AIRPORTS: Freight Goes First Class

A stretch of prairie north of Fort Worth seems an unlikely home for the “industrial hub of tomorrow.” Yet this is where Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot is constructing a 9,600-ft. runway that will carry mostly industrial products rather than human passengers. Perot and his son H. Ross Jr., 30, who heads the project, envision the Alliance Airport as the center of a 4,200-acre industrial park in which companies will manufacture products and distribute them by air freight.

Fort Worth has invested more than $75 million in the city-owned airport, and the Federal Aviation Administration has donated $31 million toward construction because it will help reduce congestion at other fields. The Perots, who donated 414 acres for the airport, plus $14 million, own nearly 17,000 acres nearby.