Things you never knew

[Hawkmoon]

For some reason I got to thinking about the former Dow Air Force Base, in Bangor, Maine. It was deactivated years ago and is now Bangor International Airport, although there is still an ANG unit based there that shares the runway with the commercial airport. As an Air Force base it had three runways, in a triangular layout. Now it just has one runway.

But ... what a runway! Apparently it's the second longest runway on the east coast, and Bangor International Airport is [was] an alternate landing facility for the space shuttle. Can you imaging the hullabaloo if a space shuttle had landed at Bangor, Maine?

Media: "Where? Where IS that?"

[MillCreek]

We have a similar story here in Washington: the Moses Lake airport.  A former B-47 and B-52 bomber base, now used primarily for training airline pilots on heavy aircraft, by Lufthansa and JAL, and it is the reason you can find good Japanese food out in the boonies of eastern Washington. It was also one of the emergency space shuttle landing strips.

[Triphammer]

"emergency space shuttle landing strips" code for " Secret SR-71 landing strips.

[Hawkmoon]

"emergency space shuttle landing strips" code for " Secret SR-71 landing strips.

Okay, then.

"Can you imaging the hullabaloo if a space shuttle an SR-71 had landed at Bangor, Maine?" Although the current ANG unit flies tankers, so it's possible they have a hanger large enough to get an SR-71 under cover and out of sight.

[BobR]

We have a similar story here in Washington: the Moses Lake airport.  A former B-47 and B-52 bomber base, now used primarily for training airline pilots on heavy aircraft, by Lufthansa and JAL, and it is the reason you can find good Japanese food out in the boonies of eastern Washington. It was also one of the emergency space shuttle landing strips.

Sadly, JAL has moved their heavy training out of there. It was a sad time in Moses Lake when that happened. Quite a few international friendships were forged there.

bob

[zxcvbob]

This woulda been back in the early 1980's.  I lived/worked in SE Houston, about half a mile from Ellington AFB.  It was decommissioned at the time, but still there and hadn't been bought by the city of Houston yet.  I don't remember if there was a guard shack or not, but probably not; at least not at the main gate.

One day I went driving around on the base, and I stumbled onto what I guess was the married officer housing.  A bunch of cute but plain little houses, looked like they were built in the 50's.  Nobody live there, but they were all perfectly kept and every one had a restored (or original) Corvair in the driveway.  It was like something out of The Twilight Zone.

I'm guessing there was still a small operation there (something to do with NASA) and base commander was a Corvair collector.  

[RoadKingLarry]

We have a similar story here in Washington: the Moses Lake airport.  A former B-47 and B-52 bomber base, now used primarily for training airline pilots on heavy aircraft, by Lufthansa and JAL, and it is the reason you can find good Japanese food out in the boonies of eastern Washington. It was also one of the emergency space shuttle landing strips.

Dad was stationed at Moses Lake back about '56-57. That was before he met mom. He often tells the story about hitch-hiking from Oklahoma back to there after being on leave.

[Fly320s]

This woulda been back in the early 1980's.  I lived/worked in SE Houston, about half a mile from Ellington AFB.  It was decommissioned at the time, but still there and hadn't been bought by the city of Houston yet.  I don't remember if there was a guard shack or not, but probably not; at least not at the main gate.

One day I went driving around on the base, and I stumbled onto what I guess was the married officer housing.  A bunch of cute but plain little houses, looked like they were built in the 50's.  Nobody live there, but they were all perfectly kept and every one had a restored (or original) Corvair in the driveway.  It was like something out of The Twilight Zone.

I'm guessing there was still a small operation there (something to do with NASA) and base commander was a Corvair collector.  

I had a similar experience in the U.P. of Michigan.  I was living at and flying out of the old K.I. Sawyer AFB.  On my days off I would ride my bike around base.  No one lived in the housing, but it was all well maintained.  Kinda weird to see deer in the yards at 2pm on a Tuesday.

[MillCreek]

Sadly, JAL has moved their heavy training out of there. It was a sad time in Moses Lake when that happened. Quite a few international friendships were forged there.

bob

That is a bummer! I remember driving to and from Spokane on business, and as you approached Moses Lake, you could see all the JAL 747s flying around.  There were often multiple aircraft up at the same time.

[Jamisjockey]

I believe anything over 10,000 was an alternate for the shuttle.  I think the runway orientation also had to line up with normal reentry patterns for the shuttles.   When I was at Yuma we were pretty high on the alternate list.