For the United States Air Force use of the airport, see Hondo Air Base

Hondo Air Base

Hondo Air Base is an inactive United States Air Force base, approximately 2 miles west-northwest of Hondo, Texas. It was active during World War II and during the early years of the Cold War as a training airfield...

Hondo Municipal Airport is a public-use airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 located two nautical miles (3.7 km) northwest of the central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 of Hondo

Hondo, Texas

Hondo is a city in and the county seat of Medina County, Texas, United States. According to the 2000 Census, the population was 7,897...

, in Medina County, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is owned and operated by the city of Hondo.

Facilities and aircraft

Hondo Municipal Airport covers an area of 3500 acres (1,416.4 ha) at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 930 feet (283 m) above mean sea level. It has five runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

s:

• 4/22 is 5,400 by 150 feet (1,646 x 46 m) with a concrete surface;
• 8/26 is 6,059 by 150 feet (1,847 x 46 m) with a concrete surface;
• 13/31 is 6,045 by 150 feet (1,843 x 46 m) with a concrete surface;
• 17L/35R is 5,624 by 150 feet (1,714 x 46 m) with a concrete surface;
• 17R/35L is 3,224 by 140 feet (983 x 43 m) with an asphalt surface.

For the 12-month period ending April 14, 2008, the airport had 27,120 aircraft operations, an average of 74 per day: 69% military

Military aviation

Military aviation is the use of aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling warfare, including national airlift capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a theater or along a front. Air power includes the national means of conducting such...

 and 31% general aviation

General aviation

General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

. At that time there were 22 aircraft based at this airport: 82% single-engine

Aircraft engine

An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...

, 14% multi-engine and 4% helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

.

History

Hondo Municipal Airport has its origins in 1942 with the establishment by the Army Air Corps of Hondo Army Airfield, and was used as a Navigator training base. The Women's Air Force Service Pilot squadrons were assigned there in November 1943. Two notable woman pilots, Betty Henrich and Hollywood stunt actress Mary Wiggins, were among the first WASPs to report for duty. Between July 1942 and August 1945 some 14,158 navigators were trained at Hondo. The base was closed on December 29, 1945, and the buildings and fixtures were sold as surplus.

Between 1945 and 1951 civilian operators such as the Hollaway flying school trained student pilots at the former base under the GI Bill. As a result of the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

, the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 reactivated the base as a contract pilot training center, training pilots at Hondo Air Base. It closed again in 1958.

During the 1960s the city of Hondo leased facilities at the base to the Hondo Livestock Auction and to Gary Aerospace, Universal Rundle, and Doss Aviation. The aviation companies worked with the United States Air Force to screen pilots, and Universal Rundle manufactured toilets.

In 1957 a golf course was constructed on the base through the efforts of base commander Lt Col Earl V. Riley. A golf tournament bearing his name remained a yearly event in the 1980s. In the spring of 1973 the Air Force began a flight-screening program at Hondo using the T-41 Mescalero

T-41 Mescalero

The Cessna T-41 Mescalero is a military version of the popular Cessna 172 used by the United States Air Force and Army as well as the armed forces of various other countries as a pilot training aircraft.-Design and development:...

, a militarized version of the civilian Cessna 172. The training program, still in operation in the 1980s, was attended by United States and foreign students.

After the mid-1970s the base housed a number of businesses, including a fiberglass-products plant, a greenhouse, a national guard armory, and the Medina Electric Cooperative.

External links

• Aerial photo as of 14 January 1995 from USGS The National Map