Big Delta Army Air Field
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Allen Army Airfield is a public and military use
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...
serving
Fort Greely Fort Greely is a United States Army launch site for anti-ballistic missiles located about southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska. It is also the home of the Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC), as Fort Greely is one of the coldest areas ...
and located three miles (5 km) south of the
central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
of
Delta Junction Delta Junction (; ) is a List of cities in Alaska, city in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 918. The city is located a short distance south of the con ...
, a city in the
Southeast Fairbanks Census Area Southeast Fairbanks Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,808, down from 7,029 in 2010. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat. Its lar ...
of the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
. It is owned by the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
, which has an agreement with the City of Delta Junction for joint use of the airfield by both military and civilian aircraft.


History

Established in 1942 as Big Delta Army Airfield, it was named for
river delta A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creat ...
formed by the
confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...
of the
Delta River The Delta River is an tributary of the Tanana River in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its name in the Ahtna language is ''Saas Na’ ''. Fed by the Tangle Lakes of the Alaska Range, the river flows north to meet the larger river near Big Delta. ...
and the
Tanana River The Tanana River (Lower Tanana language, Lower Tanana: Tth'eetoo', Upper Tanana language, Upper Tanana: ''Tth’iitu’ Niign'') is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Brig ...
. It was later renamed Allen Army Airfield. Fort Greely was built south of the airfield after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.


Facilities and aircraft

Allen Army Airfield resides at
elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
of above
mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...
. It has three
asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...
paved
runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...
s: 1/19 is 9,000 by 150 feet (2,743 x 46 m); 10/28 is 6,115 by 150 feet (1,864 x 46 m); 7/25 is 4,057 by 90 feet (1,243 x 27 m). Two runways are lighted and can accommodate heavy cargo aircraft year-round, including the
C-17 The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...
. Between December and April the runways can accommodate any aircraft, including the
C-5A The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force (USAF) with a heavy intercontinental-rang ...
. A
hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...
accommodates military aircraft as large as the
CH-47 The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a tandem-rotor helicopter originally developed by American rotorcraft company Piasecki Helicopter, Vertol and now manufactured by Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The Chinook is a Military transport helicopter, heav ...
. Approximately of
airport ramp The airport apron, apron, flight line, or ramp is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehicles, it ...
space is available. For the 12-month period ending January 3, 1984, the airport had 29,200 aircraft operations, an average of 80 per day: 91% military and 9%
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...
.


See also

* Alaska World War II Army Airfields *
Air Transport Command Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces. It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies a ...
*
Northwest Staging Route The Northwest Staging Route was a series of airstrips, airport and radio ranging stations operating in Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska during World War II. It extended into the Soviet Union as the ALSIB (ALaska-SIBerian air road). Th ...


References

*


External links


Topographic map
from
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...
''
The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the eff ...
'' * {{Airports in Alaska Airports in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska United States Army airfields Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command in Alaska