Greenwood–Leflore Airport is a public airport located seven miles east of Greenwood, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

Leflore County, Mississippi Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,339. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his pe ...

, United States. It is owned by the City of Greenwood and Leflore County, but is geographically located in Carroll County. The

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

for 2011–2015 categorized it as a ''

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

'' facility. There are no scheduled airline flights.

History

World War II

Greenwood Airport was built by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

as a basic flight training airfield. Greenwood Army Airfield was the home of the 7th Basic Flying Training Group (BFT), and assigned to the Eastern Flying Training Command. As built the base had four runways and a concrete parking apron. The pavement required was the equivalent of of two-lane highway. In addition, there were rail lines which were used to deliver gasoline and oil as well as coal and freight. On occasion, a troop train would venture onto the base to deliver or pick up cadets. There were 375 buildings, including; three fire stations, a 170-bed hospital, theater, chapel, recreation halls, post exchanges, mess halls, warehouses, barracks, a photo lab, parachute building, hangars, a sub depot, link trainer buildings, ground schools, a large swimming pool and myriad of other buildings necessary to run a ‘small city.’ Because of a housing shortage, the Army later added several hundred apartment units known as Greenaire Homes. They were home for many enlisted men and their dependents as well as civilian workers. The airfield had many auxiliary landing fields to support pilot training: * Paynes Auxiliary Field * Oxberry Auxiliary Field * Avalon Auxiliary Field * Curger Auxiliary Field * Tchula Auxiliary Field * Greenwood Municipal Airport Greenwood AAF was also home to a contingent of Women's Army Service Pilots (WASPs). These women were rated to fly everything from B-24s to fighters. During the peak of basic training activities, the airfield averaged about 36,000 operations per month and the aircraft consumed millions of gallons of aviation gasoline annually. The original mission of Greenwood Army Air Field (GAAF) was Basic Flight Training and the base was home to several hundred Consolidated Vultee BT-13 and BT-15 Valiants. The BT's trained thousands of fledgling military aviators. As basic training evolved, various twin-engine trainers such as the Cessna AT-17 and AT-8, and the

Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita The Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita is an American World War II trainer (aircraft), trainer built for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) by Beechcraft. It was used to train pilots for multi-engined aircraft such as bombers. Development Bee ...

were brought into the inventory in an effort to make the transition to advanced twin-engine schools easier. This idea never fully developed and the aircraft were stored in serviceable condition. The field also had the usual complement of Noorduyn Norseman UC-64s, Cessna UC-78s and C-45 Expeditors. On December 18, 1944 the Eastern Flying Training Command turned the field over to the

Third Air Force The Third Air Force (Air Forces Europe) (3 AF) is a Numbered Air Force, numbered air force of the United States Air Forces in Europe - Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA). Its headquarters is Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It is responsible for all U ...

4th Operational Training Unit (OTU). The 590th Army Air Force Base Unit was reassigned to Greenwood AAF from Brownsville Army Airfield

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. The arrival of the 4th OTU brought two new missions to GAAF. The BTs were replaced with AT-6 Texans and scores of fighters, including the

P-51 The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by a team headed by James H. Kin ...

P-47 The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter, and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

P-38 The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is an American single-seat, twin piston-engined fighter aircraft that was used during World War II. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) by the Lockheed Corporation, the P-38 incorporated a distinc ...

and

P-63 The Bell P-63 Kingcobra is an American fighter aircraft that was developed by Bell Aircraft during World War II. Based on the preceding Bell P-39 Airacobra, the P-63's design incorporated suggestions from P-39 pilots and was superior to its pr ...

, which were used for fighter transition training. A

C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II. During the war the C-47 was used for troo ...

instrument school was also introduced and more than 20 C-47s were based at the field. Other aircraft assigned to GAAF included a B-17E Flying Fortress, several B-25 Mitchells and an

L-5 Sentinel The Stinson L-5 Sentinel is a World War II-era liaison aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), U.S. Army Ground Forces, U.S. Marine Corps and the British Royal Air Force. It was produced by the Stinson Division of the Vultee ...

. Third Air Force operated the airfield until flight training ceased in late 1945 and the base was placed in caretaker status until being turned over to the city of Greenwood by the War Assets Administration. As late as 1948, the Army and War Assets Administration maintained a fire station and a small contingent to look after the dormant air base.Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.

Postwar history

For the next 21 years the base was abandoned and most of the wartime buildings disappeared. In 1967, the city of Greenwood made a decision to relocate th
Greenwood Municipal Airport
to the abandoned Army Air Field. Runway 5/23 was lighted and placed in use. Weeds were removed from the miles of expansion joints on the otherwise intact ramp and a new rotating beacon was installed. At that time, only sixteen of the wartime structures included the old sub depot remained. At the time the airport was relocated, a new FAA Flight Service Station was constructed. Eventually, runway 18/36 was repaired and outfitted with new high-intensity runway lighting and an Instrument Landing System with MALSR. In 1989 a control tower was commissioned, and in the early 1990s runway 18/36 was lengthened to 6,503 feet and strengthened to accommodate wide-body aircraft. File:Greenwood Army Airfield - Oblique Airphoto of Flightline.jpg, 27 July 1944 aerial view of tornado damage at GAAF File:Greenwood Army Airfield - Vultee BT-15 Three-Ship Formation.jpg, Flight of BT-13s File:Greenwood Army Airfield - Flightline Open House Aircraft.jpg, 4th OTU airshow in June 1945 File:Greenwood Army Airfield - Flightline Aircraft Hangar.jpg, 1943 view looking east from the GAAF control tower toward the PLM and Squadron Hangars

Facilities

Greenwood–Leflore Airport covers 816

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (330 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of 155 feet (47 m). It has two asphalt

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s: 18/36 is 6,501 by 150 feet (1,982 x 46 m); 5/23 is 5,011 by 150 feet (1,527 x 46 m). In the year ending March 14, 2012 the airport had 42,116 aircraft operations, average 115 per day: 87%

, 10% military, and 3%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

. 57 aircraft were then based at the airport: 53% single-engine, 21%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

, 16% multi-engine, 5% jet, and 5% glider.

References

External links

Greenwood–Leflore Airport
official site
Aerial image as of February 1996
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, 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 eff ...