National Register Listing

Hangar 9

a.k.a. Edward H. White II Museum

Brooks Air Force Base Inner Circle Rd., San Antonio, TX

The hangar is the oldest existing aircraft hangar at any United States Military Base.

Hangar Nine, located at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, is probably the oldest existing aircraft hangar at any United States Military Base. During World War I the United States Government built Brooks Field to serve as a school for primary training for military aviators. Brooks Field is located southeast of San Antonio. It was designated by name December 5, 1917, and was first occupied for training on January 17, 198.

All primary training for the United States Air Corps was conducted at Brooks until 1928, when a second primary training center was established (at March Field, California). In 1931 all primary training was consolidated at the newly completed Randolph Field, to the north of San Antonio. Since the 1940s Brooks Field, now called Brooks Air Force Base, has been the home of the School of Aerospace Medicine.

The government constructed Hangar Nine in 1918, as one of sixteen Army Air Service hangars built during World War I, and for many years it was the center of much of the activity at Brooks Field. Today, it is the single existing example of such a World War I hangar.

Hangar Nine is the surviving installation of a complex at which many distinguished pilots began their flight training. Some of these men included Charles Lindbergh, first man to make a solo trans-Atlantic flight; Elwood Quesada, a pioneer in mid-flight refueling, who retired as a Lieutenant General and became: the chief administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency; Hoyt Vandenberg, Nathan Twining, Thomas D. White, and Curtis LeMay, who later became Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force

Among the more conspicuous instructors were: Claire Chennault, leader of the "Flying Tigers," who once was director of primary flying training; John Macready, who wrote the first two texts of flying instructions and also set an open cockpit altitude record of 40,800 feet; Russell Maughan, first pilot to make a "dawn to dusk" flight across the United States; Captain W.C. Ocker, first blind flight instructor; and Lieutenant Carl J. Crane, who wrote the world's first manual for instrument flying.

Many pilots trained at Brooks in the vicinity of Hangar Nine have become Senior Officers of Commercial Air Lines, and many more have become Airline Captains. Dozens of student flyers finished their military service wearing four stars.

Edward H. White, father of the astronaut, graduated from flying training in June, 1930, a few months before the birth of his son, Edward H. White II in San Antonio. Hangar Nine has been renamed the Edward H. White II Museum for its association with the White family. Ed White II was the first American to walk in space and one of the first astronauts to die, a victim of the flash fire in the Apollo space program.

In 1967 the State designated Hangar Nine a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Interested citizens of San Antonio raised the funds to restore the old hangar to its original condition. When this work is completed Hangar Nine will serve as a museum of early aviation history.

Local significance of the building:
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1970.