Hutchinson Air Force Station

Naval Air Station Hutchinson Hutchinson Air National Guard Base Hutchinson Air Force Station
Located near: Yoder, Kansas
USGS photo, 1 October 1991
Type	Naval Air Station Air Force Station
Coordinates	37°55′34″N 097°53′13″W / 37.92611°N 97.88694°W / 37.92611; -97.88694 (Hutchinson AFS P-47)
Built	1942
In use	1942-1946; 1952-1968
Controlled by	United States Navy  United States Air Force

Hutchinson AFS

Location of Hutchinson AFS, Kansas

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Hutchinson Air Force Station (ADC ID: P-47, NORAD ID: Z-47) is a closed United States Air Force station, a closed United States Navy naval air station and a closed Air National Guard base. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) west-southwest of Yoder, Kansas. It was closed for all military use in 1968.

The airfield was reopened in 1971 as Sunflower Aerodrome Gliderport. It is also used by the Federal Aviation Administration as a long-range radar site data-tied into the Joint Surveillance System (JSS).

History

United States Navy use

In 1942, the United States Navy selected more than 2,500 acres of land near Yoder, Kansas for a naval airfield for training of Student Naval Aviators. Construction of Naval Air Station Hutchinson began in October 1942. In addition to the main facility, an additional 3,900 acres were leased for up to 20 additional auxilary landing fields. While construction was ongoing, the Navy used the Yoder Municipal Airport as a temporary training site.

Aircraft initially assigned to NAS Hutchinson were Stearman N2S-3s and N2S-4s, later upgraded to N2S-5s trainers. In 1944, training of pilots and flight crews for Consolidated PB4Y-1 Liberators, a navalized version of the U.S. Army Air Forces' B-24 Liberator modified for maritime patrol and reconnaissance duties, was also conducted at NAS Hutchinson. At its wartime peak, over 5,000 personnel were assigned. With the end of World War II, NAS Hutchinson was closed and disposed of through the War Assets Administration in 1946.

During the postwar years, the former naval air station was reopened as Yoder Commercial Airport, which apparently operated as a general aviation airport. The private airport was not successful and was closed in or about circa 1950.

As a result of the Korean War, the Navy exercised its right of return to the airfield under a reversal clause and reopened the facility as NAS Hutchinson in 1952. Again a training station, NAS Hutchinson was now used for multi-engine training of Naval Air Reserve pilots and aircrewmen using land-based PB4Y-2 Privateers. In addition of the Privateers, the Navy also had a patrol squadron of P2V-3 Neptunes active at the station. The Navy remained active at NAS Hutchinson until 1957-1958 when it closed its facilities, most likely due to budget reductions, and transferred the installation to the Kansas Air National Guard, which renamed the installation Hutchinson Air National Guard Base.

Air Defense Command use

In 1951 the United States Air Force Air Defense Command selected a portion of the then-closed World War II NAS Hutchinson facility as a site for one of twenty-eight radar stations built as part of the second segment of the permanent ADC general radar surveillance network for the United States. Prompted by the start of the Korean War, on 11 July 1950, the Secretary of the Air Force asked the Secretary of Defense for approval to expedite construction of the second segment of the permanent network.

Receiving the Defense Secretary’s approval on 21 July, the Air Force directed the Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with construction of a radar station on the eastern part of the ground station, about a mile from the runways and ramp/hangars being used by the Navy when it reactivated its facilities.

On 1 May 1951, the 793d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (793 AC&WS) was activated at Hutchinson Air Force Station (P-47), the radar site on the facility. In May 1952, the 793 AC&WS began operating a pair of AN/FPS-10 radars, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. During 1958, an AN/FPS-3 search radar saw duty and a pair of AN/FPS-6A height-finder radars were installed.

In 1957, the Navy began to close its operations at the station and the Air Force and the Kansas Air National Guard took control of the facility, it being renamed Hutchinson Air Force Station and Hutchinson Air National Guard Base, respectively. The Kansas Air National Guard used the airfield, flight line and most of the support infrastructure of the base (see below,) while administration of the ground station became a function of Air Defense Command.

By late 1959, Hutchinson AFS was performing air traffic control duties for the Federal Aviation Administration. At this time the site operated an AN/FPS-20 search radar. In the early 1960s, this radar was upgraded and redesignated as an AN/FPS-66. During late January 1961, Hutchinson AFS joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to Site DC-22 at Sioux City AFS, Iowa. After joining, the squadron was re-designated as the 793d Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 February 1962. The radar squadron provided information 24/7/365 to the SAGE Direction Center, where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile.

On 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-47. By 1963, height-finding duties were being performed by AN/FPS-6A radars, and one was upgraded to an AN/FPS-90 in 1964.

In addition to the main facility, Hutchinson operated several AN/FPS-14 Gap Filler sites:

• Ellsworth, KS (P-47A) 38°50′29″N 098°11′49″W / 38.84139°N 98.19694°W / 38.84139; -98.19694 (P-47A)
• Wilsey, KS (P-47B) 38°40′02″N 096°44′11″W / 38.66722°N 96.73639°W / 38.66722; -96.73639 (P-47B)

The 793rd Radar Squadron was deactivated on 8 September 1968, primarily due to budget reductions. With its closure the site was declared excess and closed on 30 September 1968.

Kansas Air National Guard use

In 1957, with the Navy moving out of the airfield, the Kansas Air National Guard's 117th Fighter Interceptor Squadron was formed on the airfield, which was renamed as Hutchinson Air National Guard Base following the Navy's departure. Originally flying F-80C Shooting Stars, the unit transitioned to the RB-57B reconnaissance variant of the B-57 Canberra light bomber during 1957-1958. The unit was subsequently renamed the 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (117 TRS) until its redesignation as the 190th Tactical Reconnaissance Group (190 TRG), with the 117 TRS as its subordinate operational flying squadron, in 1962.^[1]

The unit continued to operate its Canberras at Hutchinson ANGB until 1967, when the 190 TRG and its personnel, aircraft and equipment permanently relocated to Forbes AFB, Kansas after Strategic Air Command vacated its facilities at the Topeka base and trasnferred Forbes AFB to the Tactical Air Command.

Current status

Totally inactivated as a military installation by 1968 as part of a nationwide reduction of stateside air force and naval air installations to pay for the increasing costs of the Vietnam War, the facility became a private airport in 1971 and primarily used for gliders. The station also became home for several light industrial companies, such as Collins Industries, Consolidated Recycling, Inc., Bella Vista Manufactured Homes, Eaton Metal Tanks, Pioneer Seeds, as the "Hutchinson Air Base Industrial Tract". Many former military buildings were torn down in the late 1960s and 1970s as they reached the end of their service life.

Today, the unused buildings at Hutchinson are deteriorating, and the airfield ramp and most of the aviation facilities consisting of crumbling concrete and pads separating at the expansion joints. One of the runways appear to be partially maintained in aerial photography, apparently for glider use. A large amount of cargo trailers are parked on part of the former airfield support area, as well as on one of the former 00L/18R former runway. A Kansas Law Enforcement Training Facility was located on the former airfield parking ramp at one time, possibly in a former hangar. Today the hangar has been torn down, and a small test driving track partially remains visible in the former airfield area.

The main support station is now the Hutchinson Community College and Area Vocational School, which have torn down the former military buildings and replaced them with new buildings. Some former military family housing units appear to be in use as private residences.

The Federal Aviation Administration took over operation and maintenance of the former Air Force radars. which are still in use. (N 37 55' 23" W 97 53' 15").

See also

• List of USAF Aerospace Defense Command General Surveillance Radar Stations

References

	United States Navy portal
	World War II portal
	United States Air Force portal
	Military of the United States portal

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

1. ^ http://www.airfields-freeman.com/KS/Airfields_KS_C.htm#hutchinson

• A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
• Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
• Information for Hutchinson AFS, KS
• Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Hutchinson Naval Air Station

External links