Gainesville Municipal Airport

Gainesville Municipal Airport (IATA: GLE, ICAO: KGLE, FAA LID: GLE) is three miles west of Gainesville, in Cooke County, Texas.[1]

Gainesville Municipal Airport
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerCity of Gainesville
ServesGainesville, Texas
Elevation AMSL845 ft / 258 m
Coordinates33°39′05″N 097°11′49″W
Map
GLE
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
12/30 4,296 1,309 Asphalt
17/35 6,000 1,829 Asphalt
Statistics (2005)
Aircraft operations20,200
Based aircraft70

History

The airport opened in August 1941 as Gainesville Army Airfield and was used by the United States Army Air Forces Third Air Force as a training base to provide photographic intelligence for air and ground forces.

Known units which trained at Gainesville were the 8th and 426th Reconnaissance Groups. They flew a variety of aircraft, including the P-38 Lightning (F-5), P-51 Mustang (F-6), B-24 Liberator (F-7) and P-40 Warhawk.

The 8th Reconnaissance group was deployed to India in 1944 to support 10th and 14th Air Forces in the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater.

Reassigned from Third Air Force in April 1944 to AAF Central Flying Training Command. Hosted AAF Pilot School (Advanced, Single Engine). At the end of the war the airfield was determined to be excess by the military and turned over to the local government for civil use.

For a year or two around 1951 Gainesville had scheduled airline flights -- Central DC-3s.

Facilities

The airport covers 1,336 acres (541 ha) and has two asphalt runways: 17/35 is 6,000 x 100 ft (1,829 x 30 m) and 12/30 is 4,296 x 80 ft (1,309 x 24 m).[1]

In the year ending August 30, 2005 the airport had 20,200 aircraft operations, average 55 per day: 99.5% general aviation and 0.5% military. 70 aircraft were then based at this airport: 66% single-engine, 21% multi-engine, 9% jet, 3% helicopter and 1% ultralight.[1]

Since at least 2006, the Aviatian Traders ATL-98 Carvair, tailnumber N89FA (aka "Miss 1944") has been based at Gainesville. It is one of 22 modified DC-4 airframes and was seen in the James Bond movie, Goldfinger.

See also

References
  1. FAA Airport Form 5010 for GLE PDF, effective 2007-12-20

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  • Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.
  • Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas ASIN: B000NYX3PC
  • Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub, ISBN 1-57510-051-7
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