MCAF Quantico Turner Field |
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MCAF Quantico emblem
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Military | ||||||||||
Operator | United States Marine Corps | ||||||||||
Serves | Marine Corps Base Quantico | ||||||||||
Location | Quantico, Virginia | ||||||||||
Built | 1919 | ||||||||||
In use | 1919–present | ||||||||||
Commander | LtCol William C. Pacatte | ||||||||||
Occupants | HMX-1 | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 10 ft / 3 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 38°30′13″N 77°18′18″W / 38.50361°N 77.30500°W | ||||||||||
Website | quantico.marines.mil/... | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Sources: Official site and FAA
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Coordinates: 38°30′13″N 077°18′18″W / 38.50361°N 77.30500°W
Marine Corps Air Facility Quantico (MCAF Quantico) (IATA: NYG, ICAO: KNYG, FAA LID: NYG) is a United States Marine Corps airfield located within Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. It was commissioned in 1919 and is currently home to HMX-1, the squadron that flies the President of the United States. The airfield is also known as Turner Field, after Colonel Thomas C. Turner, a veteran Marine aviator and the second director of Marine Corps Aviation, who lost his life in Haiti in 1931. On August 12, 2010, a new Quantico air facility to accommodate maintenance and storage of HMX-1 helicopters was dedicated in honor of Marine One founding commander Col. Virgil D. Olson (1919–2012).
Aviation first arrived at Quantico on May 6, 1896 when Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834–1906), Astronomer and third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, launched his successful Aerodrome #5, a steam engine powered, unpiloted aircraft from a houseboat in the shadow of Chopawamsic Island adjacent to the present-day approach end of Runway 20 at Quantico Marine Corps Air Facility. The #5 Aerodrome made two successful flights that afternoon, one of 1005 m/3300 ft and a second of 700 m/2300 ft (these are horizontal distances measured along a curving flight path) at a speed of approximately 25 mph.