Momote Airport is an airport on

Los Negros Island Los Negros Island is the third largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is significant because it contains the main airport of Manus Province on its eastern coastline, at Momote. It is connected to Lorengau, the capital of the province, on Manus ...

in the

Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-cov ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. It also serves

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

, which is connected to Los Negros by a bridge.

History

Hayne Airfield

Built by the

Imperial Japanese The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From 1910 to 19 ...

at Momote during

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 ...

. Known as ''Hayne Airfield'' by the Japanese, as they called Los Negros, ''Hayne Island''. The

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, ...

was long × wide with three

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with Airport apron, aprons, hangars, Airport terminal, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, although sma ...

s and 12

revetment A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...

s under construction. Occupied on 2 March 1944 by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary 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 the United Stat ...

's 1st Cavalry Division as part of the

Battle of Los Negros The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division (United States), 1st Cavalry Division took the Empire of Japan, Japanes ...

, which was part of the

Admiralty Islands campaign The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division took the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands. Acting on reports from air ...

Japanese Units based at Hayne Airfield

* 63rd Sentai, 3rd Chutai (

Ki-43 The Nakajima Ki-43 ''Hayabusa'' (, "Peregrine falcon"), formal Japanese designation is a single-engine land-based tactical fighter used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service in World War II. The Allied reporting name was "Oscar", but it ...

) * 14th Sentai ( Ki-21)

Momote Airfield

After liberating the airfield on 2 March 1944, the

Seabees United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Forces (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Dependi ...

of the 40th Naval Construction Battalion repaired the airfield and the airfield became operational on 18 May 1944, although fighters were landing at the airfield only two days after occupation. The single runway was extended to long × wide with shoulders, constructed with a coral base with marsden matting covering at the ends of the runway. A 7,000-barrel fuel depot was set up at the airfield. The United States Navy established Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit No.1 (AROU 1) in the spring of 1944 on Momote Airfield between Seeadler Harbor and the Bismarck Sea on Los Negros Island. AROU 1 conducted maintenance and testing of naval aircraft and supplied aircraft to naval forces for major assaults as far away as the Philippine Islands.

Allied Units Based at Momote Airfield

* Headquarters,

Thirteenth Air Force The Thirteenth Expeditionary Air Force (13 EAF) is a provisional numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam on the island of Oahu, ...

, (15 June-13 September 1944) * Headquarters, XIII Bomber Command, (June-3 September 1944) * 5th Bomb Group Headquarters **

23d Bomb Squadron The 23rd Bomb Squadron is a United States Air Force unit, assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing. It is stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. The mission of the squadron is to fly the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber. The me ...

(B-24s) **

31st Bomb Squadron 31 (thirty-one) is the natural number following 30 and preceding 32. It is a prime number. Mathematics 31 is the 11th prime number. It is a superprime and a self prime (after 3, 5, and 7), as no integer added up to its base 10 digits resu ...

(B-24s) **

72d Bomb Squadron The 72d Test and Evaluation Squadron is part of the 53d Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The squadron is geographically separated but is operated from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It conducts testing and evaluation of the B-2 S ...

(

B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models desi ...

s) **

394th Bomb Squadron The 394th Combat Training Squadron was a United States Air Force unit assigned to the 509th Operations Group until inactivated on 13 April 2018. It was stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The mission of the squadron was to train ...

(B-24s) *

307th Bombardment Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

, (13 AF) (29 April-24 August 1944) *

403d Troop Carrier Group 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. Evolution of the H ...

, (13 AF) 30 August-4 October 1944 * Detachment,

419th Night Fighter Squadron The 419th Night Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Thirteenth Air Force, being inactivated at Floridablanca, Luzon on 20 February 1947. The unit was formed in 1943. After training, it was ...

, (13 AF) (27 June-18 August 1944) * Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit No.1 (AROU 1, USN) (est. late May 1944) * No. 19 Squadron RNZAF ( F4Us) *

No. 73 Wing RAAF No. 73 Wing was a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Wing (military aviation unit), wing of World War II. It was formed in February 1943 at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as part of No. 9 Operational Group RAAF, No. 9 Operational Group. ...

** No. 76 Squadron RAAF ( Kittyhawks) ** No. 77 Squadron RAAF ( Kittyhawks) ** No. 79 Squadron RAAF (

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the ...

s) * No. 27 Air Stores Park RAAF * No. 114 (Mobile) Fighter Sector Headquarters RAAF * No. 346 Radar Station RAAF A memorial to the 1944 operation of the

1st Cavalry Division (United States) The 1st Cavalry Division ("First Team") is a Armored brigade combat team, combined arms division (military), division and is one of the most decorated combat divisions of the United States Army. It is based at Fort Cavazos, Texas. It was for ...

on Los Negros Island is located near the north end of the airfield.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

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 one

designated 16/34 with a

chip seal Chipseal (also chip seal or chip and seal or spray seal) is a pavement surface treatment that combines one or more layers of asphalt with one or more layers of fine aggregate. In the United States, chipseals are typically used on rural roads c ...

surface measuring . The airport can accommodate B737 operations and night operations. The airport is sometimes used by private business jets as an alternative stop-over on the route between United States and India.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Momote Airfield
* * * www.lowyinstitute.org
''A Chinese-built airport next door to a key Australia-US naval base?''
(7 Aug 2020) {{authority control Airports in Papua New Guinea Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II Manus Province Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Air Transport Command in the South West Pacific Theater Seabees World War II sites in Papua New Guinea