![]() ![]() The reinforced concrete basement under the plaza was designed to be a secure area. It was also referred to as The Little Pentagon and the Roundagon. ![]() It had 500 windows, almost 20,000 cubic yards of concrete weighing nearly 1,500 tons, 760 tons of reinforced steel, and a 500-ton air conditioning system powerful enough to cool 170 averaged-sized homes. It had 123,210 square feet of floor space and an overall building diameter of 312 feet-slightly longer than a football field. The two-story, circular building has a large outdoor central plaza and was nicknamed the Doughnut. on In 1993, Bergstrom officially closed as an Air Force base and reopened to passenger service as Austin Bergstrom International Airport on May 23, 1999.īefore being renovated, the Hilton Austin Airport Hotel was the headquarters for Bergstrom Air Force Base. In 1979, the Concorde visited Bergstrom, and in 19 the Space Shuttles Columbia and Discovery circled the city aboard their carrier aircraft before staying overnight. During the 1960s, Air Force One was a frequent guest, flying President Lyndon Johnson between Washington and his Johnson City ranch. ![]() Renamed Bergstrom Air Force Base in December 1948, the base has hosted significant aviation events, including a 1955 Atlantic crossing of Austin-based fighter jets crews that pioneered aerial refueling techniques, flying directly from Sturgate, England in a record-setting 10 hours and 48 minutes. After the war, the base supported the Berlin Airlift. During WWII, the airbase was a training facility for crews of invasion gliders and twin-engine Douglas C-47 tow planes that participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. John August Earl Bergstrom, the first Austinite killed in WWII at Clark Field, Philippines. The name of the base was changed to Bergstrom Army Airfield in March 1943 in honor of Capt. Army established the Del Valle Army Air Base. In the 1890s, cowboys drove more than five million cattle and a million mustangs on the Chisholm Trail, through the airport land, up Congress Avenue past the Texas Capitol Building, and on to the stockyards in Kansas. ![]()
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