FORT WORTH -- On a windy January day in 1911, Frenchman Roland Garros took flight in a Bleriot XI monoplane from a Fort Worth racetrack.
Nearly 17,000 local residents flocked to the track, which was located behind what is now Montgomery Plaza on West Seventh Street, to watch the city's first-ever powered flight. The French aviator was a member of the Moisant International Aviators, a touring group of French and American pilots.On Saturday, 102 years later, the Veterans Memorial Air Park hosted a First Flight Day celebration across from the plaza to commemorate Fort Worth's birth of aviation."This is what started it all," said Jim Hodgson, executive director of the park. "This event sparked this area's interest in aviation."Attendees launched colorful balloons and browsed old black-and-white photos of the first flight before rain caused the event to end early."I am always discovering new things about Fort Worth," said Valerie Lederle, a West Side resident who attended Saturday. "I love the history of this city."More plans are in the works to commemorate the first flight. A marker from the Texas Historical Commission will be installed in a city-owned field at the corner of Carroll and Mercedes streets near Montgomery Plaza. The organization is working with the city to name the piece of land "First Flight Park."The group also is raising money to purchase a Travel Air 5000, which was the first airplane owned by civic booster and Star-Telegram publisher Amon Carter. The plane is now privately owned in Texas."That's a piece of aviation history that needs to come home," Hodgson said. "It is truly iconic."Garros, who was born on France's Indian Ocean island of Reunion, became an early fighter pilot in World War I. He was shot down and captured -- either by German soldiers on bicycles or horseback -- but escaped from a POW camp and resumed flying combat missions, according to the website www.greatwar.co.uk.The first Allied pilot to use a mounted machine gun that fired through the propeller, Garros had four confirmed victories and claimed five, prompting a U.S. newspaper to call him an "ace," which became the term for flyers with five or more kills. But he had failed to destroy his plane before his April 1915 capture.Garros himself was killed on Oct. 5, 1918, a day before his 30th birthday and close to the end of the conflict. The tennis stadium where the French Open is held was later named after Garros, as was the airport on La Reunion.Sarah Bahari, 817-390-7056Twitter: @sarahbfwHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
