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Tulsa International
Airport
This airport has special significance to me. I grew up in the city and my
love of commercial aviation began here. TUL is a noteable airport in the
relm of aircraft manufacturing and maintenance. Since 1946, it has been
the hub of American Airline's maintenance operation. In 1959, American built
the first purpose built maintenance jet base. At one time, the original
American Airlines Museum was located on the lower level. It was also home
to manufacturing for Boeing and Rockwell for the Space Shuttle. From a commercial
standpoint, it's a spacious, attractive facility given the minimal traffic.
TUL remains very similar to its mid 1960s design-2 concourses in a split
level configuration. It has a unique layout with baggage claim and arrivals
on the upper level and departures on the lower level. Though TUL has a very
typical mix of traffic for a city of its size, its not uncommon to see unusual
airliners from around the world due to AA and other maintenance operations.
The runways can support aircraft such as the Concorde which visited here,
as well as 747s. I remember the Space Shuttle 747 Transporter was a common
visitor here for maintenance.
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Southwest Airlines Gate
TUL was one of Southwest's 5 original destinations outside of Texas with
service commencing in 1980. Southwest is the #1 carrier in terms of traffic.
Southwest serves Phoenix, Houston Hobby, Dallas Love, and Kansas City from
TUL. |
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American Airlines Gate
AA is the #2 carrier at TUL in terms of traffic. AA serves the DFW and Chicago
ORD hubs from here. |
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Northwest Airlines Gate
NWA serves Minneapolis and Memphis nonstop from Tul using DC-9s and RJs. |
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ATC Tower
This tower dates back to the 1960s terminal and continues in service today. |
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Billy Parker's plane
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Great Plains Airlines
Ticket Counter
GPA, based in
Tulsa Oklahoma flew a fleet of Doriner 328 and 728 jets from 2002-2003.
The airline offered a high degree of service with Krispy Kreme donuts on
morning flights, yum! Unfortunately, the hostile enviorment it launched
in killed the airline off as it reached its 2nd birthday. |
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American Airlines MD-80
at gate
In spite of its
maintenance HQ being located in Tulsa, AA only serves DFW and Chicago from
Tulsa. MD80s, 737s, and an occassional 757 are the mainline order of the
day complimented by RJ equipment. |
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Gate
52 & Concourse B
There are a number of unused gates at TUL as traffic has
declined and airlines have pulled out. This was last used by TWA. This gate
has the original 1960s era wall treatment. |
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TUL scale model
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New Facade
The terminal is
undergoing an external facelift as it is visually virtually unchanged from
when it was built nearly 40 years ago. |
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United Express CRJ-200
UA serves Tulsa from its Denver and Chicago hubs using a split of 737s and
RJs. |
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Continental Express
EMB-145
CO was the launch customer for the EMB, dating back to 1995. CO serves Houston
and Newark from Tulsa. The RJ EWR-TUL is a loooong flight, believe me! |
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American Airlines Boeing
737 and 757
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American Airlines Boeing
757
As of 2006, AA operated one daily 757 flight to and from Tulsa each day,
to DFW. This allows 757s to be cycled in and out for maintenance without
a ferry flight. The 757 is the largest regularly scheduled visitor to
TUL. |
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American Eagle CRJ-200
Eagle serves DFW and ORD from TUL alongside mainline service. Not the
Eagle's heavily composite fuselage is painted unlike the rest of the buffed
silver skin fleet. |
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 Northwest
Airlines Douglas DC-10-40
TUL is the final resting place for some of the last NWA DC-10s. NWA retired
its last DC-10s in January 2007, selling them off to ATA and Omni. These
high time 10s spent their entire career with Northwest. Their last scheduled
route was MSP-HNL.Two of these went to Omni, one as parted out. |
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TUL Airside Operations
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American Airlines
Boeing 727-100 "AstroJet"
In the rental car concourse
is an excellent model case. |
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Frontier Airlines Boeing
737-200 Sal Bass livery |
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AstroJet model |
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TUL Aerial |
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American Airlines
Boeing Maintenance Hanger
AA is Tulsa's largest employer.
This is just one of the hangers used in this full-service Jetbase. |
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