Desert Rows

摘要

It was the forerunners of TWA (initially Transcontinental and Western Air - later Trans World Airlines) who put Kingman on the aviation map. Originally there were no fewer than three predecessors of today's airport. The first being Wallapai Field (aka Hualapai Field), with its single dirt runway, located close to the Mountain View cemetery, National Old Trails Highway (later to become the famous Route 66) and the Santa Fe Railroad. Established in 1918, on January 18,1919 it was chosen by the US Aerial Mail Service as a stop on the Chicago-Los Angeles route, which ran through Albuquerque and Wichita, although in practice it was seldom used as the shorter and more northerly routing via Salt Lake City and San Francisco was preferred. Local legend has it that two pilots had landed at the site during a storm, the first aviators to establish Kingman as a stopping point, but Wallapai proved too small and poorly located for the larger, heavier aircraft needed for the route and it was used only sporadically until 1929 when it was replaced by Berry Field and Port Kingman airfields.