Ainsworth Regional Airport (formerly Ainsworth Municipal Airport) is seven miles northwest of

Ainsworth Ainsworth may refer to: Places ;Canada *Ainsworth Hot Springs, British Columbia ;United Kingdom *Ainsworth, Greater Manchester, England ;United States * Ainsworth, Indiana *Ainsworth, Iowa *Ainsworth, Nebraska *Ainsworth, Wisconsin *Ainsworth, Wa ...

, in Brown County,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

. It is owned by the Ainsworth Airport Authority. The

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2011–2015 called it a ''

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

'' airport.

History

The airport was built by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

between August and November 1942. The site is bordered by farm land on the west and north, Sand Draw on the east, and Highway 20 on the south. Sixty four buildings were built at what would be known as Ainsworth Army Airfield. To construct the base, once land was acquired through condemnation and purchase from seven local landowners, laborers were hired from as far away as Omaha and Sioux City. Two hundred Native Americans from the

Pine Ridge Reservation The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( lkt, Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke), also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Grea ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

came to Ainsworth and were put on the payroll as laborers. A total of 1,200 workers came to build the Airfield. By November 1942 the laborers had completed all housing at the base, and a spur was built from the existing Chicago Northwestern Railroad several miles to the south. These tracks brought most of the supplies for the base, including building materials, food, and coal. The field had three 7,300 × concrete runways, a hangar, warehouse, repair and machine shops, link and bomb trainers, Norden bombsite vaults, and barracks for over 600 officers and enlisted men. Ainsworth AAF was activated on 30 November 1942 as one of eleven

training bases in

. The base was under the command of the 353d Army Air Force Base Unit of the

Second Air Force The Second Air Force (2 AF; ''2d Air Force'' in 1942) is a USAF numbered air force responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and non-flying officers. In World War II the CONUS unit defended ...

, based at Colorado Springs AAF

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. The 4315th Army Air Force Base Unit commanded the support elements at Ainsworth as part of

Air Technical Service Command The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. Ainsworth was a satellite field of

Rapid City Army Air Base Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...

. The primary objective of this facility was to train air crews of 540th and 543rd Bombardment Squadrons of the

383d Bombardment Group The 383d Bombardment Group is a former United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last stationed at Camp Anza, California, where it was deactivated on 4 January 1946. The group was active from 1942 to 1944 as a heavy bomber training unit. It w ...

based at Rapid City Army Airfield for training with

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

aircraft before being sent to the

European Theater The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the ...

. The 540th and 543rd remained at Ainsworth between December 1942 to April 1943. Bomber crews practiced bombing runs over the wildlife refuge in Cherry County, the next county to the west. Other units that trained at Ainsworth during the war were: * The

364th Fighter Squadron 364th may refer to: * 364th Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 364th Fighter Group or 131st Bomb Wing, unit of the Missouri Air National Guard, stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Knob Noster, Missouri * 364th Fighter S ...

of the

357th Fighter Group The 357th Fighter Group was an air combat unit of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War. The 357th operated P-51 Mustang aircraft as part of the U.S. Eighth Air Force and its members were known unofficially as the Yoxfor ...

based at Casper AAF,

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

trained with Bell

P-39 Airacobra The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 was used by the ...

aircraft at Ainsworth from October to November 1943. * The

53d Fighter Squadron The 53rd Fighter Squadron (53 FS) is an active unit of the United States Air Force, stationed at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Assigned to the 495th Fighter Group, the squadron was last activated on 10 December 2021, as an associate unit to th ...

of the

37th Fighter Group 37th may refer to: *37th (Howitzer) Brigade Royal Field Artillery, a brigade of the Royal Field Artillery which served in the First World War * 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot, raised in Ireland in February 1702 * 37th (Northern Ontario) Ba ...

based at Scribner AAF,

trained with

Republic P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

aircraft at Ainsworth between November 1943 to March 1944. Aircraft camouflage experiments were conducted at the field. When the facility was fully manned, 544 enlisted men and 112 officers lived on the base. Married personnel lived in Long Pine, Ainsworth and Johnstown. The base closed on 31 December 1945. Following the withdrawal of the military personnel, the base closed except for civilians who manned the Fire Department and the Weather Squadron. In 1946 the

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

issued a Revokable License to the City of Ainsworth for commercial aircraft operations at the Airfield. Ainsworth AAF was declared surplus property in 1948, and the City of Ainsworth received title to the Airfield for use as a municipal airport. By late 1948 Ainsworth Municipal Airport was used for charter flights, aircraft rental, flight lessons and a maintenance shop. For a year or two starting in 1959 Ainsworth had scheduled airline flights—Frontier DC-3s. In the mid-1980s the National Scientific Balloon Facility rented space at Ainsworth for periodic balloon missions. By the late 1980s, the Ainsworth Airport discontinued these services due to the depressed local economy. Currently the airport is overseen by the Airport Authority, which provides basic services, with an airport manager who oversees airport activities such as fuel sales, hangar rental, tie-downs, weather station operation, aircraft communications arid flight plan design. About of farm land and pasture is rented out to area farmers. Today a handful of buildings remains from the World War II–era. One aircraft hangar is still in use, a supply warehouse, the bombardier training building and the bombsight building. Taxiways, hardstands, aprons, runways and roads exist in various states of repair. Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.

Facilities

The airport covers at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of . It has two

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

runways: 17/35 is and 13/31 is . It has one

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

, H1, . In the year ending June 27, 2011 the airport had 4,000 aircraft operations, average 10 per day: 99%

and 1% military. Ten aircraft were then based at this airport: eight single-engine, one jet, and one glider.

References

External links

Airport page
from the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics
Nebraska Historical Marker – Ainsworth Army Airfield
*
{{USAAF 2d Air Force World War II Airports in Nebraska Buildings and structures in Brown County, Nebraska Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Nebraska 1943 establishments in Nebraska Airports established in 1943

History

Facilities

See also

References

External links