Garner Field is an airport in

Uvalde County Uvalde County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 24,564. Its county seat is Uvalde. The county was created in 1850 and organized in 1856. It is named for Juan de Ugalde, the Spani ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, three miles east of the city of Uvalde, which owns it. It is named for

John Nance Garner John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American Democratic politician and lawyer from Texas who served as the 32nd vice president of the United States under Frank ...

, 32nd

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice p ...

History

Opened in October 1941 with three 6,000 ft hard surfaced runways, (00/18; 04/27; 15/33). Began training

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

flying cadets under contract to Hangar Six Corp with 305th Flying Training Detachment (Contract Pilot School). Assigned to Gulf Coast Training Center (later Central Flying Training Command) as a primary (level 1) pilot training airfield. Hangar Six, Inc. conducted pilot training. Airfield had four local auxiliary airfields for emergency and overflow landings. Flying training used

Fairchild PT-19 The Fairchild PT-19 (company designation Fairchild M62) is an American monoplane primary trainer aircraft that served with the United States Army Air Forces, RAF and RCAF during World War II. Designed by Fairchild Aircraft, it was a contempora ...

s as the primary trainer. Also had several

PT-17 Stearman The Stearman (Boeing) Model 75 is a biplane formerly used as a military trainer aircraft, of which at least 10,626 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Stearman Aircraft became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely know ...

s and a few

P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time an ...

s. Inactivated on 30 June 1945 with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program. Declared surplus and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on 30 September 1945. Eventually discharged to the War Assets Administration (WAA) and became a civil airport. Very little of the wartime airfield still exists, as most of the airfield has been rebuilt as

Southwest Texas Junior College Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC) is a public community college with four campuses serving 11 counties in southwest Texas: unincorporated Uvalde County (next to Uvalde and on the site of Garner Field), Del Rio (northwest portion), next t ...

Airlines

Trans-Texas Airways Trans-Texas may refer to: * Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), a transportation network in the planning and early construction stages in the U.S. state of Texas * Trans-Texas Airways, a former a United States airline, known as Texas International Texa ...

DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

s landed at Uvalde from 1948 to 1954. * Uvalde Aero Service ran, from 1965 until 1977, scheduled commuter services to other cities in Texas, and an air-mail route to

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. The airline operated Lockheed L-12 Electra Junior,

Piper Navajo The Piper PA-31 Navajo is a family of cabin-class, twin-engined aircraft designed and built by Piper Aircraft for the general aviation market, most using Lycoming engines. It was also license-built in a number of Latin American countries. Ta ...

and

Piper Twin Comanche The Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche is an American twin-engined cabin monoplane designed and built by Piper Aircraft. It was a twin-engined development of the PA-24 Comanche single-engined aircraft. A variant with counter-rotating propellers was ...

Facilities

Garner Field covers at an elevation of 942 feet (287 m). Its one runway, 15/33, is 5,255 by 100 ft (1,602 x 30 m) asphalt. In the year ending April 7, 2005 the airport had 12,565 aircraft operations, average 34 per day: 96%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation service ...

, 2%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

and 2% military. 48 aircraft were then based at the airport: 63% single-engine, 8% multi-engine, 13% jet, 8%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribut ...

and 8% glider.

References

;Other sources * * Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas * Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.

External links

* *
{{USAAF Training Bases World War II 1941 establishments in Texas USAAF Contract Flying School Airfields Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Texas Airports in Texas Buildings and structures in Uvalde County, Texas Transportation in Uvalde County, Texas Airports established in 1941 USAAF Central Flying Training Command American Theater of World War II Uvalde, Texas

History

Airlines

Facilities

See also

References

External links