Building a high-capacity flight training school was a new concept in the early 1940s. The urgency of time and limited cost demanded creativity. Nationally known artist and architect, Millard Sheets, had been persuaded to quickly design one of the original primary cadet training fields in California. When Cal Aero Field in Chino opened, General “Hap” Arnold flew out to attend the festivities. Upon returning to Washington, he told his staff “that the one fellow who knew how to design air schools, was that guy out in California!”.1
The Southwest Airways leadership team reached out to Sheets to design their airfield, to be named “Thunderbird”. Using desert pastel colors and plant life, the base would eventually become known as the “Country Club” of the cadet training fields. Sheets creatively designed a complex of buildings, control tower, airplane hangars and landscaping, that when observed from the sky, was in the shape of a mythical Thunderbird. The building’s style might be described as Southwestern Ranch; all one story, everything painted in buff and pastels with brown trim. Rooms had concrete floors that could easily be cleaned, and screened windows and doors which helped ventilation. Buildings had swamp coolers to assist with the summer heat, and gas heating for the winter, with roofs heavily insulated.2 The Mess Hall had higher ceilings than the barracks, to assist in drawing the heat upward, as do many buildings in the Southwest. Its ceiling architecturally echoed the wooden beam vaulted ceilings of the hangers, just on a smaller scale. Outdoors, covered patio hallways were lined with wooden columns encircled with vines growing up to the roof lines. Trees and grass grew nearby to add shade and help create moister air. Even today, you can still see this beautiful architectural style in the restored Tower, and around the original Founder’s Hall.
But why the symbolism of a Thunderbird? Watch for next month’s “Flashback” for the continuing story of Thunderbird Field.
Images courtesy of University Archives collections at the Arizona State University Library.
1 “Millard Sheets Oral History”. Interviewed by George M. Goodwin. UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research. Tape IV, Side One. Dec. 4, 1976. One of Sheet’s most famous works to current college students is affectionately referred to as “Touchdown Jesus” (The Word of Life Mural) on the outside wall of the Hesburgh Library at Notre Dame University in Indiana https://50years.library.nd.edu/50milestones/11.shtml
2 “History of Sixth Army Air Forces Flying Training Detachment Thunderbird Field – Glendale, Arizona”. First Installment, October 1941 to December 7, 1941. Obtained from the Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell AFB. A2506 – 0654.
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