FLORIDA - NAS Corry Field, Pensacola

[TommyUSA]

Corry NAS is now home to the US Military's 'Center for Information Dominance' (IT and Cryptography Schools for all branches). Its five pre-World War II hangars have been converted to classrooms. The hangars are visible along the north side of the top horizontal runway. They are better viewed in the modern photo.

More info in Corry Station
Still more - with photos (scroll down to bottom)

Corry Field in 1946:


Corry in 2009:


Hangar:



Tommy

[REF]

The runway layout is really unusual, nice to see the hangar as well

[PNK]

Interesting looking site. Looks like two airfiled in close proximity.

I notice on the 1946 photo that the right hand sites runways appear to be joined in a big arc of tarmac but in the modern one they are not. I wonder if this was a temporary infill?

[TommyUSA]

The original layout of Corry Field (and the nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station - now obliterated) was in fact =two= airfields side by side. The right-hand one with the arc of tarmac was a dirigible landing site.

Here's a photo:
Dirigible at Pensacola NAS

Tommy

[REF]

How wide were the runways? They look wider than usual

[TommyUSA]

How wide were the runways? They look wider than usual

292 feet wide.

I also found out that the large central area on the eastern field was called the 'Suicide Circle' by the pilots (both student and instructor) because there was a bewildering mixture of primary and fighting planes landing and taking off at the same time.

[REF]

292 feet wide

Do you know what the reason for the width was? Most airfields over here were a standard 150 ft wide.

[TommyUSA]

Do you know what the reason for the width was? Most airfields over here were a standard 150 ft wide.

I've got no idea. A quick internet search turned up nothing. I do know that Corry was designed originally to be a dirigible base, so maybe that had something to do with it. Also as a guess, perhaps its status as a flight training base had something to do with it - more margin for error?

I did discover that Seattle NAS's runway was 2640 feet long and 500 feet wide!

T

[REF]

I did discover that Seattle NAS's runway was 2640 feet long and 500 feet wide!

T

500 ft wide!!!! You could land some aircraft in that distance!!

[jdvoss]

Here's another view of NAAS Corry Field circa 1955. Note the scads of SNJ Texans ('Harvards' to our U.K. friends). By 1956 most SNJ's had been replaced by the more advanced T-28 Trojan.

Official US Navy photograph