Low Flight Strip is an abandoned military airfield located approximately west of the ghost town of

Low, Utah Low is a ghost town in northern Tooele County, Utah, Tooele County, Utah, United States. Low was established in 1880 as a construction and maintenance camp on a siding of the Western Pacific Railroad. Its name may have derived from its location ...

History

This was one of the many Flight Strips which were built by the USAAF 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 ...

for the emergency use of military aircraft. Used by

Wendover Army Airfield 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 ...

as an Axillary operating

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 ...

s and

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 ...

es for 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 ...

. The Low Flight Strip constructed in 1943 by

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 ...

. The strip consisted of a 7,130 foot paved runway, with a total graded length of 9,130 feet, consisting of single north–south runway, which was built on top of a dirt road which led north from US Highway 40. The paved runway surface had apparently been extended at some point after the runway's initial construction, as the length of the runway pavement is 9,300 feet in aerial imagery of the site. There is also what appears to be a small square paved ramp area along the west side of the northern end of the runway; however there are no buildings at the site. It was used by the United States Air Force as an auxiliary field for the

Hill AFB Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force (USAF) base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and bordering the Cities of Layton, Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, and Sunset with its largest border immediately adjacent to ...

range until about 1965. It is not known whether the Low Flight Strip was ever reused as a civilian airfield. Today the airfield is abandoned, its hard surface deteriorating in the harsh, arid environment.

References

* 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.

External links

{{authority control World War II airfields in the United States Flight Strips of the United States Army Air Forces Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Utah Buildings and structures in Tooele County, Utah Transportation in Tooele County, Utah