dedicated individuals who work there: the aircraft rescue firefighters (ARFF).
Our airport has 17 full time ARFF members. That’s the largest ARFF staff in Southwest Missouri. Let us not forget their great concern for others, or their willingness to help all souls in need. Let’s not forget that when called to duty, they have the courage to face and conquer fears that would defeat many.
In the first photo Gary Cyr, airport director, and Robert Spence, chair of the airport board, uncouple the ceremonial fire hose. Rather that cut a ribbon, it’s tradition to open a new fire house with a hose uncoupling.
The second photo: our Aircraft Rescue Firefighters.
In the third photo Kevin Binam, chaplin of the Springfield Fire Department, delivers a prayer for firefighters and a blessing for the fire house.
In the fourth photo the airport community gathers for the dedication.
In the fifth photo Gary Cyr and Robert Spence unveil the dedication plaque.
This wonderful image appeared in the Springfield News & Leader on November 15, 1953. The plane is the venerable DC-3. The colonial style building is the first terminal. The story accompanying the photo is a detailed account of the airport’s first eight years of existence.
Here’s how the story described the airport’s financial situation: “…our airport is a pocket sized port compared with the mammoth fields like Chicago’s Midway, or Boston’s Logan or New York’s Idlewild. Yet if our airport must be termed small, it can also be called efficient and distinctive. It’s distinctive because it is in the black, without the backbone of direct tax support. It’s in the black because it is efficient.”
In the years since 1953, many things have changed. The first terminal is gone and DC-3s are seen mainly in museums and air shows. One thing hasn’t changed—our airport still operates efficiently and in the black, “without the backbone of direct tax support.”
By the way, the reporter who wrote the story still works for the paper: Hank Billings.
