Sondrestrom Air Base

Sondrestrom Air Base
Sondrestrom Air Base, 1974
Coordinates	67°00′38.00″N 050°42′33.00″W / 67.0105556°N 50.7091667°W / 67.0105556; -50.7091667
Type	Military airfield
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1941
In use	1941-1992

Sondrestrom Air Base, originally Bluie West-8, was a U.S. air base in central Greenland. The site is located 60 mi (97 km) north of the Arctic Circle and 90 mi (140 km) from the northeast end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord, formerly known by its Danish name Søndre Strømfjord. The base is approximately 11 mi (18 km) west-northwest of Ravneklippen and 80 mi (130 km) east of Sisimiut.

Following World War II, the base was briefly returned to Danish control between 9 October 1950 and 20 July 1951. The 1951 Greenland bases treaty led to the return of Sondrestrom to American control. The base was turned over to the Greenland government in 1992 and is now a civilian community (Kangerlussuaq) and airport (Kangerlussuaq Airport), although the USAF operates a small Air National Guard detachment in the former base.

Following the fall of Denmark to Germany in World War II, responsibility for the security of Greenland passed to the American military under the terms of a 9 April 1941 treaty with the defected Danish ambassador in Washington. Military leaders responded by building several bases in Greenland, the largest of which were Bluie West One in Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland and Bluie West Eight along the Kangerlussuaq fjord.

The site of BW-8 had already been contemplated for an airfield, and Professor William Hobbs of the University of Michigan had operated a meteorological station there in 1927-28. That station was named Mount Evans, while the supporting base camp at the site of the present seaport was named Camp Lloyd. A 1,500 foot long dirt airstrip eight miles east was prepared for the expected aircraft of Atlantic flyers Bert Hassell and Parker Cramer. They, however, ran out of fuel and walked the remaining distance to Sondrestrom. The location at the bottom of Sondrestromfjord is about as far from the coast as one can get on land in Greenland, and though the climate is severe, it is much more favorable for aviation than the coast. The approaches are clear, although the runway has a slope.