ARIZONA

6/27/2010 update: Corrections, some airfields have closed and a few new opening airfields plus identifying additional unknown airfields. Net results is a small reduction in number of active airfields and increase in closed/inactive. A number of additional unknowns have been added. Replaced a number of the 1943 (1945 AAF directory) photos with better ones. This is release R13.

8/17/2009 update: This includes more pictures and some corrections to data (R12).

1/20/2009 update: This is a major update to the Arizona database. With this release (R11), pictures have been added.

Sept. 18, 2007 update: Correction to Pylant/Southwest Airways airport in Phoenix and addition of two auxiliary airfields (Aux #2 and #3) that supported Thunderbird No. 1 airport in World War II.

August 29, 2007 update: Annual review against the FAA 5010 data base. Net was no new fields detected and three (3) were closed. Have changed one designation - the "?" (or "??") in the column "status" to not be counted either active or closed. A separate category is established of unknown status. Currently, the data base has 37 unidentified airfields. Some are military target airfields (likely no real ops ever occurred on these) to a number of private strips detected. More of the Google Earth pictures of Arizona are in high resolution now (hopefully in the future the complete state will be upgraded). When looking around, found a number of "unknowns" that I associated with Buckeye, Maricopa, Pima and Safford. I am sure there are others, but the low resolution Google Earth pictures are too hard to find them. A few errors were detected and corrected in the data base. Also, 1927, 1930 and 1931 CAA Bulletin #5 have been acquired and data added appropriately. Just to restate, I don't normally include any helicopter pads and some of the ultra lights with runways well under 1,000 feet are not included in the data base. There are a few airfields listed in the current FAA 5010 data base, in my estimation and research are closed and are noted in the data base with "FAA 5010 see remarks".

Mach 8, 2007 update: This incorporates updates, in particular, adding data from a 1947 Arizona airfield directory. 12 closed airfields have been identified. Some fields have now an earlier start date than previous data indicated.

September 3, 2006 update. This is the annual review against the FAA 5010 data base. Two (2) new fields added, seven (7) closures and five (5) change in status/update is the result of this update. In the closure category, several of note occurred in this update cycle. Grapevine (code 51AZ) located in Roosevelt, AZ, no longer is carried in 5010 and assumed now closed. Forepaugh (44E) at Wickenburg, AZ is not in the FAA 5010 data base and appears to be closed. This field started as Echeverria about 1942/43 and remained under this name till 1947. From 1948 through 1968, it was Wickenburg Municipal airport. Changed name to Forepaugh in 1970 to the present.

August 27, 2006 - update. Minor updates to data. The data base was resorted and re-initialized - so hopefully, no errors! If you find something, send me an Email.

The update includes adding two more "mystery" airfields on the Luke Range in south west part of AZ. The Luke Range covers a wedge from Yuma to Gila Bend and south down to the border. These "mystery" unknown airfields appear on the range and five had been previously identified. Mr. C. Baird contacted me about Arizona data and I started to re-examine the area. Mr. Baird pointed out one that I had missed, and I located one additional one too. That brings the total to seven (7) "mystery" airfields on the range.

These mystery airfields are most likely NOT operational bases but rather, targets or used for some training activities. The entire range has many large "target" symbols and other marks on it. Some of these are near the old "triangle" airfields constructed during WW2 have these "targets" near them.

According to Mr. Baird (see www.arizonawrecks.com ), numerous aircraft crashes have occurred on this range over the years. Also, the range has been used for shooting down targets / drones and considerable amount of wreckage exists on the range.

In addition to the Luke Range, two additional fields have been identified associated with the U.S. Army at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. In the northwest area of the reservation, two short paved runways exist. Both have "X"s on the runways. The first on in the data base (Fort Huachuca Aux #1) has been there since 1992 but appears to have been lengthened. About 1 mile west is a "new" field. In the 1992 aerial coverage, a rectangle area had been cleared. In the latest color Google Earth aerial pictures, a new runway has been constructed.

Ft. Huachuca has its primary airfield (Libby AAF / Sierra Vista Municipal) and the following fields existed or are still being used to some degree. These auxiliary fields are:

Fort Huachuca Aux #2 - new field with paved runway (with three "X" on the runway)

Fort Huachuca unknown #1 - to the east of the about +5 miles. Runway is dirt/gravel and is east/west oriented next to road.

All of the Luke Range mystery fields and those at Fort Huachuca are considered as inactive/closed in the count above.

To view an overview of the Luke Range, click on this button. The picture is based on the Phoenix Sectional Aeronautical Chart from 2005. Overlaid are pictures and points that show where these fields are located in the Luke Range. This .jpg picture is approximately 600KB in size so it might take some time to download.

11/18/2005 - major update. Incorporates about 1,500 more data points. However, what you see on each page (left buttons), is an abridged version. The number of active fields remains unchanged, but 25 more closed/inactive fields have been identified. Various errors have also been corrected with this release.

8/1/2005 update incorporates data from the Dept. of Commerce Aeronautics Branch Bulletin No. 5 dated April 15, 1929. The data contained in the bulletin consists of a listing of airfields. No other data is contained. Thus, some of the closed airfields listed in this update may turn out to belong to another airfield that shows up in 1931. All that was there to work with was names and type. Bulletin listed types as military (army/navy), intermediate, commercial, or auxiliary. No coordinates or directions are provided.

7/23-25/2005 update incorporated data from Dept. of Commerce Bulletin No. 2 for 1931, 1934, 1946, 1938 and the Airport Directory Company for 1934 and 1939. Data was also added from United States Army * Navy DIRECTORY OF AIRFIELDS dated Dec. 1, 1944. Charts from 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1943 also were used too. This is built upon existing data entered from charts, directories, historical resources in the past.

This is the abridged version of the Arizona main data base. All airfields are presented with earliest and latest entries along with anything that helps to understand the history of the airfield (name changes, etc.). This update includes data from 1931 and 1948 airport directories.

The unabridged version is a very large excel spreadsheet and is currently approximately 1.5MB in size with over 4,700 entries in it. Entries can vary from a single entry for an airfield, to some that have been around for a long time may have over 30 entries.

Arizona Data by city name:

copyrighted 2005-2012

David W Brooks

If you want the unabridged version I have on a particular airfield or area (e.g. town) or all of Arizona, please drop me an Email (see home page or Link page) and will arrange to send you the data. All data is in Excel spreadsheet (.xls).

Update:

R13 - 06/27/2010

R12 - 08/17/2009