Merrill Field is a public-use

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 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 one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Anchorage in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. The airport is owned by Municipality of Anchorage. It opened in 1930 as Anchorage Aviation Field and was renamed in honor of Alaska aviation pioneer

Russel Merrill Russel ("Russ") Hyde Merrill (April 8, 1894 – September 16, 1929) was an Alaskan aviation pioneer. Early life Born on 8 April 1894 in Des Moines, Iowa, he attended Grinnell College for three years before transferring to Cornell. Before graduatin ...

History

Merrill Field, located on the east end of 5th Avenue in Anchorage, was the first official airport in the city when it opened in 1930. It was Anchorage's only airport until 1951, when the introduction of ever larger and faster commercial aircraft required that an airfield with longer and heavier runways be built. Construction of the original 35-acre site one mile east of the city was completed on 22 Aug. 1929. Originally named Anchorage Aviation Field, it was later renamed Anchorage Municipal Airport. The airport is now named for

, an Alaskan aviation pioneer. An aerodrome beacon was located at Merrill Field and dedicated on 25 September 1932 in Merrill's honor. The airfield remains in use today as the primary field for private wheel-equipped aircraft in the warmer months, and for ski-equipped aircraft in the winter. A section of the property used to be a municipal landfill.

Facilities and aircraft

Merrill Field covers 436

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 (176 ha, 1.76 km²) and has three

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: * Runway 5/23: 2,000 x 60 ft (610 x 18 m), surface:

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

/dirt * Runway 7/25: 4,000 x 100 ft (1,219 x 30 m), surface:

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 ...

* Runway 16/34: 2,640 x 75 ft (805 x 23 m), surface: asphalt For the 12-month period ending September 30, 2013, the airport had 126,234 aircraft operations, all of which were

. There are 844 aircraft based at this airport: 786 single engine, 41 multi-engine, 16

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 ...

s and one

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

. There are no based jets, although one retired

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

donated by FedEx is used as a training aid by the University of Alaska Anchorage's Aviation Technology Division, which is based at the airfield. It is not

airworthy In aviation, airworthiness is the measure of an aircraft's suitability for safe flight. Initial airworthiness is demonstrated by a certificate of airworthiness issued by the civil aviation authority in the state in which the aircraft is registe ...

. When it landed in February 2013, the Boeing 727 was the largest aircraft ever to have landed at Merrill Field. The landing required special permission from the city, and preparatory surveys of the runway and airfield infrastructure to ensure the aircraft could be landed safely; the captain practiced the landing in a

flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

beforehand. The airfield hosts two locally owned flight schools,

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

services, and

fixed-base operators A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

. An extension of the Q

Taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

connects the airport to Alaska Regional Hospital for

MEDEVAC Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of a ...

operations. A section of the airport is built over the closed Merrill Field Land Fill. This section requires slightly more maintenance due to settling and emissions.

Airline and destinations

Passenger

Statistics

References

External links

Municipality of Anchorage: Merrill Field
(official website) * * {{Airports in Alaska 1930 establishments in Alaska Airports established in 1930 Airports in Anchorage, Alaska Alaska Dispatch History of Anchorage, Alaska University of Alaska Anchorage