History
The Airport started when Charles Hooks built a runway for his own personal use. His hobby eventually became a business, and he subsequently built a runway and a main terminal building. It was first opened for public use in the 1960s. Shortly after its opening, Hooks' son, David, was killed in the crash of a small plane that he was piloting under the supervision of a flight instructor. All four people on the plane were killed. David was about 16 years old at the time of his death. The airport's name was changed from Houston Northwest Airport to David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport in his memory.
Until the 1980s, the airport was run and maintained by Hooks, and his wife Irma. Upon the death of Mrs. Hooks, her daughter stepped in and helped with its operation.
In 1989, Charles Hooks retired and sold the airport to the Gill Family.
In 2009 a fire occurred at the airport. A man was burned, and several aircraft were destroyed.
On June 26, 2010, another fire occurred at the airport, destroying another large hangar. One helicopter and several aircraft components were destroyed.
In early 2010, Hooks Airport received a notable resident when the B-17G Flying Fortress 'Texas Raiders' was permanently moved from William P. Hobby Airport to a spacious hangar in the Tomball Jet Center as a cost-saving measure. 'Texas Raiders' will use Hooks Airport as her base of operations for the 2010 air show season and into the foreseeable future.
Read more about this topic: David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“... the history of the race, from infancy through its stages of barbarism, heathenism, civilization, and Christianity, is a process of suffering, as the lower principles of humanity are gradually subjected to the higher.”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)