The Houston Endowment and Southwest Airlines have both approved major grants for the 1940 Air Terminal Museum. The Houston Endowment's grant is a matching grant. We are hard at work raising the money to match the Houston Endowment's generous grant and are optimistic that we will do so within the next few months.

We have refined our construction plan to better facilitate the entire restoration and museum project. Specifically, while we had previously planned to build museum and office space and museum-grade aircraft hangar space in the new Visitor Center Hangar, we have learned that we can fully restore the north wing of the Terminal itself and build a museum-grade hangar adjacent to it for less money. The restored north wing of the Terminal will house our rapidly growing museum collection, our gift shop and will serve as our base of operations as we complete fundraising and restore the rest of the Terminal. Restoring one wing of the Terminal building presents the tremendous benefit of actually beginning the preservation of the Terminal as well as restoring and using a substantial portion of it far earlier than we had originally envisioned. The adjacent museum-grade hangar will be home to the very rare Howard Hughes Sikorsky S-43 flying boat and a Douglas DC-3 airliner. Tribble & Stephens, Brand + Allen Architects, Historic Houston and the City of Houston are all working with us to make this happen as soon as possible.

The member and volunteer Bar-B-Q has been rescheduled for Saturday, October 27, 2001. The Bar-B-Q will begin at 5:00 p.m. at the West Houston Airport Terminal, 18000 Groschke, Houston Texas 77084. The Museum will provide Bar-B-Q and all the trimmings. We will hold drawings for fabulous door prizes, including airplane models, t-shirts and other surprises.

Please bring your own beverages and $5 per person to help defray the cost of the dinner. Please RSVP with the total number in your party by October 19, 2001 to Coats@1940AirTerminal.org.

The 1940 Air Terminal Museum has been named the Official Air Museum Sponsor for the Airliners International 2002, which is the national convention for the World Airline Historical Society. AI2002 will be attended by airline enthusiasts from around the world and will feature displays, hundreds of airline collectible vendors, tours and static displays. AI 2002 will be held on June 19-23, 2002, and will be located at the Sheraton - Intercontinental Airport.

The 1940 Air Terminal Museum will have a "traveling museum" display and a large merchandise and information booth at AI 2002. We are also assisting with planning and logistics for the event.

Our selection as the Official Air Museum Sponsor for a national convention before we have even opened demonstrates the 1940 Air Terminal Museum's tremendous potential as a tourism asset for the City.

As we move towards regularly bi-monthly publication of the Starliner we can always use more articles on Houston's aviation history, civil aviation history, vintage aircraft, and other topics of interest to our members. Please email submissions to Drew Coats at Coats@1940AirTerminal.org.

We have reached the financial break-even point for the Pops & Props Gala and we have confirmed that we will hold the event. However, in light of last week's tragedy, and its impact on the aviation community, we have decided to postpone the gala until mid-December or January. In the meantime, we will continue to sell tickets for individual and group reservations. Following is a brief description of the event as planned.

At 6:30 p.m., guests will arrive at Houston Executive Air Service via Telephone Road. The historic hangar will be transformed into an elegant scene from a bygone era. A beautifully restored Douglas DC-3 (or a similar vintage propliner) will be prominently positioned in one corner of the hangar. A Big Band will be seated beneath the DC-3's wing, playing hits from Glenn Miller and other 1940's big band leaders. Swing Dancers in period dress will dance on the dance floor in front of the band.

The hangar will be filled with round tables, each set with places for 10 guests and dressed in fine black and white linens and accented by an elegant floral arrangement. Long tables will line the hangar displaying Silent Auction items, such as aviation art, rides in vintage aircraft, tickets to local sporting and arts events, dinners at prominent restaurants, and air and space memorabilia. Hors d'Oeuvres will be served as guests visit the Silent Auction tables. At 7:15 p.m., guests will be seated and served an elegant dinner. Shortly after dessert and coffee are served, there will be a short presentation on the Project and an interesting special guest speaker. Following the presentation, guests will be invited to revisit the Silent Auction tables. The Big Band Leader will strike up the band and the Swing Dancers will encourage guests to dance into the evening.

Event Underwriter opportunities are still available for $5,000. Each Pops & Props Underwriter will receive a reserved table for ten, an invitation for a private tour of the Terminal, ten invitations to the Underwriters' Cocktail Reception with the evening's special guest speaker at 6:00 p.m. before other guests arrive, a recognition of gratitude in the Pops & Props Souvenir Program and, at the Underwriter's discretion, prominent recognition on a personalized banner to be displayed throughout the event. Table Sponsorships are still available for $1,940. Each Pops & Props Table Sponsor will receive a reserved table, a recognition of gratitude in the Pops & Props Souvenir Program and, at the Underwriter's discretion, prominent recognition on a Table Sponsors' Marquis to be displayed throughout the event. Individual tickets are available for $150 each. For more information, contact us at Coats@1940AirTerminal.org.

As development of the Museum accelerates this year, we anticipate a growing number of opportunities to acquire some truly unique artifacts. Some of these opportunities may entail taking volunteer teams on "missions" to secure these artifacts. Do you: (1) have the ability to travel on short notice? (2) have airline employee travel privileges? (3)own or have friends or family with access to a large truck or semi? (4)have an aviation or automotive maintenance background? (5) enjoy adventures with other aviation and history enthusiasts? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, please call or email Drew Coats at (281) 367-7732 or Coats@1940AirTerminal.org.

We have a wealth of volunteer opportunities coming up soon. As I mentioned in the last Starliner, we are implementing our educational outreach program this fall. Additionally, we need volunteers at the Airline Collectibles Show on October 20, 2001 at the Sheraton North near George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Other volunteer events are in the works.

in order to prepare for an ever increasing pace of volunteer programs, I will be leading a volunteer training and orientation workshop at the West Houston Airport Terminal, 18000 Groshke, on Saturday, October 6, beginning at 3:00 p.m. We will have a number of sign up sheets available at the workshop for a variety of volunteer opportunities, including educational outreach, special events, video oral history project and collections management. This workshop will immediately precede the Member & Volunteer Appreciation Bar-B-Q. Please RSVP for this training session and/or for the Bar-B-Q, by dropping an email to us at Coats@1940AirTerminal.org, or calling me at 281-482-9545.

We're pleased to announce that a small group has been formed to help in the restoration of the Weather Bureau's Weather Office that operated from the Air Terminal. Graden Harger, a former National Weather Service (NWS) employee, is joining me in leading our efforts.

Graden served as a Weather Bureau (what the NWS used to be called) forecaster and pilot briefer twice at the Hobby WB Office. Graden's vast knowledge and experiences will be shared with other members of the group including Marjorie Evans, John Freeman, Bill Read, and Gary Grice.

The Aviation Weather Group has established a tentative list of objectives to assist other members of the Air Terminal restoration project. A primary objective of the group is to assist Museum Curator TJ Zalar in researching the types of equipment, furniture, office layouts, weather chart displays, weather gathering equipment, types of products and services provided pilots and others, and communications equipment used to disseminate these vital pieces of information. Next, we'll want to acquire as many authentic pieces of equipment, furniture, and types of information provided the many users of the WB Weather Office. We want visitors to the Air Terminal to see and hear how weather information was vital to safe and efficient air operations. The group will focus on the two areas of operation provided by the WB. One is the Weather Office where pilots frequently attended in-person weather briefings (generally when the weather was marginal, conducted by Graden and his colleagues. At other times, pilots and operations dispatchers would call the forecasters. The other main area to restore is the observations deck, located on the wings of the terminal. Here, the WB located a variety of instruments to help them collect data that was used in the briefings and helped in making aviation forecasts for Hobby.

If you have any vintage weather equipment or charts which you would like to donate to the Museum, or if you would like to help us with this exciting part of the Project, please contact me at Brian.Heckman@usafa.af.mil.