** UPDATE INFORMATION **

09/01/2006 update - annual review against the current FAA 5010 data base.  Several new private airfields added and several closures.  It appears that Eunice airport at Eunice, NM, is now closed.  The runway had been reported in poor condition.  It was the only civil auxiliary airfield to be closed.  All others were private airfields.  NOTE:  for new additions, a darker green is in the first column.  If the the airfield/airport has closed, black is used in the first column.

12/12/2005 - update incorporates new data.  Only minor increase in airfields but also corrected a few errors.  Also have added some "unknown airfields" around Orogrande, NM.  These appear to be military strips associated with Fort Bliss, Texas.

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.

************************

One of the most interesting and little known airfields in New Mexico (and the United States) is the Northrup Strip / White Sands Space Port.  The airfield was established in the 1960-1965 time frame.  The name originally listed for the field was Northrup Strip - assuming that it must have had a connection to Northrup Aircraft Company.  In the late 1970s, NASA needed some alternative landing sites for the Space Shuttle and this airfield was greatly expanded to allow for the space shuttle to land there.  In fact, an early Shuttle flight (STS-3) did land there when the Murroc (Edwards AFB) strip had bad weather and the landing strip at Cape Kennedy Space Center was not qualified yet. 

STS-3 landing at White Sands Space Port on March 30, 1982.

The unique feature of this airfield is the length of the runways.  There are a total of three runways and each runway are gravel type runway.

This first view shows a picture of the entire field.  The details are hard to see other than the general runway layout that are highlighted.  The second (right side) is a close up of the north end of the runways.

The third shows the west end of two runways.

The fourth picture shows the center area and a building to the SE side of the junction.

One runway, the 2/20 is the shortest appearing to be about 10,000 feet in length with at least another 10,000 feet of overrun.  The 15/35 runway appears to be on the order of 20,000 to 25,000 feet in length with 5,000 -10,000 foot overruns on each end.  The 5/23 oriented runway is the second longest appearing to be about 20,000 feet long with 6,000 - 10,000 feet overruns at each end.  The runways are marked with shuttle symbols on each end.  The field is still maintained by NASA for emergency usage by the space shuttle.

************************

This is a major update.  It contains data I have gathered from the 1930s and early 1940s.  I have split the data base into four parts now due to size.

This is the abridged version of the New Mexico 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.).  The information has been reduced to cover single entries, multiple entries will have, at minimum, the earliest date I have data on the field and the latest date.

Name changes are also preserved, chronologically, so you can tell approximately when changes did occur.  The unabridged version is a very large excel spreadsheet and is currently approximately 1.0 MB in size with over 3,000 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.

A lot of new data added and clarification on status of a number of airfields.  If you want the unabridged version I have on a particular airfield or area (e.g. town) or all of New Mexico, please drop me an Email (see below) and will arrange to send you the data.  All data is in Excel spreadsheet (.xls).