"Art of the Airport Tower" Fort Worth Alliance Airport

Carolyn Russo, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
November 10, 2015
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Carolyn Russo, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Texas, United States (AFW/KAFW)

"Alliance" refers to the public-private partnership of the three entities responsible for designing and developing Fort Worth Airport: the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the city of Fort Worth, and Ross Perot Jr.'s company Hillwood. It is the world's first 100 percent industrial airport—used for civil and military cargo, commercial, corporate, and other noncommercial flights. Situated on 485 hectares (1,198 acres), the airport's runway can accommodate the world's largest cargo planes. Albert Halff Associates designed the control tower, which was built in 1992. The cone-shaped feature, reminiscent of a bird's beak, hides the tower's microwave signal relay equipment.

The photograph is a part of Art of the Airport Tower, an exhibition that explores contemporary and historical air traffic control towers in the U.S. and around the world. 

Image by Carolyn Russo, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution