Every day, more than 100 soldiers pass through DFW Airport on their way home for two weeks of well-deserved rest and recuperation. One flight of soldiers land there every day and volunteer greeters participate in the 'Welcome home a Hero' campaign by being at the airport each day to welcome them home.
DFW Airport is larger than the entire island of Manhattan! It covers 29.8 square miles. It is the second largest airport in the USA—Denver is in first place. DFW could contain New York's JFK, Chicago's O'Hare, and Los Angeles International airports with room to spare.
The airport covers parts of the cities of Coppell, Grapevine, Euless & Irving and the counties Dallas & Tarrant. DFW Airport has 40,000 parking spaces and has three DVORDME Doppler radar towers. The towers are named Maverick, Cowboy and Ranger.
The fossilized bones of a marine reptile, or plesiosaur, were found during the preliminary excavation of the Airport. They are now on display in the Airport's Central Utilities Plant.
The first landing of a supersonic Concorde in the United States occurred at DFW Airport in 1973 to commemorate the airport's completion. DFW Airport opened for commercial service on 13 January 1974. Space shuttle Atlantis was piggybacked into DFW on 16 May 1989, making it the first landing by a space shuttle at a commercial airport.
