Phoenix Airfield is an airstrip in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

opened in early 2017, designed to replace the

Pegasus Field Pegasus Field was an airstrip in Antarctica, the southernmost of three airfields serving McMurdo Station. It closed due to excessive melting in the summer season caused by warmer temperatures combined with dust and dirt blown in from nearby Blac ...

's role in serving

McMurdo Station McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the Unit ...

. In last few years of Pegasus Field's operation, it had been plagued with warmer temperatures combined with dust and dirt blown in from nearby Black Island, causing excessive melting making the runway unusable at the end of the summer season. Accordingly, Pegasus, and the

Ice Runway The Ice Runway is the principal runway for the U.S. Antarctic Program during the summer Antarctic field season due to its proximity to McMurdo Station. The other two runways in the area are the snow runway at Williams Field (NZWD) and the co ...

(which has not been consistently used in recent years), were planned to be replaced with a new "Alpha Runway" near

Williams Field Williams Field or Willy Field is a United States Antarctic Program airfield in Antarctica. Williams Field consists of two snow runways located on approximately 8 meters (25 ft) of compacted snow, lying on top of 8–10 ft of ice, floa ...

, constructed using compressed snow technology. A search for a replacement site began in 2014; serious construction began during the 2015-16 summer. The new runway is about 3 miles northwest of Pegasus, to be out of the wind patterns of the Black Island dust. It is based completely on compacted snow, rather than the "blue ice" base under Pegasus. With the new design and construction technique, its runway is designed to withstand approximately 60 wheeled flights a year. On 7 April 2016, the National Science Foundation officially announced that the new runway would be named Phoenix Airfield after the name of a propeller-driven C-121 Constellation transport plane that was flown between

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

and McMurdo by the U.S. Navy VX-6 squadron from the 1960s through to 1971. Phoenix Airfield underwent operational testing and received its first wheeled landings during the 2016-17 austral summer season. Pegasus Airfield closed after the last flight on 8 December 2016. Phoenix Airfield was opened in early 2017.US Antarctic Program Inter-agency Air Operations Manual - United States Antarctic Program
/ref> C17s were planned to use the runway throughout the 2017–18 field season, but NSF issued a notice on July 31, 2017 stating that "Conditions at the new Phoenix compacted-snow runway prevent the use of wheeled aircraft during the warm part of the austral summer." TLS,

TACAN A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a mor ...

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

decommissioned in 2022, and

RNAV Area navigation (RNAV, usually pronounced as "''ar-nav"'') is a method of instrument flight rules (IFR) navigation that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons, rather than navigate directly to and from t ...

instrument approaches are available.https://www.usap.gov/logistics/documents/Air_Operations_Manual.pdf

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ATC technician explains his job at McMurdo Station
{{authority control Airports in the Ross Dependency McMurdo Station Airports in Antarctica Airports established in 2017 2017 establishments in Antarctica

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