Features Strung

Manor Airport

After 40 years, Austin was outgrowing its cozy, convenient Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. By the 1970s it began to show.

In what is still Austin's worst air accident, a private plane with six people onboard crashed into a house at 916 E. 48th in April 1970, killing the young couple who lived there as well as all onboard the aircraft. The house was in a residential neighborhood on the approach to Mueller Airport, only a quarter-mile from the threshold of the longest runway. In 1974 the Citizens Airport Advisory Committee recommended closing the airport and moving it to Bergstrom Air Force Base on Austin's southeastern tip, but the Air Force denied the request.

In April 1975, Texas Monthly published an article on the state's most potentially dangerous airports. Austin was labeled "High Risk," the worst rating. According to the article, any trouble during landing or takeoff could send a plane onto I-35, the Capital Plaza Shopping Center, or the Morris Williams Golf Course.

R. Dixon Speas Associates was commissioned to find a suitable location for a new airport. In May 1979, they recommended a number of sites: one northeast of Pflugerville, one near Blue Goose and Giles Roads in East Travis County, and a 3,200-acre site just on the other side of Manor. The Manor location was also recommended by the city's airport task force five years later.

Many folks, however, were not interested in moving Mueller Airport. The airport was paid for and located in Central Austin, a short drive from downtown and UT. In January 1985, voters rejected moving the airport.

Despite the referendum, the momentum to move Mueller didn't slow. The airport task force recommended the Manor site again two years later, and in the November 1987 election, the tide had turned. It was official: The airport was moving to Manor.

Remember, this was the Eighties, and other changes were afoot. The Cold War was thawing, Communist governments were collapsing, and U.S. military bases were closing. In January 1990, Bergstrom was on the list as a possible closure. A year and a half later, it was announced that Bergstrom would be one of them. A new election was held.

May 1, 1993, marked the death of the Manor airport; 63% of voters approved $400 million in revenue bonds for what would become Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Six years and 23 days later, Austin-Bergstrom International opened to much fanfare.

Visiting the area of the Manor airport today, one can see the flatlands that drew the consultants to recommend the place. Today, it looks pretty much the same as it did 24 years ago. Some new homes and a subdivision under construction (about where the airport's driveway would have met Interstate 290) are just about the only signs of time passing.

Few people noticed the recent 10th anniversary of the death of Manor airport, but out at the crossing of Johnson Road and CR 973, one marker stands. It looks like a big bowling pin or sombrero but is actually a VOR antenna, guiding pilots flying to and over Austin. With a little imagination, it can serve as the memorial to the airport that almost was.