Fairmont State Airfield is three miles south of Fairmont, in

Fillmore County, Nebraska Fillmore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 5,890. Its county seat is Geneva. The county was named for President Millard Fillmore. In the Nebraska license plate syst ...

. 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 categorized it 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 ...

'' facility. It has no scheduled airline service. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

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 staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for the FAA and

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, but this airport is FMZ to the FAA and has no IATA code.

History

Construction of Fairmont State Airfield 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 ...

began on September 17, 1942. It was one of eleven training airfields built in Nebraska 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 ...

. Shortly after construction began, a railroad spur was built from Fairmont to the site to haul materials for the construction. About 1,000 laborers were hired to build 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 Topeka Regional Airport , formerly known as Forbes Field, is a joint civil-military public airport owned by the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority in Shawnee County, Kansas, seven miles south of downtown Topeka, the capital city of Kansas. The ...

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, 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 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 ...

Headquarters,

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

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 241st Army Air Force Base Unit was the Operational Training Unit at the airfield. It was assigned to the

15th Bombardment Training Wing The 15th Bombardment Training Wing is a disbanded United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Second Air Force, at Colorado Springs Army Air Base, Colorado, where it was inactivated on 9 April 1946. History The wing was activate ...

(September 1943 – March 1944), then transferred to the

17th Bombardment Training Wing The 17th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Pacific Air Forces, stationed at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Thailand, where it was inactivated on 1 January 1976. History The air division w ...

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 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 ...

. Fairmont Army Airfield was a training installation for twenty-seven bombardment squadrons. Complete engine and airframe repairs were available for

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

and eventually in the more technologically advanced

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

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: *

485th Bombardment Group 485th may refer to: * 485th Aero Construction Squadron, part of the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico * 485th Air Expeditionary Wing, provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command * 485t ...

(September 20, 1943 – March 11, 1944) : 828th, 829th, 830th and 831st Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to:

Fifteenth Air Force The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...

, in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

(

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

) *

451st Bombardment Group 451st may refer to: *451st Air Expeditionary Wing, a provisional United States Air Force Air Combat Command unit, currently in Afghanistan *451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC) is a subordinate command of 79th Sustainment Support Command * ...

(September 9 – November 16, 1943) : 724th, 725th, 726th and 727th Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to: Fifteenth Air Force, in Italy (B-24 Liberator) *

504th Bombardment Group The 504th Bombardment Group (504th BG) was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization. The unit served primarily in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II as part of Twentieth Air Force. The 504th Bomb Group's aircraft ...

(March 12 – November 5, 1945) : 393rd, 398th, 421st and 507th Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to:

Twentieth Air Force The Twentieth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) (20th AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. 20 AF's primary mission is Interco ...

Tinian Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of th ...

(

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

) *

16th Bombardment Group The United States Air Force's 16th Bombardment Group was a very heavy bombardment group that participated in combat in the Pacific Ocean Theater of World War II. History World War II The 16th Bombardment Group was activated on 1 April 1944 at Da ...

(August 15, 1944 – March 7, 1945) : 15th, 16th and 17th Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to: Twentieth Air Force in

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

(B-29 Superfortress) * 98th Bombardment Group (May 6 – June 25, 1945) : 343rd, 344th, 345th, and 415th Bombardment Squadrons : Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in November 1945 *

467th Bombardment Group The 467th Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Army Air Forces 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. During World War II, ...

(July 25 – August 25, 1945) : 788th, 789th, 790th and 791st Bombardment Squadrons : Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in August 1946 *

489th Bombardment Group The 489th Bomb Group is a unit of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to the 307th Bomb Wing, and is stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. The group is a reserve associate unit of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess. During World War II, t ...

(July 3 – August 25, 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 visited Fairmont and selected the

393d Bombardment Squadron 393rd or 393d may refer to: * 393d Bomb Squadron (393 BS) is part of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri * 393d Bombardment Group, inactive United States Air Force unit * 393d Bombardment Squadron (Medium) (1942), inactive Unit ...

of the 504th to join the

509th Composite Group The 509th Composite Group (509 CG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces created during World War II and tasked with the operational deployment of nuclear weapons. It conducted the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in ...

at Wendover AAF,

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. This group dropped both

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. The base was inactivated on December 31, 1945. In the spring of 1946, 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 ...

declared the property surplus in the spring of 1946. Buildings were sold and dismantled or moved. The chapel was moved to

Friend, Nebraska Friend is a city in Saline County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 954. History The city is named for Charles E. Friend who homesteaded the land and initially named the community Friendville. He operated ...

. The Enlisted Men's Service Club was dismantled and rebuilt in

Shickley, Nebraska Shickley is a village in Fillmore County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 343 at the 2020 census. History Shickley was established in the 1880s when the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was extended to that point. Geography Sh ...

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 good condition of the remaining buildings, particularly the hangars, the Fairmont Army Airfield was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as an historic district. The District includes the hardstands, aprons and existing runways, all remaining buildings, extending to the edges of the roads where buildings remain. This encompasses historic landscape features such as roads and World War II-era planted trees.

Facilities

Fairmont State Airfield covers 687

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (278 ha) 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 1,636 feet (499 m). It has two concrete

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: 17/35 is 4,317 by 75 feet (1,316 x 23 m) and 12/30 is 3,021 by 60 feet (921 x 18 m). In the year ending June 12, 2012 the airport had 1,625 aircraft operations, average 135 per month: 99.7%

and 0.3% military. 21 aircraft were then based at this airport: 95% single-engine and 5% multi-engine.

References

* * Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .

External links

Nebraska Historical Marker – Fairmont State Airfield

Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary
* * {{Authority control 1942 establishments in Nebraska Airports in Nebraska Buildings and structures in Fillmore County, Nebraska Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Nebraska Airports established in 1942 Airports on the National Register of Historic Places Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska National Register of Historic Places in Fillmore County, Nebraska Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska

History

Facilities

See also

References

External links