How North Texas Built a Global Gateway

The episode is hosted by O.K. Carter with co‑host Jock Bethune, a longtime narrator for American Airlines training films and a historian of the airport’s development. Carter and Bethune outline the decades long struggle between Dallas and Fort Worth that delayed the creation of a regional airport, beginning with early debates in 1920s and continued through years of civic competition.

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Welcome to the Arlington Archives, the podcast that dives deep into the stories that shaped the American dream. See, as Arlington celebrates 150 years of history and progress. We're bringing you the voices and legacies that make this city a cornerstone of Texas and a proud part of America's story. I'm your host, okay. Carter and the esteemed social media influencer and highly specialized historians of mind lift is today's co-host, Jock Bethune. He's recorded thousands of hours of narration for training films and videos for American Airlines pilots and attendants, other American eyes making him for many years the voice of American Airlines. Along the way, he also became highly knowledgeable about our topic today, DFW International History. Okay, welcome to our archives, Jack. Hey, honored to be here. Hey, before we before we get started, give us a 32nd. I said a little bit about you. Before we get started. Give me the 32nd elevator ever to talk about Jack Bethune. You already did it. I know, by the way, I saw we had a joke. I saw we had a Jack Bethune day in Arlington recently back on September 2nd of 2025. It was just thanking me for all the volunteer activities I did within the city, not for the city itself, but for organizations within the city. And I was just truly honored and to have a proclamation in my honor. I never would have even thought about it or expected I'm pretty sure. By the way, your mother didn't say, I think I'll call my son Jack. So this is probably a nickname. So what is actually your first name? John. Oh, I'm John Mackenzie Bethune. My my grandfather was from, the Inverness area of Scotland along Loch Ness. And they didn't have a monster when he was Okay, so, why is today's topic DFW international, important to Arlington? I'm going to say first, it's about the money. Well, mostly DFW contributes$78.3 billion annually to the North Texas economy directly or indirectly, and supports by the way, document, I know this more than 600,000 jobs. Now obviously that benefit is distributed throughout North Texas. But because of the proximity, a lot of it comes to Arlington, does it not? Right. Okay. Very much, very much. Okay. So let's back up. So I know you've, your knowledge about this. The story of DFW starts way back, doesn't it? starts way back in the 1920s when the concept of producing an airport for both Dallas and Fort Worth Yeah, both. Yeah. Both Dallas and Fort Worth were quick to grab the idea is is okay. 25 years ago, it was an all day wagon trip carriage trip from Dallas Fort Worth. Or vice versa. Then you get the train, then you get the interurban. It's still, couple of hours. You can take a plane. Even one of those early planes and be in a Chicago and, you know, half a day or or a day's flight, you can be in New York City or L.A., you can go across the country. It's a whole new world. So I would give credit to Dallas and Fort Worth, the leaders that we had back then. Both of them definitely knew that, that, whoever took advantage of aviation was going to be ahead of the game, didn't they? Exactly. But it didn't work out the way it was originally planned to work out for lots of Yeah, I guess. So, I'll just give a little history here, which is that although there's a sort of a friendly rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas right now, it wasn't always that friendly, was it? Right? Yeah. Now, Dallas fancied itself as, sort of a Mecca for high finance, as sort of the the New York of the West and, and, so and Fort Worth was Panther City, where the West began their about cattle there about, oil money, there about that sort of thing. So you have two different kind of stuff, but they're both a growing fast. And by the way, by when they started, when Dallas and Fort Worth started quibbling back and forth about who was going to control aviation, origin was still right in the middle, but, even by 1930, the town had maybe 3700 residents. So it's in the middle. It's not really a player in all this is sort of known for cotton gins for, for mineral water, and for something called the Baraka home for airing girls. It's the it's the state headquarters for that. So it's kind of not involved in it at all. So you get push, pull back and forth. And, and the leaders in Dallas want, they have Ernie and Ernie airport love Field. And they visualize it as being the future of aviation for the entire region. Do they not and not, of course, not everybody in town saw it that way. Did they? Well, what happened basically was that the two cities were going to put together a combined airport and I forget what it was called. And, Dallas decided not to do that. So then Fort Worth, under the leadership of Eamonn Carter, senior. Decided to on that site for the little small. Yeah. was originally called Amon Carter Yeah. Before that, it was a little private airport called midway, so. All right. Yeah. Midway airport. So. Yeah. So that field is booming. Fort Worth is being very upset about this. And the civic leader, Amon Carter, who is, Famous for actually penning the phrase where the West begins. By the way, you know what the motto, for Arlington was back in those days where east meets west so early in the game, Arlington figured out it was in the middle of middle of stuff. So anyway, they have huge rivalries. Yeah. Amon Carter, the legend would every now and then had to go to Dallas for something that he would refused to buy lunch in a restaurant there. And yeah. And he would take his lunch and lunch in a paper bag and, and, and consume it there just to avoid spending a nickel in for. So anyway, you were saying so they take were this was this little airport was. And by the way, just as a little side note, during World War Two, the government took it over. And then for brief while they had Arlington administer it and they and for a while and even then, that was way outside the city limits of Arlington. Then, just for a ways, for a while there, that was Arlington Municipal Airport. That didn't last very long. They didn't know, didn't last, didn't last long at all. So, Arlington was kind of a little that was about the extent of their involvement in that sort of thing. So you see, first, they built Amon Carter Field and then changed it. What, to great Greater Southwest International Airport. Yeah. Here's a good story for you. The command I've heard says, so when I was pitching this idea to some Fort Worth leaders, and he was showing them you would build this very close to the county line so you would be able to attract both Dallas riders and Fort Worth riders. And one of the people who was there looked at it and said to him, say Amen. There's not even North-South highway there. And Amen looks at the map and draws it, draws a line and says, well, there is now that was 360. So now if you had been a land investor, speculator in that building at that time, it would have paid you to start buying some property along a road that did not exist yet at all. So you could have it. You could have, prospered for the next 50 years. That so that's, nevertheless. So they decided to build a competing airport to Love Field. Carter Field, as you said. And then, great southwestern, great great South. And it had it had American and had Braniff and everything else. Yeah, airlines were were based there initially. It opened in 1953, but over time, because it was where it was located, it did not get to the traffic. What would happen? Flights would take off from Greater Southwest Airport, fly to Love Fields and then go to LaGuardia, or And, so that's crazy. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It's kind of like you can imagine this is Bridgette, sort of over over time, the traffic at Greater Southwest Airport diminished and diminished And the feds. The feds simply did not care for this, did it? Oh, I mean, there's there's there's too much traffic. Yeah. FAA, federal aviation authority. Was that what it's called back then? I think they've had a name change or two along the West. Yeah, yeah. So far so, eventually they decided eventually. Amazingly, both Dallas and Fort Worth ended up having to knuckle. Did you not come to a compromise? compromise. And create what originally was called Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport North of Greater Southwest Airport. I forget how many acres I remember. We used to have presentations that say that the upcoming DFW airport is bigger than the island of No. I, I should have looked at it, but I know it's quite an expansive area, and there was a bit of complaints. It was kind of interesting because you can't, in Texas, you can't annex. If you're a city, you can't annex property, you don't join. And so in order to annex it, you have to be an adjoining it right next to it. So, some little cities had to give up some territory, along, Colleyville and places like that for a little finger of Dallas. Come through. It's neat down. Touch the northern thing and then Fort Worth. So a couple little cities, Euless and Hurst, I think it might even had. But came out with this ribbon along the Trinity River corridor and they touched, where the bottom of the airport would be. Yeah. And then that, that the proximity then allowed them to, to, annex all this and of course, there's always people who don't want to do that. But pretty much I think most of the cities in the region, mid city, what we call the mid cities now, they were definitely in favor of that were they're not. Yeah. And the airport is actually in four different cities, grapevine, Euless, which are in Tarrant County, and then Coppell and Irving, which are in Dallas, Collin County. And that was part of the conference. Yeah. land available north of what at the time was Greater Southwest Airport to create a brand new airport with multiple runways, a whole different the circular terminals, which were very different from what most airports, Yeah. You know, and then, of course, DFW has its own governing board. I've never been quite clear on who appoints those. The people who run DFW. Is it the cities or the Dallas-Fort worth who points to. it's the cities combined that that do that. I did a lot of work. Outside of American Airlines for the airport board itself. Yeah, this would be a good time, by the way, just to stop very briefly, because American Airlines is such a critical part of that. If you give us a little American Airlines history, I know they date back to the 1920s as well. Right. Can you give us a quick overview? Well, starting over in Meacham Field. And then eventually we had Greater Southwest Airport. When I was hired by American Airlines in the late 60s, we were flying primarily in and out of Dallas Love Yeah, and American Airlines, much, much smaller and not the mega giant that it is now, a more, more family oriented business, where you didn't necessarily know everybody, but you knew a lot of people. And I came down as part of the the consolidation of flight training for pilots next door, what was already existing along what then was Watson Road, now 360, the Stewardess College, which opened in January of 1957 to train stewardesses as they were called at the time. And then in the around 1966, the decision was to consolidate training of pilots from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Fort Worth, DSW and build a brand new training center, which became known as The Flight Academy. And that's where I, spent my Yeah. And I guess you shoot out 360 and you get to is it past the airport freeway or this side of it? I can't remember where American Airlines headquarters is, where all this training takes place and the offices are okay. The training moved there in, in the 60s, the American Airlines corporate headquarters moved from 630 three Third Avenue in New York City down to this area. Originally leased some buildings, from LTV and Grand Prairie and then eventually built headquarters buildings here. But they came in 1979 to 1980. In that time frame is when the American Airlines headquarters came okay, so you've got Dallas Fort Worth Airport, then, and, and finally so the two cities that had to collaborate, the short working on 1959 is everyone started construction on 1969. They started construction in late 1969. They started they started they started working on it. And then, I was working on the paper when it opened, which is when that early 1970s, January 13th, 1974, American Airlines flight coming in from little Rock, was the very first airplane to landed at DFW airport, the new DFW airport. And what we had to do at American Airlines is in one day's time, take everything we had over Dallas Love Field and move it over to this brand new DFW Regional Airport and we did it. It wasn't easy, but we I bet you I bet you Dallas was not thrilled about that. You see that happen, I guess. By the way, Eamonn Carter was a major investor in American Airlines as well, was, you know, the board of directors. Yeah. So that's kind of one of, one of his. But he had his fingers and, and a lot of a lot of parts, a lot of pilots out there, a lot of a lot of things that are involved. So, I, I went out to the opening, had him Concorde flight for media people. I said, well, hot damn, we'll get on this. We'll get on this Concorde. We will go streaking through the stratosphere at supersonic speeds. We will break the sound barrier. And then and then and then, so we took off blue light about a three minute loop and came and landed again. Well, that's a dirge, you know. So at least I gotta say, I've been on the Concorde when there was still a Concorde around for you. 1973 when we had the official, yes. Yes, it was January 13th of 74 when the operation actually started. And they had a concept, you know, they're in circular terminal or semicircles. And the concept of the design was that and this is before all the security that we have today was you pull up and park right across from your gate Yeah. 34, whatever the number is. And they also had these big lounges holding areas for all the flights, which eventually did not work out because people wanted to go to the gate. They and didn't want to sit here and wait for, a whole different concept, which basically did not really work out. I yeah, one of the most blessed things I really got tired of going to the airport to meet this dignitary or that dignitary or whatever. I don't mind going to the airport, but you go. You got a part, then you go in, and then you go through the ticket gate, and then you wait outside. Their arrival, their arrival, area, and then you catch them. So then when the, when the airlines stop doing that and you can't go in there unless you have a ticket. Thank you. I don't have to go in there and do that anymore. They can meet me outside terminal C. Okay. So by the way, I think one of the main quandaries that people weren't used to around here weren't used to the complexities of airports. So a lot of people, when they're first arriving there, get lost, you know, because you go left to turn right and all that kind of stuff. So. So they had, some adventures in signage and also I don't, I don't think the people movers being used anymore. Originally they had a, an LTV design. I think people kind of, kind of a remote robotic, little subway kind of thing that was actually leased. Yeah. And, we've got the it's above the terminal. So that's that's a later, sometime. Yeah. So if we got more than the 60,000 600,000 jobs now, and we got$80 billion almost in economic impact, what do you think the future of aviation is going to be? Is it going to grow, or are we going to have giant larger aircraft, that, mean fewer flights? Because American Airlines has been very successful. But there've been a lot of airline companies that have come and gone, since even since DFW opened, Well, as far as sizes of airplanes, maybe, but we tried that way back in the early 70s with the 747, which in depending on the route structure that an airline had some it worked out to some level and did not work out to another level. But currently at DFW airport, we're starting a brand new terminal, terminal F, which is not going to be the the semi-circular format. It'll be kind of like a long rectangle and in two phases, and there's a lot of changes to the runways, etc.. The existing terminals like terminal A and terminal C have are in the process of being modified, some additional gates using a very modular way to construct sections of terminals. And their brand new, they got lots of windows. It's a whole different, whole different world. And eventually the airport is going to be really transformed into a lot more pleasant space to be in. yeah. And we're in the midst of a transformation into a basically what amounts to a global aviation center. I don't know, the exact ranking, but every time, last time I looked to DFW was third or fourth largest, in terms of actual, passenger, stuff, like you say, it's clearly one of the largest in the land area. But in terms of passengers, it's, third, third or fourth. So, an activity, that's whether you're going to heaven or you're going to hell. You have to stop Atlanta and Dallas and that's the the joke. So and seems to be that seems to be continuing more and also, don't you a fairly significant increase in, say, international business. Well, there's a lot of, a lot more international flights taking place out of DFW these days. American. We've just recently added some, routes back into our, our system, etc.. It's really there's a lot going to be going on, and this will keep growing and growing, and serving the whole area, including our wonderful city of Arlington I know. Of course, Arlington has more than 400,000 people. And, it's kind of odd. I think that really you get right down to it, it is much closer to DFW than either, Dallas-Fort worth are. And I think, one of the reasons that aren't had grown so much and you may or may not agree, is it just that proximity, to DFW international, you know, if you live in North Arlington, you're ten, 15 minutes away. Even if you live in the furthest southern, area of the city, you can still get there in probably 30 minutes or less. So it has, unless maybe except grapevine or you really have better access and almost any place. one thing grapevine looked out with this is not telling Arlington story, but grapevine. All the terminals at DFW airport are located within the city of grapevine, so they reap all the tax money that that comes to them. That's that I don't know if you get property taxes for that. So currently since it's quasi governmental, but you definitely have a lot of sales tax going through their sales tax. Yeah. One of the reasons good leadership and that funding of revenue from from the terminals at the airport goes to grapevine doesn't go to Euless, Coppell or Irving good, good for you. Good, good for them because, they have definitely had the most inconvenience. You know, you have I've had friends who live in great vans, and. It's okay. I love it here. Except for the 25 flights to go over my roof, you know, every day. So it gets to be kind of a noisy. So every upscale, I guess, has got a kind of downward. And as well there's not so and we're sort of getting redundant here. It looks to me like we can look for a future where instead of 600,000 jobs or 700,000 jobs instead of, you know, 70 billion, we're looking at, look close you on $100 billion and, and, economic good from that and, because there's a lot more than just access there is, you know, corporations make decisions based on, location and, easy access availability zones in Arlington has actually benefited from that. Our proximity to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, very much. Right. Well, thanks. Okay, John. Thank you. Appreciate it pretty much. John. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bethune. Here we now know more about the evolution of DFW or in that, you know, more than 99% of the metroplex. Thanks for listening to the Arlington Archives. And thank you, Jack, for being on the show. Appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this podcast for more stories. Historical photos, and ways of getting involved in Arlington's 150th anniversary, visit Arlington one 50.com and follow at City of Arlington on social media until next time, let's keep honoring our past and pave the way for what's next. The story of Oregon is still being written and you are part of it. So long.