Mueller Airport

Robert Mueller Municipal Airport (1930–1999, "Miller") was the first civilian airport built in Austin, Texas, United States. It was located a few miles northeast of downtown Austin. It was replaced as Greater Austin's main airport by the Austin–Bergstrom International Airport, which is located on the site of the former Bergstrom Air Force Base. The airport was named after Robert Mueller, a city commissioner who died in office in January 1927. Robert Mueller Municipal Airport was identified with the airport code AUS, which was reassigned to Austin–Bergstrom International Airport in 1999.

History

Austin voters passed a bond issue to fund a municipal airport in May 1928. The airport was constructed four miles northeast of downtown on what was then the edge of the city. A 1,000-foot runway and small terminal were built on a 175-acre site. The airport began operations on October 14, 1930. It was named after Robert Mueller, a city commissioner who had died in office in January 1927. Passenger flights were available from the beginning; Texas Air Transport had begun service to Austin in 1929, initially flying into a privately owned airfield. The seat of the state government and home of the University of Texas at Austin, the city soon attracted more flights. By 1931, Mueller Airport was served by three airlines. A second runway was added in 1937.

During World War II, the airport was busy. Due to congestion at Del Valle Army Air Base, which had opened southeast of downtown Austin in 1942, some trainees practiced landing Douglas C-47s at Mueller. Air traffic also included commercial flights, private pilots, and students in the Civilian Pilot Training Program at the University of Texas. In 1942, a building that was originally intended for a flying school was repurposed as the new passenger terminal, and the airport's first air traffic control tower was built atop it.

Expansions

In the 1950s, airport traffic increased as the city grew and more people traveled by air, putting a strain on the terminal. In addition, Mueller needed longer runways to handle heavier and faster aircraft like the Douglas DC-4. Therefore, officials initiated an expansion project. The main runway was lengthened and equipped with new lighting, and a new passenger terminal and control tower were built. The tower was known for its alternating light-blue and dark-blue porcelain panels. The terminal opened in April 1961. The following month, the two structures were dedicated in a ceremony attended by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Austin mayor Lester Palmer.

The April 1957, OAG lists 33 weekday departures on three airlines: fifteen on Braniff International Airways, ten on Trans-Texas Airways (''TTa'') and eight on Continental Airlines. Nonstop flights did not reach beyond San Antonio, San Angelo, Dallas Love Field or Houston Hobby Airport. The first scheduled nonstop beyond Texas was a Braniff Boeing 727 to Washington Dulles Airport in 1968; that flight lasted until 1980. It was the only nonstop out of the state until Braniff tried a Chicago O'Hare Airport nonstop in 1978.

The jet age arrived in Austin in April 1965 when Braniff International introduced BAC One-Elevens on its flight to Amarillo via Dallas and Lubbock. Two years later, Browning Aerial Service, a fixed-base operator at Mueller, started a charter flight to Marfa as a faster way for employees of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas to reach the McDonald Observatory. Three aviation units of the Texas National Guard shifted to Mueller from Camp Mabry in 1970.

In the 1970s, problems with Mueller led the city to contemplate building a new airport. Mueller was surrounded by housing and businesses, and plane crashes had occurred in the vicinity. The facility was also becoming congested, and its airspace overlapped with that of the air base, now known as Bergstrom Air Force Base. Where to relocate the aging Mueller would become a perennial issue in Austin politics.

A series of expansions took place. A project completed in 1976 included jetways, a larger baggage claim, and a second instrument landing system. Five gates were added in 1983. In 1990, officials unveiled a new section of the terminal that provided four more gates and extra ticket counters. A new air-cargo facility was erected as well.

Passenger counts rose as a result of airline deregulation and the growth of Austin's high-tech economy. As of 1979, the airport was served by nine carriers that flew to eleven cities, including two outside Texas (Atlanta and Washington, D.C.).http://www.departedflights.com, Nov. 15, 1979 Official Airline Guide A commuter carrier named Conquest Airlines moved its headquarters from Beaumont to Austin in 1989. The airline linked its hub at Mueller to five destinations in Texas as of 1993.

In August 1980, Hurricane Allen gave rise to a tornado that struck Mueller, destroying hangars and aircraft of the fixed-based operator Ragsdale Aviation. The passenger terminal was unaffected, and no one was killed.

Mueller's longest runway was long, and by the late 1990s the passenger terminal was at full capacity with 16 gates.

For a number of years, the Texas Army National Guard had facilities at the airport.

Closure and replacement

Officials were planning to relocate the airport to Manor when the Department of Defense announced in 1990 that it advised closing Bergstrom Air Force Base, opening another possibility. The closure was approved in 1991. In 1993, Austin residents voted to convert the base into the city's new civilian airport. Bergstrom ceased operations as an active base that year and as a reserve base in 1996. Work on the new facility commenced in 1995. The runway was returned to serviceable condition. Buildings at the site were sold or demolished, and a terminal building, second runway, and traffic and parking infrastructure were built in their place.

Robert Mueller Municipal Airport's commercial service ended on 21 May 1999, replaced by the new Austin-Bergstrom International Airport; while general aviation activities at Mueller continued through 22 June 1999.

Redevelopment as Mueller community

The of land that once housed the airport sat vacant and unused for more than half a decade until the city approved a development plan. The new community of Mueller broke ground in 2007 and was expected to take at least ten years to be fully developed.

The airport's control tower has been preserved and restored in response to the local community's desire to keep the iconic 1961 structure. The view of the Texas State Capitol from the base of the tower became one of the Capitol View Corridors protected under state and local law from obstruction by tall buildings in 1983, though redevelopment of the Mueller subdivision is exempt from the regulation.

Robert Mueller Municipal Airport also left behind about 20 acres and 10,000 square feet of hangar buildings that have been converted into sound stages and renamed Austin Studios. It is the home to several Austin-based film and production companies such as Austin Film Society, Rooster Teeth, and Robert Rodriguez's production company, Troublemaker Studios.

Annual traffic

References

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External links

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Mueller Master Developer SiteAirport diagram for April 1986

{{Authority control

Defunct airports in Texas
Transportation in Austin, Texas
1999 disestablishments in Texas
1930 establishments in Texas
Airports established in 1930
Airports disestablished in 1999
Airports in Greater Austin