Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport is a public airport six miles (10 km) east of downtown Amarillo, in Potter and Randall Counties, Texas, United States. The airport was renamed in 2003 after NASA astronaut and Amarillo native Rick Husband, who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in February of that year.HistoryPassenger airline serviceHarold English opened English Field in 1929. That year Transcontinental & Western Air began passenger airline service to Amarillo. In 1931, Amarillo was a stop on coast-to-coast service between Los Angeles and New York City operated by Transcontinental & Western Air with Ford Trimotor aircraft. The airline's timetable stated this transcontinental flight could be accomplished in 36 hours with "overnight hotel stops" being made in each direction on a routing of Los Angeles - Kingman, AZ - Winslow, AZ - Albuquerque - Amarillo - Wichita - Kansas City - St. Louis - Indianapolis - Columbus, OH - Pittsburgh - Philadelphia - New York City (via Newark Airport). Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA) eventually changed its name to Trans World Airlines which in turn continued to serve Amarillo for many years.
