61st Army Air Force Fight Training Detachment-Patch WWII

Avon Park Executive Airport is a city-owned, public-use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located two nautical miles (3.7 km) west of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Avon Park, a city in

Highlands County Highlands County is a county located in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 101,235. Its county seat is Sebring. Highlands County comprises the Sebring-Avon Park, FL Metropolita ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States.

Overview

According to the FAA's

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 2009–2013, it is categorized as 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.National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems
for 2009–2013
Appendix A: Part 2 (PDF, 1.04 MB)
Federal Aviation Administration. Updated 15 October 2008.

Facilities and aircraft

Avon Park Executive Airport covers an area of 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 160 feet (49 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. 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 ...

paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s: 5/23 is 5,374 by 100 feet (1,638 x 30 m) and 10/28 is 3,844 by 75 feet (1,172 x 23 m). For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2008, the airport had 32,400

aircraft operations, an average of 88 per day. At that time there were 48 aircraft based at this airport: 83% single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, 13% multi-engine, 2% jet and 2%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

History

Opened as a civil airport in April 1940 as Avon Park Municipal Airport. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was leased 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 ...

on 4 October 1941. During the war, it was assigned to the Army Air Forces Training Command as a contract pilot training airfield, later under

Eastern Flying Training Command Army Air Forces Eastern Flying Training Command (EFTC) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces. It was assigned to the Army Air Forces Training Command, stationed at Maxwell Field, Alabama. It was inactivated on 15 December 1945. Hist ...

. It was designated Avon Park Army Airfield and placed under the jurisdiction of the 61st Army Air Force Fight Training Detachment (Contract Flying). Operated by the Lodwick Aviation Military Academy, it was used as a primary (level 1) pilot training airfield. Flying training was performed with

Fairchild PT-19 The Fairchild PT-19 (company designation Fairchild M62) is an American monoplane primary trainer aircraft that served with the United States Army Air Forces, RAF and RCAF during World War II. Designed by Fairchild Aircraft, it was a contempora ...

s as the primary trainer. Also had several

PT-17 Stearman The Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 is a biplane formerly used as a military trainer aircraft, of which at least 10,626 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Stearman Aircraft became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely kno ...

s assigned. The airfield had three 4'000 hard surfaced for landings and takeoffs. In addition, Avon Park MAP had four auxiliary airfields for emergency and overflow landings: . * Avon Park Auxiliary Field #1 * Avon Park Auxiliary Field #2 * Avon Park Auxiliary Field #3 * Avon Park Auxiliary Field #4 All of the Auxiliary airfields were grass all-way runways and not manned. After the war they were returned to their owners and today are indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape.

Closure

Training Command inactivated the military flying school on 16 October 1944 as part of the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program. Declared surplus and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on 30 September 1945. Eventually discharged to the

War Assets Administration The War Assets Administration (WAA) was created to dispose of United States government-owned surplus material and property from World War II. The WAA was established in the Office for Emergency Management, effective March 25, 1946, by Executive Ord ...

and returned to previous status as a civil airport.

References

* Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas * Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.

External links

*
{{Authority control Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Florida USAAF Contract Flying School Airfields 1940 establishments in Florida Airports in Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Highlands County, Florida Military airbases established in 1941 Military installations closed in 1945 Airports established in 1940 Avon Park, Florida