Robert Gray Army Airfield is a military joint-use airport that operates alongside Killeen–Fort Hood Regional Airport. The airport is based inside the south end of the Fort Hood Military Reservation (

West Fort Hood West Fort Hood is an underground weapons storage area adjacent to Fort Hood in Texas. Originally built in the late 1940s by the United States Air Force, it was adjacent to Gray Air Force Base. On 15 June 1963 Killeen Base was turned over to the ...

), six

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (7 mi, 11 km) southwest of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Killeen, Texas Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 153,095, making it the 19th-most populous city in Texas and the largest of the three principal cities of Bell County. It is the principal city ...

, in unincorporated Bell County. As per

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

records, the airport had 232,299 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any o ...

2008, 231,500 enplanements in 2009, and 243,861 in 2010. It is included in 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, which categorized it as a ''primary commercial service'' airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).

History

The base was named after a Killeen native who was a pilot of a B-25 bomber on the famous

Doolittle Raid The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japan ...

on Tokyo in 1942. He was killed later in World War II flying combat missions.Fort Hood: The Great Place to Call Home, Fort Hood's Official Post Guide, Fort Hood History, page 72. Marcoa Publishing Inc., 2004, under contract with Fort Hood. Editorial content is edited, prepared and provided by the Public Affairs Office of Fort Hood.

Facilities and aircraft

The airport has one

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 ...

designated 15/33 with a PEM (

Porous European Mix Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking ...

) surface measuring 10,000 by 200 feet (3,048 x 61 m). For the 12-month period ending April 10, 2010, the airport had 12,208 aircraft operations, an average of 33 per day: 98.5% scheduled commercial and 1.5%

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 ...

. The base is also served by Hood Army Airfield and two asphalt auxiliary landing strips used for training at North Fort Hood: * Shorthorn Aux Landing Strip – (RWY 15 usable, RWY 33 usable) at , elevation , magnetic variation 5.1° E * Longhorn Aux Landing Strip – (unmarked numbers, but same magnetic heading as Shorthorn at 153 degrees) at , elevation , magnetic variation 5.1° E

References

Other sources

* Freeman, Paul (2008
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Texas
* Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . * Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947-1977. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . * Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub,

External links

at GlobalSecurity.org * at

Texas DOT The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT ) is a government agency in the American state of Texas. Though the public face of the agency is generally associated with the construction and maintenance of the state's immense state highway system ...

Airport Directory
Aerial image as of February 1995
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Robert Gray Army Airfield Airports in Texas Fort Hood Buildings and structures in Bell County, Texas Transportation in Bell County, Texas Transportation in Coryell County, Texas Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Texas United States Army airfields

History

Facilities and aircraft

See also

References

Other sources

External links