Union Airport was a former civil airport and military airfield located approximately north-northeast of

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

. Today the land formerly occupied by the airport is an agricultural industrial estate and fields.

History

The airport was established in 1920 as the "Lincoln Airplane & Flying School", owned by E. J. Sias. The airport had two main runways, one 1,820-foot (13/31) and a 1,650-foot (17/35). In 1939 the site was chosen by the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

to provide basic (level 1) flying training to flight cadets. It was assigned to the Gulf Coast Training Center (later Central Flying Training Command). Flying training was performed with Boeing PT-17 Stearmans assigned. The airport was expanded to a six-runway configuration with 2,400-foot 08/26; 2,100-foot 14;32; 2,000-foot 03/21; and 2,100-foot 17/35 sod runways, basically an all-direction grass field. Military flight training ended on 30 June 1944 with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program. It returned to civilian ownership, being transferred to the city of Lincoln in 1952 as a civil airport. It was operated as a

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 until 1964. The airport closed when the city of Lincoln completed a 4,000-foot runway to allow joint military-civilian use of

Lincoln Air Force Base Lincoln Airport (formerly Lincoln Municipal Airport) is a public/military airport northwest of downtown Lincoln, the state capital, in Lancaster County, Nebraska, United States. It is owned by the Lincoln Airport Authority and is the second- ...

References

* Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas * Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.

External links

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields is an online database An online database is a database accessible from a local network or the Internet, as opposed to one that is stored locally on an individual computer or its attached storage (such as a CD) ...

Lincoln Airport
Construction of Runways, Union Airport – Aero Digest
{{USAAF Training Bases World War II 1920 establishments in Nebraska USAAF Contract Flying School Airfields Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Nebraska Buildings and structures in Lincoln, Nebraska History of Lincoln, Nebraska 1964 disestablishments in Nebraska

History

See also

References

External links