Air War

Dallas and Fort Worth are only 30 miles apart--almost as close, one might say, as two tomcats in a shoe box--and this proximity has bred in citizens of both cities a splendid sense of mutual distrust. Nevertheless, back in 1941 when it became evident that the airports of both towns were getting outmoded, they joined forces to plan a huge, jointly owned field midway between the two cities. Then Dallas representatives made a horrible discovery: the field entrance was to be a mile and a half closer to Fort Worth than to Dallas. They walked out, and the plan fell through.

Fate intervened. During the war, the Navy graded the site, and built runways. This spelled O-P-P-O-R-T-U-N-I-T-Y to Fort Worth's Publisher Amon Carter. At his urging, Fort Worth took the site over, began converting it at tremendous expense into the Greater Fort Worth International Airport.

As it neared completion, American Airlines announced that it would move from Dallas' Love Field to Fort Worth's splendid terminal. Other airlines debated whether to follow suit. Though there was no real reason why Dallas air passengers could not use the new, safer Fort Worth facilities, few permitted themselves even a second of such treasonable thought. Dallas, its citizenry decided, must have a big airport too. The solution seemed simple: all they had to do was rip down houses in which hundreds of families live at present, subject other residential areas to the constant snarling of aircraft, and spend about $15 million. Love Field would then be comparable to Fort Worth's. Closer to town too. Last week Dallas citizens voted approval of a $12.5 million bond issue to get up the bulk of the money.

Could Fort Worth permit such a development without retaliating? It hardly seemed possible: simply by tearing out a few acres of houses too, and spending 15 or 20 million dollars more, Fort Worth could have not one but two big airports. No such proposal had yet been advanced, but it seemed only a question of time before both cities were bowling over houses and converting their sites to runways, The folks could always camp out in tents around the edges or just fly up to New York and settle down with all the other Texans in the Waldorf-Astoria.

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