Newport Municipal Airport (Arkansas)

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Coordinates: 35°38′24.70″N 091°10′49.84″W / 35.6401944, -91.1805111

Newport Municipal Airport


Newport Municipal Airport, 13 Feb 1994
IATA: none – ICAO: none – FAA: M19
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner City of Newport
Location Newport, Arkansas
Elevation AMSL 239 ft / 72 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
4/22 5,000 1,524 Asphalt
18/36 5,000 1,524 Asphalt
Oblique airphoto of Newport Army Airfield, about 1945, looking east to west.
Oblique airphoto of Newport Army Airfield, about 1945, looking east to west.

Newport Municipal Airport (FAA LID: M19) is a general aviation airport located 5 miles NE of Newport, Arkansas.

It is owned and operated by the city of Newport.

Contents

[edit] History

The airport was opened in December 1942 as as Newport Army Airfield and was used by the United States Army Air Forces as a training base during World War II which conducted training as part of the 70,000 Pilot Training Program. Four thousand Army pilots received basic training at Newport field from Dec. 25, 1942, to June 21, 1944. Some 425,000 hours were flown during the time, with only 20 fatalities. Two known auxillary airfields, Erwin and Milltown, were used by the flight school at Newport AAF.

When the USAAF departed, the airfield was turned over to the Navy, and it was used to train Navy and Marine Corps pilots until the end of the war.

At the end of the war the airfield was determined to be excess by the military and turned over to the local government for civil use.

[edit] See Also

[edit] References

  • Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub, ISBN 1575100517

[edit] External Links