H-19_and_H-34_helicopter_of_HT-8_in_flight

Naval Air Station Ellyson Field was a former U.S. Navy training base, established in

Escambia County, Florida Escambia County is the westernmost and oldest county in the U.S. state of Florida. It is in the state's northwestern corner. At the 2020 census, the population was 321,905. Its county seat and largest city is Pensacola. Escambia County is incl ...

in 1940 at the outset of

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 ...

as an auxiliary facility to

Chevalier Field Chevalier Field was the original non-seaplane aircraft landing area at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Established originally in 1922 as Station Field, it was an expansion of the balloon operating field that opened in 1916. It was located o ...

at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. It had three red brick hangars common to the various Navy airfields in the Pensacola area, and eight paved runways, the longest of which was 3,550 ft in length. The short length of the air station's runways became increasingly incompatible with the introduction of higher performance piston aircraft followed by first generation jet aircraft in the post-World War II era. Fixed-wing operations were subsequently by exception until approximately late 1970 and limited to only a few certain models of propeller-driven training aircraft (e.g.,

T-34 The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. When introduced its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was less powerful than its contemporaries while its 60-degree sloped armour provided good protection against Anti-tank warfare, anti-tan ...

, T-28, etc.). However, rotary-wing operations at the air station continued to flourish as helicopters saw ever-increasing use in the U.S. Navy, the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

and the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...

in the 1950s and 1960s, with NAS Ellyson Field becoming the sole intermediate and advanced training site for rotary-wing

Naval Aviator Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

s in each of those services. NAS Ellyson Field last served the Navy as a helicopter training facility through December 1973, by which time conflicts with air traffic patterns for general aviation and commercial passenger jet traffic at Pensacola Regional Airport / Hagler Field, now known as

Pensacola International Airport Pensacola International Airport , formerly Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport and Pensacola Regional Airport (Hagler Field), is a public use airport northeast of the central business district of Pensacola, in Escambia County, Florida, Unit ...

, located just south of the station, coupled with the reorganization of Naval Air Training Command, led to a decision to close the airfield but retain the installation for non-flying operations. Helicopter training was moved to

NAS Whiting Field Naval Air Station Whiting Field is a United States Navy base located near Milton, Florida, with some outlying fields near Navarre, Florida, in south and central Santa Rosa County, Florida, Santa Rosa County, and is one of the Navy's two primary pi ...

, Florida, and flight operations were discontinued on 28 December 1973. The base was taken over by the Naval Education and Training Program Development Center (NETPDC), which renamed the installation as NETPDC Ellyson Field. Following NETPDC's move to the former NAS Saufley Field, Florida, in 1979, Ellyson Field was closed. Conveyed to the City of Pensacola, the former NAS Ellyson Field is now the Ellyson Industrial Park with only a few of the former Navy buildings still standing. These include the base operations building (minus its control tower cab), the three hangars, the academic training building, the dispensary and the Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) that served the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and NATO/Allied officer flight student personnel assigned to NAS Ellyson Field for rotary-wing training. Portions of the ramp areas also still exist but the runway grid has been completely redeveloped.

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20101128200115/http://tailhook.org/Ellyson.htm {{Authority control Defunct airports in Florida Ellyson Field Buildings and structures in Escambia County, Florida Military installations closed in 1979 Military installations in Florida 1940 establishments in Florida 1979 disestablishments in Florida Closed installations of the United States Navy