Thunderbird Field No. 1
Thunderbird Field No. 1
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| Part of Arizona World War II Army Airfields | |
| Glendale, Arizona | |
Aerial photograph of Thunderbird Field taken 2006
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 Thunderbird Field No. 1
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| Coordinates | 33°37′21.78″N 112°11′6.82″W / 33.6227167°N 112.1852278°WCoordinates: 33°37′21.78″N 112°11′6.82″W / 33.6227167°N 112.1852278°W |
| Type | USAAF Contract Flight Training School |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | Army Air Forces Training Command |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1939 |
| In use | 1941-1944 |
Thunderbird Field was a military airfield in Glendale, Arizona, used for contract primary flight training of Allied pilots during World War II. Created in part by actor James Stewart, the field became part of the United States Army Air Forces training establishment just prior to American entry into the war and was re-designated Thunderbird Field #1 after establishment of Thunderbird Field #2 at nearby Scottsdale, on 22 June 1942. Thunderbird # 1 is located southeast of the intersection of West Greenway Road & North 59th Avenue in Glendale, Arizona.
After the conclusion on World War II, the property was sold as surplus for educational purposes, eventually becoming the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a post-graduate business school.
Thunderbird Field began in 1939 as a collaborative project by Hollywood agent and producer Leland Hayward, former Air Service pilot John H. "Jack" Connelly, and Life magazine photographer John Swope, founders of Southwest Airways. Backed by investors that included James Stewart, singer-actor Hoagy Carmichael, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Robert Taylor, and Margaret Sullavan, construction of the pilot training facility near Glendale, Arizona, began on 2 January 1941, and was completed in three months.
The site, 25 miles (40 km) from central Phoenix, was laid out by artist Millard Sheets to resemble (from the air) an etching of a mythical Anasazi Thunderbird. The control tower formed the head of the bird, the administration buildings and barracks its body, the hangars its wings, and the gardens its feathered tail. The installation was situated on the southeast corner of what is now West Greenway Road & North 59th Avenue. To the southeast, adjacent to its single-story sage, cream, and terra cotta-colored buildings of Spanish Colonial rancheria design, was a square 2,800-square-foot (260 m2) ramp area. Across West Greenway Road to the north was the airfield itself with three 3,500-foot (1,100 m) runways.
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