Fairfax Field
| Fairfax Field | |
|---|---|
| Part of 1951-4:  Air Defense Command1944-tbd:  AAF Technical Services Commandtbd:  Air Transport Command1935-1942: US Navy |
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| Located on Goose Island, Kansas, at the state line on the Missouri River west of North Kansas City, Missouri | |
Northward view of the air base in World War II after the modification center was built along the south taxiway.
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| Coordinates | 39°09′10″N 094°36′43″W / 39.15278°N 94.61194°W (1941-89 B-25/GM plant) |
| Code | FUDS - WRD (WWII weather station) |
Fairfax Field was an early United States Air Force installation north of Kansas City, Kansas. Used as a pre-war Naval Air Station, the United States Army Air Forces leased the municipal airfield and built an Air Force Plant and modification center for North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber production. Military use of the site continued as late as 1957 by the Strategic Air Command's 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group for bombing practice.
Kansas City, Missouri, had military activities beginning as early as 1919 when the city was part of a recruiting campaign in which "seventeen flying fields, one repair depot, and five balloon stations" took part. In 1923 the Air Service's southern division of the Model Airway used an airfield in the city for an Army air route to Kelly Field, Texas; and by the end of 1925, the "403th [sic] Pursuit Squadron" was assigned to a Kansas City facility (the Air Service leased the land for the airdrome in Kansas City, Missouri, with steel hangars for $1/year.) In 1940, the USGS mapped the "State Boundary" as a straight north-south line demarcating a small eastern portion of "Fairfax Airport" as being in Missouri. By the end of 1942, Kansas City, Missouri, had a modification center--in addition to the Fairfax plant and modification center in Kansas. On 2 March 1945, Military Air Transport moved an air freight terminal to Fairfax from Kansas City, Missouri.
The USAF Central Air Defense Force (CADF) was activated with headquarters at Kansas City, Missouri, on 1 March 1951; on 24 April the Central Army Antiaircraft Command was "established with HQ at Kansas City" (organized 1 May 1951); and on 1 July the USAF 35th Air Division was activated at Kansas City (moved to Dobbins Air Force Base in September). The 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron--after being assigned to Peterson Field on 1 March 1952--had its Flight B assigned with "Defense Force Headquarters [at] Kansas City, Missouri". While Grandview Air Force Base was being completed, on 1 October 1952 Kansas City, Missouri, had CADF's Technical and Ground Training Division, and the NSA's Special Study Group met on 1 August 1953 at "Headquarters, Central Air Defense Force, Kansas City, Missouri".
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