City of Mesa, Arizona

Groundbreaking ceremonies were conducted on the same day - July 16, 1941 - for both Falcon Field and Williams Field that served as World War II pilot training bases and now serve Mesa and the East Valley in different capacities. Arizona's dry climate and open spaces made it an ideal choice for training air troops.

Falcon Field opened in September 1941 as a military airport to train British Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force pilots. The first training flight was an American-made Boeing PT-17 "Stearman" biplane.

In 1948 the federal government deeded the property to the City of Mesa as a municipal airport. The City contracted daily operations through a private operator until 1968, when it assumed this responsibility. Falcon Field includes a total of 784 acres owned by the City. The primary one-square-mile airport campus is located between Greenfield, Higley, McDowell and McKellips roads in northeast Mesa.

Today, Falcon Field is a general aviation (GA) reliever airport that serves as an alternative for civilian and military aviation uses such as business, recreation, and fixed-wing and helicopter flight training so that Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport (formerly Williams Field, located in southeast Mesa near the Loop 202 Freeway and Power Road) can focus on international and domestic commercial airline services.

Air space around Falcon Field is managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 2011 there were more than 229,000 total aircraft operations (take-offs and landings) at the airport.

Click on a thumbnail below to see the larger picture.  

These are large files and may take a little time to load.  They have not been reduced in size so you can save them and look at them up close or print them out at a high quality. 

Articles