Category: Places and Bases
There were several good guesses as to the identity of this “Mystery” airfield, but no one nailed it. So, here are a few more clues:Naval Air Station San Diego
NAS San Diego was home to USS Ranger (R) and USS Langley (L) in the mid/late ’30s. Photo taken from a Martin PM-1.
Same two vessels, different day. A PBY cruises above, a P2Y peeks from behind Ranger.
As seen in these two photos, the area around Naval Air Station (NAS) San Diego in the 1930s was a busy place where ships, boats, and airplanes all vied for position on the harbor waters of the base’s namesake city. The navy, of course, later changed the name of their San Diego air base to its present title, NAS North Island. Even though the base’s land was not an island, that designation came about. At one time, it had been an island, but that enclave no longer existed, having been connected to the rest of California in the 1940s by ample loads of sand and gravel.
Nevertheless, what has not changed is that NAS San Diego/North “Island” is still a bustling locale; its nearby waters remain a swirl of ships, boats, and, though fewer in numbers from the seaplane-rich era of the 1930s, aircraft.
And Now it’s Time to Play “Name That Airfield”
Update: We have a Winner! The base in question is Pendleton Field, Oregon. We tip our chapeau to “Guillaume” for being the first to correctly identify this week’s mystery airfield.
This mystery airfield (looking as if it fell out of the sky and landed in the middle of nowhere) is this week’s challenge. So, be the first to name this place and you will win the undying admiration of your aviation-minded colleagues.
World War 1 USN Airship Operations
Caption reads “The original 15 airship pilots and USN enlisted men at Royal Airship Station, Cranwell, England, winter or 1917-18”. Two of those pilots, R. Keily, and C.D. Anderson (2nd row, 4th & 5th from the left) wear Royal Flying Corps pilot wings.
This photo’s caption states that this “British Patrol Dirigible”, the R-31 was flown by Lt. (j.g.) Eugene Wolfe and other American pilots.
Another airship flown by USN naval aviators in WW1 was the French Chalais-Meudon T-2.
Home base for the USN airship pilots in France was Naval Air Station Paimbœuf.
Peter O. Knight Airport, 1938
Still busy today with general aviation, Peter O. Knight opened in 1935 as Tampa’s principal airport and remained so until 1945. One of many airports built under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the field boasted multiple paved runways, could handle seaplanes, and had a very nifty art-deco terminal seen in the foreground (unfortunately, now long-gone). When this photo was taken in March of ’38, the main attraction was the bevy of Air Corps planes dotting the field: B-18s, P-26s, P-35s, and a lone B-10.
Shaw AFB, 1955
RB-57’s and RB-26’s of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing bask in the South Carolina sunshine. With their black paint jobs, the interior of these aircraft must have been hotter than an atomic sauna.
PS. Whatever 1950’s chemical is in those green barrels killing the grass beneath would probably drop a man dead with one sip.
More RB-57’s. The hangar under construction is still in use today.
C-119’s and RB-26’s.
More C-119’s and RB-57’s with a couple of RT-33’s in the distance. Constructed in 1941, Shaw was slowly modernizing in the 1950’s but there are still plenty of WWII buildings in the background.
F-86s arriving at Shaw on a cross-country hop from Alexandria AFB, LA. Renamed later that year as England AFB, it was, in 1955, home to the 366th Fighter Bomber Wing and their Sabres.
Open house at CGAS St. Petersburg
Above: B-18’s of the 32nd Bomb Squadron have flown cross-country from there home at March Field Ca. The B-18 would become a familiar sight to locals when MacDill Field opens nearby in 1941.
Douglas O-25
Classy mom and dad. The hangar still stands, and the base is still in use today, but is no longer an air station; it is now USCG Sector St. Petersburg.
Zentralflughafen Tempelhof-Berlin
According to the caption on the back, the photo was taken 1923/4. This, of course, before the airport’s Nazi era makeover. An Udet U-8 is seen in the foreground.
Winter’s day at the Thule Air Base Greenland alert barn, and one very frozen F-89 Scorpion
The F-89D (53-2606) is from Thule’s 74th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. This aircraft went to the boneyard in 1960.
Busy Beach at NAS North Island in WWI
The Jive Bomber 