Fairmont Army Airfield
Encyclopedia
Fairmont State Airfield is a public use airport
located three nautical miles (6 km) south of the central business district
of Fairmont, in Fillmore County
, Nebraska
, United States
. It is owned by the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics. The airport serves the general aviation
community, with no scheduled commercial airline service.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier
for the FAA and IATA
, this airport is assigned FMZ by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.
as a military airfield.
It was one of eleven training airfields built in Nebraska during World War II
. Shortly after construction began, a railroad spur was built from Fairmont to the base site to haul materials for the construction. Approximately 1,000 laborers were hired to construct the base, and the small towns of Geneva (pop. 1,888) and Fairmont (pop. 800) were hard pressed to find housing for the workers. Early in the construction, the facility was referred to as the Fairmont Satellite Airfield, and was designated a satellite of the Topeka Army Air Base in Kansas
, however by early 1943, the name was changed to the Fairmont Army Airfield, as its mission was determined to be a training facility for heavy bomber groups. The first military personnel arrived in November 1942
The airfield was under the command of Second Air Force
Headquarters, Colorado Springs, Colorado
. The 241st Army Air Force Base Unit was the Operational Training Unit at the airfield. It was assigned to the 15th Bombardment Training Wing (September 1943 - March 1944), then transferred to the 17th Bombardment Training Wing in March 1944 for B-29 training. The 511th Army Air Force Base Unit commanded the support elements at Fairmont as part of Air Technical Service Command.
Fairmont Army Airfield was a training installation for twenty-seven bombardment squadrons. Complete engine and airframe repairs were available for Consolidated B-24 Liberator and eventually in the more technologically advanced Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers at the five hangars on the field. Extensive concrete runways and other structures were built. A 350 bed hospital served personnel from Fairmont along with Harvard AAF and Bruning AAF
. The cantonment area provided quarters for nearly 6,000 officers and enlisted men.
Known units that trained at Fairmont AAF were:
In September 1944 Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets
visited Fairmont and selected the 393d Bombardment Squadron of the 504th to join the 509th Composite Group
at Wendover AAF
, Utah
. This group dropped both atomic bombs
on Japan
.
The base was inactivated on 31 December 1945. In the spring of 1946, the War Assets Administration
declared the property surplus in the spring of 1946. Buildings were sold and dismantled or moved. The chapel was moved to Friend, Nebraska
. The Enlisted Men's Service Club was dismantled and rebuilt in Shickley, Nebraska
as St. Mary's Church. In 1946 Nebraska Department of Aeronautics acquired the Airfield from the U.S. Government for use as a state-owned civilian airport.
The Fairmont Army Airfield, with its well maintained hangars, support buildings, and commander's house, was the best remaining example, as a collection of buildings, of the Army Airfields in the State of Nebraska. Due to the rural location, unencumbered by surrounding development, and the high level of physical integrity of the remaining buildings, particularly the hangars, the Fairmont Army Airfield was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
as an historic district. The District includes the hardstands, aprons and existing runways, all remaining buildings, extending to the edges of the roads where extant buildings exist. This encompasses historic landscape features such as roads and World War II-era planted trees.
of 1,636 feet (499 m) above mean sea level. It has two runway
s with concrete surfaces: 17/35 is 4,316 by 75 feet (1,316 x 23 m) and 12/30 is 3,021 by 60 feet (921 x 18 m). For the 12-month period ending May 10, 2005, the airport had 1,665 aircraft operations, an average of 138 per month: 99.7% general aviation and 0.3% military
.
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
located three nautical miles (6 km) south of the central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
of Fairmont, in Fillmore County
Fillmore County, Nebraska
-Hunting:Fillmore is popular with hunters of pheasant, deer, Canada goose and other popular game animals.-Organizations:Fillmore County is home to a nonprofit organization which promotes education and the development of habitat for butterflies in Nebraska....
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is owned by the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics. The airport serves the general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
community, with no scheduled commercial airline service.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier
Location identifier
A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for manned air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services.-ICAO...
for the FAA and IATA
International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered. The executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in SwitzerlandIATA's mission is to...
, this airport is assigned FMZ by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.
History
Construction of Fairmont State Airfield began on 17 September 1942. The airfield was built by the United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
as a military airfield.
It was one of eleven training airfields built in Nebraska during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Shortly after construction began, a railroad spur was built from Fairmont to the base site to haul materials for the construction. Approximately 1,000 laborers were hired to construct the base, and the small towns of Geneva (pop. 1,888) and Fairmont (pop. 800) were hard pressed to find housing for the workers. Early in the construction, the facility was referred to as the Fairmont Satellite Airfield, and was designated a satellite of the Topeka Army Air Base in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, however by early 1943, the name was changed to the Fairmont Army Airfield, as its mission was determined to be a training facility for heavy bomber groups. The first military personnel arrived in November 1942
The airfield was under the command of Second Air Force
Second Air Force
The Second Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Air Education and Training Command . It is headquartered at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi....
Headquarters, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. The 241st Army Air Force Base Unit was the Operational Training Unit at the airfield. It was assigned to the 15th Bombardment Training Wing (September 1943 - March 1944), then transferred to the 17th Bombardment Training Wing in March 1944 for B-29 training. The 511th Army Air Force Base Unit commanded the support elements at Fairmont as part of Air Technical Service Command.
Fairmont Army Airfield was a training installation for twenty-seven bombardment squadrons. Complete engine and airframe repairs were available for Consolidated B-24 Liberator and eventually in the more technologically advanced Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers at the five hangars on the field. Extensive concrete runways and other structures were built. A 350 bed hospital served personnel from Fairmont along with Harvard AAF and Bruning AAF
Bruning Army Airfield
Bruning Army Airfield was a flight training installation of the United States Army Air Forces used during World War II and located in northeast Thayer County, Nebraska, at coordinates 40°20'25" North, 97°25'42" West, approximately six miles east of Bruning....
. The cantonment area provided quarters for nearly 6,000 officers and enlisted men.
Known units that trained at Fairmont AAF were:
- 485th Bombardment Group (20 September 1943 - 11 March 1944)
- 828th, 829th, 830th and 831st Bombardment Squadrons
- Deployed to: Fifteenth Air ForceFifteenth Air ForceThe Fifteenth Expeditionary Mobility Task Force is one of two EMTFs assigned to the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command . It is headquartered at Travis Air Force Base, California....
, in ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(B-24 LiberatorB-24 LiberatorThe Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...
)
- 451st Bombardment Group (9 September - 16 November 1943)
- 724th, 725th, 726th and 727th Bombardment Squadrons
- Deployed to: Fifteenth Air Force, in Italy (B-24 Liberator)
- 504th Bombardment Group504th Bombardment GroupThe 504th Bombardment Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. It was inactivated on 15 June 1946....
(12 March - 5 November 1945)
- 393rd, 398th, 421st and 507th Bombardment Squadrons
- Deployed to: Twentieth Air ForceTwentieth Air ForceThe Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.20 AF's primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations...
in TinianTinianTinian is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.-Geography:Tinian is about 5 miles southwest of its sister island, Saipan, from which it is separated by the Saipan Channel. It has a land area of 39 sq.mi....
(B-29 SuperfortressB-29 SuperfortressThe B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
)
- 16th Bombardment Group (15 August 1944 - 7 March 1945)
- 15th, 16th and 17th Bombardment Squadrons
- Deployed to: Twentieth Air Force in GuamGuamGuam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
(B-29 Superfortress)
- 98th Bombardment Group (6 May - 25 June 1945)
- 343rd, 344th, 345th, and 415th Bombardment Squadrons
- Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in November 1945
- 467th Bombardment Group467th Bombardment GroupThe 467th Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Army Air Force unit. Its last assignment was to the Strategic Air Command, being stationed at Clovis Army Airfield, New Mexico. It was inactivated on 4 August 1946....
25 July - 25 August 1945
- 788th, 789th, 790th and 791st Bombardment Squadrons
- Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in August 1946
- 489th Bombardment Group489th Bombardment GroupThe 489th Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Army Air Force unit. Its last assignment was to the IV Bomber Command, stationed at Drew Field, Florida. It was inactivated on 7 November 1945....
(3 July - 25 August 1945)
- 844th, 845th, 846th and 847th Bombardment Squadrons
- Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in October 1945
In September 1944 Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets
Paul Tibbets
Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force, best known for being the pilot of the Enola Gay, the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in the history of warfare. The bomb, code-named Little Boy, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima...
visited Fairmont and selected the 393d Bombardment Squadron of the 504th to join the 509th Composite Group
509th Composite Group
The 509th Composite Group was a United States Army Air Forces unit created during World War II, and tasked with operational deployment of nuclear weapons...
at Wendover AAF
Wendover Air Force Base
Wendover Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base in Utah now known as Wendover Airport. During World War II it was a training base for B-17 and B-24 bomber crews. It was the training site of the 509th Composite Group, the B-29 unit which dropped the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
. This group dropped both atomic bombs
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
on Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
The base was inactivated on 31 December 1945. In the spring of 1946, the War Assets Administration
War Assets Administration
The War Assets Administration was established in the Office for Emergency Management, effective March 25, 1946, by EO 9689, January 31, 1946. American factorieshad produced massive amounts of weaponry during the World War II...
declared the property surplus in the spring of 1946. Buildings were sold and dismantled or moved. The chapel was moved to Friend, Nebraska
Friend, Nebraska
Friend is a city in Saline County, Nebraska, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,027.-History:The city is named for Charles E. Friend who homesteaded the land and initially named the community Friendville. He operated a dry goods store and post office...
. The Enlisted Men's Service Club was dismantled and rebuilt in Shickley, Nebraska
Shickley, Nebraska
Shickley is a village in Fillmore County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 341 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Shickley is located at ....
as St. Mary's Church. In 1946 Nebraska Department of Aeronautics acquired the Airfield from the U.S. Government for use as a state-owned civilian airport.
The Fairmont Army Airfield, with its well maintained hangars, support buildings, and commander's house, was the best remaining example, as a collection of buildings, of the Army Airfields in the State of Nebraska. Due to the rural location, unencumbered by surrounding development, and the high level of physical integrity of the remaining buildings, particularly the hangars, the Fairmont Army Airfield was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as an historic district. The District includes the hardstands, aprons and existing runways, all remaining buildings, extending to the edges of the roads where extant buildings exist. This encompasses historic landscape features such as roads and World War II-era planted trees.
Facilities and aircraft
Fairmont State Airfield Airport covers an area of 687 acres (278 ha) at an elevationElevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
of 1,636 feet (499 m) above mean sea level. It has two runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
s with concrete surfaces: 17/35 is 4,316 by 75 feet (1,316 x 23 m) and 12/30 is 3,021 by 60 feet (921 x 18 m). For the 12-month period ending May 10, 2005, the airport had 1,665 aircraft operations, an average of 138 per month: 99.7% general aviation and 0.3% military
Military aviation
Military aviation is the use of aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling warfare, including national airlift capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a theater or along a front. Air power includes the national means of conducting such...
.
See also
- Nebraska World War II Army AirfieldsNebraska World War II Army AirfieldsNebraska World War II army airfields were major United States Army Air Force training centers for pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters and bombers during World War II. Nebraska was a favored because it has excellent, year-round flying conditions...
- List of airports in Nebraska
External links
- Nebraska Historical Marker - Fairmont State Airfield
- Fairmont Army Airfield website
- Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary