* * UPDATE INFORMATION * *

8/31/2006 update - This is the annual update compared to the FAA 5010 data base.  Mainly additions and a few closures.  The additions are highlighted with a darker green column in the first column.  A black box indicates a closure. 

5/31/2006 - I have received some recent data about the "unknown" airfield on the SE side of Marfa, TX.  The field has been confirmed as being used privately and is associated with the McGuire Ranch.  I am posting two pictures of it.  One is from USGS 1996 NAPP aerial picture.  The second, in color, is from Google Earth's latest aerial pictures.  The 1996 picture depicts the runway and on the SE end, construction of the extension to the 9,000 ft length.  The color picture shows the completed runway.  The reason given was the owner had tried to land a jet there and over ran the 6,000 ft length runway.  It is reported that there are two aircraft stored there.  (Also see 3/05/2006 update below.)

Wide view showing the "unknown" airfield to the SE side of Marfa.  (Google Earth)

1996 picture (USGS NAPP)

"Unknown" airfield with close up inserts at top and bottom. (Google Earth picture c. 2001-5)

4/3/2006 - update to cities D - G.  Corrections of minor problems and update to the source column.  Part of the overall process to have a uniform designators for sources.  See source table for Texas on left side under last city or click here .

SEE EARLIER UPDATE HISTORY AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE:

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As mentioned in the "gathering section", doing research on old fields can take some detective work.  Figuring out the location of the original Amarillo Municipal airport took a lot of work.  Had assumed it was a bit closer to town based on charts and descriptions.  A old photograph turned up that showed some features that could be used to create an overlay on the current "urban" color high resolution photograph on Terraserver.

Prior to finding the old photograph, working with the 1944 Oklahoma City SAC, the location was estimated to be a triangle bounded by roads C, E, and F.

A circa 1938/39 picture of the original Amarillo Municipal airport.  Features are labeled.

Finding the same features in the 2002 urban photograph allowed for locating the position of the airfield.

Zooming in to the where the runways intersected, you actually see remains of the runway!

It was rewarding to work out the correct location of the airfield and find some remains.  No other remains can be found for the Amarillo Municipal.  The airfield was owned by the city as was the English Airfield.  English Field was located further to the east and is operational today as Amarillo's International Airport.

There was an earlier location of the Amarillo Municipal, but the best we have so far is the distance and current data would have it adjoining the Municipal airfield just to the east.  The picture below shows the relationship between the Municipal and English.

This is the abridged version of the Texas 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 unabridged version is a very large excel spreadsheet and is currently approximately 20.5MB in size with over 38,000 entries in it.  The full data base, including all hyperlinks to external data, is over 750MB in size.  Entries can vary from a single entry for an airfield, to some that have been around for a long time may have over 50 entries.

I have been working on a major update to Texas.  I have been loading a lot of data from 1930 to 1944 into the data base.  I hope to complete this work within the next two weeks at which time I will update the data here.  Meanwhile, I will update the totals periodically.  I have also completed a review of the active airfield list from the FAA sources that has changed a few things too.  Still don’t have the same answer, but most likely all differences have to do with small private airfields.

EARLIER UPDATES HISTORY:

3/05/2006 - added an "unknown" airfield to the M section - Marfa, TX.  I was out there and identified this unidentified airfield as active and associated with a McGuire Ranch.  Unusual feature is a 9000 foot long paved runway!  I have not found this airfield in any source including the FAA 5010 file.  It does not show up on any aeronautical chart.  I saw a twin turboprop landing and taking off there (2/28/06).

A series of updates will be made on Texas by section.  The Texas data base has become so large that I have broken down to seven (25) sub data bases.  As I do an update to one of the 25 data bases, I will release it.  Since this is a work in progress effort - it acts a bit as a wave.  What I mean is that when I work on section K (for example), I may have found errors back in section C which I have corrected.  However, I have not updated what is here on the web just yet for C.  My plan is, when finished, to make a general update to all sections so that, hopefully, all changes have been incorporated.

2/15/2006 - (Texas db A to C) second update.  This incorporates the "wave" changes.

1/31/2006 - (Texas db P to Z) Update to the P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y-Z sections.  This completes the updating to the data base.  The final update in this series will be to repost A - O sections.  This should occur within the next week or so.

1/16/2006 - (Texas db L, M, N and O) Update to the L, M, N and O sections.  Might note that as these updates are ongoing, there could be conflicts with items in the A - K sections and the sections P - Z.  This is like a wave going through the data base and some changes have been make as to what city and airfield is considered to be attached to.  The source column is also undergoing modification.  The goal is to have a uniform meaning for each source (e.g. San Antonio Sectional Aeronautical Chart Scale 1:500,000, 9th edition June 22, 1972 is being listed simply as SA SAC - 1972; San Antonio (O-5) Sectional Aeronautical chart Feb. 18, 1951 is listed as SA SAC O-5 - 1951.)

1/7/2006 - (Texas db I, J and K) Update to the I, J and K sections.

1/2/2006 - (Texas db=E-H) Update to the E, F, G and H sections.  Some new data, corrections, etc.  Some changes in this part of the data base has resulted in some changes in the A through D parts.  Those will be updated after all work is completed on this update period.

12/26/2005 - (Texas db=C&D) Update to the C and D sections.  Some new data, corrections, etc.

12/21/2005 - (Texas db=A&B) Update to the A and B sections.  Some new data and corrections.

10/6/2005 - a fix applied to a typo in the "M" section.

August 6, 2005 revision - see below about Amarillo Municipal Airport.

Revision August 2, 2005: Revision incorporates data from Dept. of Commerce Aeronautics Branch's Bulletin No. 5, dated April 15, 1929.  Much of this data is a bit iffy.  This is only a listing and contains no data beyond the state, name and type of airfield.  Correlating this data to data from charts and directories is till on going and may result in reclassification of some of these airfields as standalone closed fields to be actually other fields (active or closed).  As better data becomes available, this 1929 data may be updated/corrected.  Based on this data, approximately 64 additional "new" airfields have been identified and classified as closed.

7/30/2005 update:  This update incorporates "new" data mainly from 1931 to 1939 with some updates from 1944 to 1948.  I have used data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Aeronautics Branch's Airway Bulletin No. 2 "DESCRIPTIONS OF AIRPORTS AND LANDING FIELDS IN THE UNITED STATES" directories for 1931,1934, 1936 and 1939.  These documents, printed twice a year, started in the early 1930s and ended about 1941.  They contain a wealth of information.  Also used are two (1934 and 1939) AIRPORTS AND ESTABLISHED LANDING FIELDS IN THE UNITED STATES printed by The Airport Directory Company of Hackensack NY.  "The Airport Directory" printed by Haire Publishing cover 1946 and 1948.  Also used are some recently received aeronautical charts from 1941 through 1949.  I have corrected some errors I had about some airports/airfields so hopefully, this update is much better than the earlier versions.