Naval Air Station Dallas (also Hensley Field) was a United States Navy Naval Air Station located on Mountain Creek Lake in southwest Dallas. The installation was originally established as an Army Aviation center, and eventually became home to aviation assets from all the military services. The facility was decommissioned in December 1998.[1] The base was later recommissioned as it is today, with the half that housed the aircraft-related facilities (such as the runway, hangars, etc.) going to the Texas Air National Guard, and the half with the bulk of non-aircraft related facilities going to the Army Reserves and small area to Marine Forces Reserve. Vought Aircraft Industries operates a government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) plant adjacent to NAS Dallas.
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The City of Dallas established Hensley Field in August 1929 as a training field for reserve pilots. The facility was named for Major William N. Hensley, a flying instructor located near Dallas in the 1920s and one of the few on board the first trans-Atlantic dirigible crossing in 1919.[2]
The city leased the site to the United States Army for a dollar a year. The field became the Air Corps Reserve Base in the Eighth Corps Area. At the beginning of World War II, the Army extended their lease to 40 years. In March 1941, the Navy began maintaining operations at the base and shortly afterward established a naval reserve training base on 160 acres (0.7 km2) adjacent to Hensley Field.[2]
In December 1941 Hensley Field became headquarters of the Midwest Area of the Air Corps Ferrying Command, after Maj. Thomas D. Ferguson, commander of the field, was made control officer for the Middle West Area of the United States.[2]
The installation was closed in 1998 as part of the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure conducted by the Department of Defense, but partially reopened in the early 21st-century to accommodate military training requirements.