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Ladd Air Force Base

Ladd Army Airfield
(Ladd Air Force Base)
FBK.png
Summary
Airport type Military: Army Airfield
Operator United States Army
Serves Fort Wainwright
Location Fairbanks, Alaska
Built 1938
Elevation AMSL 454 ft / 138 m
Coordinates 64°50′15″N 147°36′52″W / 64.83750°N 147.61444°W / 64.83750; -147.61444Coordinates: 64°50′15″N 147°36′52″W / 64.83750°N 147.61444°W / 64.83750; -147.61444
Website www.wainwright.army.mil
Map
FBK is located in Alaska
FBK
FBK
Location of airport in Alaska
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
6/24 8,575 2,614 Asphalt/Concrete
Ladd Field
NRHP Reference # 85002730
Significant dates
Added to NRHP February 4, 1985
Designated NHL February 4, 1985

Ladd Army Airfield (IATA: FBKICAO: PAFBFAA LID: FBK) is the military airfield located at Fort Jonathan Wainwright, located in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was originally called Fairbanks Air Base, but was renamed Ladd Field on 1 December 1939, in honor of Major Arthur K. Ladd, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps who died in a plane crash near Dale, South Carolina on 13 December 1935.

The U.S. government began, for the first time, serious infrastructure expenditures in Alaska during the 1930s. Most prominent was an increase in the military presence. For most of the early 20th century, the only Army post in Alaska was Chilkoot Barracks/Fort Seward, located just outside Haines. With the threat of war looming as the 1930s ended, the need was established to develop multiple facilities as a means of defending Alaska against possible enemy attack.

The U.S. government acquired homesteads southeast of the town of Fairbanks beginning in 1938. From this land, totalling about 6 square miles (16 km2), was created Ladd Field. The first aircraft to land at Ladd was Douglas O-38F, 33-324, c/n 1177, in October 1940, which is now preserved in the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Major construction of facilities began in 1941 and 1942, after the U.S. entered World War II. The initial construction occurred several miles from Fairbanks along a bend of the Chena River, consisting of an airfield, hangars, housing and support buildings. Many of these buildings still stand today.

Alaska's transportation infrastructure at the time was so limited and the problem of military supply so acute, it also made sense to concentrate the bases along existing supply lines near Anchorage and Fairbanks. Ladd's location near Fairbanks, the Richardson Highway and the Alaska Railroad, its access to fuel from the CANOL pipeline, and its position at the time as one of the United States' northernmost developed airbases were important factors in securing its early Cold War prominence.


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