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Text Box: If you are an Observation Deck, Barnstormer or Travelair member of the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, it is time to renew your membership. If you have not yet had an opportunity to join the Museum, now is the perfect time! Museum memberships also make great gifts. Museum members not only enjoy all the benefits of belonging to the 1940 Air Terminal Text Box: Museum, and the satisfaction of playing an important role in helping to save and restore the Terminal, any individual, company or organization which joins the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, or renews or upgrades an existing membership, between April 1, 2002 and March 31, 2003, or became a lifetime member previously, will be entered in our 2002 Membership Contest. Text Box: The contest prizes will be two roundtrip tickets to your choice of London, England or Honolulu, Hawaii on Continental Airlines and two tickets to any destination served by Southwest Airlines. The higher your level of membership, the more chances you have to win. Some airline restrictions and conditions apply. The contest offer is void where prohibited by law. Text Box: Museum Members will win a trip of a lifetime! Text Box: Gas Hopper by T.J. Zalar Text Box: Historic Lockheed Lodestar donated to Museum Text Box: On December 27, 2002, Paul F. Barnhart, Sr., through his company Twin Air, Inc., donated Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar N31G to the Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society. The Lodestar is a quintessential example of business aviation history. It has been in continuous service as a business aircraft since the late 1940s. The Text Box: Page # Text Box: Volume 4, Issue 1 Text Box: Museum member Ralph Hall remembers during his high school years in the fifties his brother Ken and he worked for the Will Rogers Airport in Oklahoma City driving a gasoline truck. In May 1993, Ken took a reminiscing flight over the airport and spotted a lump of rust in an adjacent field, which looked strangely like an old truck. After verifying it was exactly the same truck the boys had worked with, Ken enthusiastically burst into the airport manager’s office and announced that he needed the rusted hulk that was in the field. Ken managed to horse-trade the airport manager out of the rusting hulk for a mere Text Box: $100! A deal that proved beneficial to both parties. Plans to restore the truck began, but several months later Ken was involved in an automobile accident that ultimately proved fatal. Before passing however, he asked brother Ralph to complete the project. In December, Ralph and his brother-in-law Terry Savage trailered the project to Houston where the restoration continued. After three years the 1950 Dodge “Gashopper” was completed. It is one of the finest restoration efforts that many enthusiasts have seen. As specialized as the little truck is, Ralph Hall managed to find the correct parts and install them Text Box: as Dodge and Columbian Steel Tank Company did over 50 years ago. It is one of only twelve that was built in October, 1949, and converted by Columbian where the truck was fitted by hand with the necessary gasoline accoutrements including the tank, pumps, piping, meter system, seat and floorboards. Since the truck was completed, it has been referenced in several magazine articles, and has won numerous “Best of Show” awards, most notably the prestigious international, annual Chrysler Cup Award, and the Autorama annual show Text Box: Lodestar is in excellent mechanical condition, is licensed and airworthy. The Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society will preserve the Lodestar in airworthy condition and display and operate it as the centerpiece of the 1940 Air Terminal Museum’s business aviation collection. Our Lodestar was built as a C-60A and delivered Text Box: to the USAAF on December 22, 1942, and flew as an airliner and executive transport. Our Lodestar features many of the popular Dee Howard executive aircraft modifications, including panoramic windows, new tail cone and wingtips and nose. Text Box: award in Houston, Texas. The “Gashopper” is truly a piece of our aviation heritage that few of us would have remembered had it not been for the enthusiasm, perseverance and pure love for aviation of Ken and Ralph Hall. I am grateful for their contribution, and dedication, ingenuity and love of aviation for helping preserve this piece of history.
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