Williams Air Force Base

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Williams Air Force Base was the leading pilot training facility of the United States Air Force for many years, supplying 25% of all pilots. The base, now defunct, was located ten miles east of Chandler, Arizona on land that has since been annexed as part of Mesa, Arizona.

The United States Army Air Forces broke ground for its Advance Flying School there on July 16, 1941. During the fifty-two years it was operational, the base graduated more pilots and instructors than any other base in the country and supplied twenty-five percent of the Air Force's pilots annually. The base was closed in September, 1993. Some property was retained by the US government while other portions were conveyed and converted into the civilian Williams Gateway Airport and an educational campus anchored by Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus and Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

 The primary training aircraft used during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s were the Cessna T-37 Screaming Mimi and the Northrup T-38 Talon.  Both trainers were two-seat, dual-engine jet aircraft.
 The undergraduate flight training program lasted just less than one full year and involved classroom, simulator, and aircraft training activities.  Graduates were selected to remain as instructors, after an intensive training course, or went on to train in their primary weapon system aircraft.
 Students proceeded from the academic phase of classroom and simulator instruction around the six-week point of the program.  The first flight was largely a 'demo' flight in the T-37 aircraft with the instructor orienting the student to the aircraft, the local training area, and some basic flight maneuvers.