Momote Airport is an airport on Los Negros Island in the

Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-co ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It also serves

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

, which is connected to Los Negros by a bridge.

History

Hayne Airfield

Built by the

Imperial Japanese The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

at Momote 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 opposing ...

. Known as ''Hayne Airfield'' by the Japanese, as they called Los Negros, ''Hayne Island''. The

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, concre ...

was long × wide with three

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 ...

s and 12 revetments under construction. Occupied on 2 March 1944 by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

's 1st Cavalry Division as part of the

Battle of Los Negros The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division took the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands. Acting on reports from airm ...

, which was part of the

Admiralty Islands campaign The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division took the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands. Acting on reports from ai ...

Japanese Units based at Hayne Airfield

* 63rd Sentai, 3rd Chutai ( Ki-43) * 14th Sentai ( Ki-21)

Momote Airfield

After liberating the airfield on 2 March 1944, the Seabees of the 40th Naval Construction Battalion repaired the airfield and the airfield became operational on 18 May 1944, although fighters were landing at the airfield only two days after occupation. The single runway was extended to long × wide with shoulders, constructed with a coral base with marsden matting covering at the ends of the runway. A 7,000-barrel fuel depot was set up at the airfield. The United States Navy established Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit No.1 (AROU 1) in the spring of 1944 on Momote Airfield between Seeadler Harbor and the Bismarck Sea on Los Negros Island. AROU 1 conducted maintenance and testing of naval aircraft and supplied aircraft to naval forces for major assaults as far away as the Philippine Islands.

Allied Units Based at Momote Airfield

* Headquarters,

Thirteenth Air Force The Thirteenth Air Force (Air Forces Pacific) (13 AF) was a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It was last headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. 13 AF has never been sta ...

, (15 June-13 September 1944) * Headquarters,

XIII Bomber Command The XIII Bomber Command was an inactive United States Army Air Forces formation. It was last assigned to Thirteenth Air Force, based at Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines. It was inactivated on 15 March 1946. History XIII Bomber Command was a Wo ...

, (June-3 September 1944) * 5th Bomb Group Headquarters ** 23d Bomb Squadron (B-24s) **

31st Bomb Squadron The 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron is a United States Air Force unit, assigned to the 753d Test and Evaluation Group, stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, California as a geographically separated unit of the 53rd Wing. The 31 TES is an Air ...

(B-24s) **

72d Bomb Squadron The 72d Test and Evaluation Squadron is part of the 53d Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The squadron is geographically separated but operated from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It conducts testing and evaluation of the B-2 Spi ...

( B-24s) **

394th Bomb Squadron The 394th Combat Training Squadron was a United States Air Force unit assigned to the 509th Operations Group until inactivated on 13 April 2018. It was stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The mission of the squadron was to tra ...

(B-24s) *

307th Bombardment Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

, (13 AF) (29 April-24 August 1944) *

403d Troop Carrier Group 4 (four) is a number, numeral (linguistics), numeral and numerical digit, digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is tetraphobia, considered unlucky in many East Asian c ...

, (13 AF) 30 August-4 October 1944 * Detachment,

419th Night Fighter Squadron The 419th Night Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Thirteenth Air Force, being inactivated at Floridablanca, Luzon on 20 February 1947. The unit was formed in 1943. After training, it was ...

, (13 AF) (27 June-18 August 1944) * Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit No.1 (AROU 1, USN) (est. late May 1944) * No. 19 Squadron RNZAF ( F4Us) * No. 73 Wing RAAF ** No. 76 Squadron RAAF ( Kittyhawks) ** No. 77 Squadron RAAF ( Kittyhawks) ** No. 79 Squadron RAAF (

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

s) * No. 27 Air Stores Park RAAF * No. 114 (Mobile) Fighter Sector Headquarters RAAF * No. 346 Radar Station RAAF

Facilities

The airport resides 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 § Ver ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has one

designated 16/34 with a chip seal surface measuring . The airport can accommodate B737 operations and night operations. The airport is sometimes used by private business jets as an alternative stop-over on the route between United States and India.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Momote Airfield
* *
{{authority control Airports in Papua New Guinea Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II Manus Province Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command in the South West Pacific Theater Seabees World War II sites in Papua New Guinea