Tradewind Airport Museum opens to the public

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The Tradewind Airport Museum has officially opened to the public.

The museum features the Panhandle’s history with aviation and NASA. It is located across from Shelby’s Diner and includes the history of Tradewind’s past and astronauts from the Panhandle.

The museum shares the history of the three different owners of the airport, women in aviation, and the five astronauts from the Panhandle. Those astronauts were from Wheeler, Hereford, Lubbock and Amarillo.

Museum Director David Strait said the museum is different from most.

“The museum is so different than most museums. You see the history of Amarillo in aviation. It’s not a mom-and-pop airport anymore. It’s a business airport, and some of the most interesting people in the world come here,” said David Strait.

The museum is covered wall-to-wall with history and has hand-made models of different aircraft.

The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is free to visit, but the museum accepts donations.

The director said they wanted to share and help teach the history of aviation from all sides.

“So we started putting pictures of women in aviation, and the first one starts in 1914. A French woman pilot who got her pilot’s license armed up to today’s astronauts,” Strait said.

One tie to Amarillo is that visitors can learn about Rick Husband and Paul Lockhart’s connection to the Tradewind Airport.

Museum Manager Judy Strait said both astronauts trained to fly at the airport.

“The two astronauts from Amarillo are Rick Husband and Paul Lockhart. One went to Emeril High, one went to Tascosa. They both learned how to fly airplanes at Tradewind Airport,” said Judy Strait.

Judy Strait said it’s important to her to teach the Panhandle about this history, and the museum’s doors are open to the public.

“It’s knowledge. And we’ve got quite a bit of information on Tradewind Airport, too, that’s interesting. It’s been here for 80 years and it’s only had three owners. So it’s been pretty successful,” said Judy Strait.