Arizona Abandoned Airfield, Urban Exploration, Abandoned Military Area, USAF training military base
May 13, 2011
Arizona, Goodyear Auxiliary Army Airfield #6 was built in 1943 as one of a large number of satellite airfields for the United States Air Force, which was the largest single-engine advanced training base in the world during World War Two. According to a 1992 Army Corps of Engineers Report, the Goodyear Auxiliary #6 property consisted of a total of 1159 acres. According to the “History of Luke AFB” (obtained by David Brooks from the public affairs office at Luke AFB), Goodyear Field (#6) had three 4000′ x 300′ runways, and the construction costs for its airdrome was $263000. Among Luke’s auxiliary airfields, “Fighter & Goodyear Fields boasted the most facilities, each having separate buildings for crew chiefs, operations, supply, barracks, pit latrine, crash truck shed, generator shed and a control tower.” The earliest depiction the Goodyear auxiliary airfield which has been located was on the March 1945 Phoenix Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy). A 1949 aerial photo (courtesy of John Arthur) depicted the Goodyear Aux #6 airfield in its original configuration, with 3 runways & a parking ramp on the southeast side. Several small buildings were just east of the parking ramp. The site was declared excess & deeded to the State of Arizona in 1949, but was then reestablished & expanded by the Air Force later that same year. It was last used for emergency landings, dart target launchings, and as an emergency drop zone for flight training missions from Luke AFB. “Luke AF …
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25 Responses to “Arizona Abandoned Airfield, Urban Exploration, Abandoned Military Area, USAF training military base”
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@ArizonaAdventures i may have a few pictures left somewhere but there hard copies only i could try to scan them onto the computer and it wasn’t in Arizona it was in southern Germany i think it was a abandoned U.S army camp that was disbanded after the war. Im only guessing because there were M1A1 thompsons and M1 Grands in the armoury
@CrIp1391 were you able to snap any pics of those weapons? That sounds like it must have been a great place! Was it in Arizona?
I love exploring abandoned things 🙂 its so interesting to try and find out why it was closed or find cool things like bullets and old weapons 🙂 – i once found an old armoury in an abandoned WW2 army base 🙂 the guns were still there but locked up!
@trotp3 Very cool. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was. I really like that area around desert center. It’s just far enough away from me though to where I can’t make it out there as much as I would like to. I’ll look into the raceway though, that sounds interesting.
@ArizonaAdventures If I’m not mistaken there is an old airport at Desert Center that might have been one of these bases, it is called Chuckwalla Raceway now.
33-45′ 14 N
115 19′ 51 W
@jjb43j These were WWII Army Air Bases in preparation for North Africa.
Looks like a fun place to explore, Patton had like 10 or so bases scattered in the CA, AZ area.
i know why its abandonned since the cold war the U.S. had to result in numerous nuclear tests usually out in deserts
i know why its abandonned since the cold war the U.S. had to result in numerous nuclear tests usually out in deserted areas and so lots of people had to leave homes bases and jobs in order to make more nuclear bombs
DO U KNOW WHY ITS ABANDONNED BECAUSE IF U READ THE SIGN IT SAYS YUMA ROAD ALSO KNOWN AS THE PLACE WERE THE US MADE MANY NUCLEAR TESTS AND PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO LEAVE HOMES AND BASES DURING THE COLD WAR
DO U KNOW WHY ITS ABANDONNED BECAUSE IF U READ THE SIGN IT SAYS YUMA ROAD ALSO KNOWN AS THE PLACE WERE THE US MADE MANY NUCLEAR TESTS AND PEOPLE WERE FORCED TO LEAVE HOMES AND BASES DURING THE COLD WAR!!!!!!
Definitley had images of how fun it would be to drag race here! I’ll have to look into the Iron Mountain Training Grounds when I’m over that way. Sounds really interesting, thanks!
These old landing strips make great party spots, with a built in drag strip.
You should check out Pattons old training grounds over by Blyth, California, on the Arizona border. Iron Mountian Training Grounds. You can barely see them on Google Earth. There is a lot of old equipment buried out there. Of course you can’t dig it up. They find a skull every so often, of troops that got lost and died of the heat.
@Engineer245 Yea, you are correct. I think there are actually six, but I can’t remember off hand. At 6:35 in the video you will see a Google earth image of this field. There are many strange shapes around this area if you have some time to spend on Google earth. Thanks for the comment 🙂
There are actually 3 or 4 of these old triangular airfields in Western Arizona. They can be spotted via GoogleEarth.
Wow, wild to see the desert reclaim it’s property.
@ArizonaAdventures Number varies but on average 10. For what ever reason youtube won’t allow posting video links in comments otherwise it would have been a lot easier. It is of the same place.
@locon623 I only wish I had enough time to post more videos…AZ has a lot to find!
I never thought Arizona had all this hidden stuff.
@Tunnelfish We think so to 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the video. Check out our other videos and you might find more stuff you like. Take care!
That’s like the biggest abandoned airport in the world!
Stuff like this is cool, thanks for sharing!
lol, nevermind, I found it at your page. Good stuff. So your video is of this same place right? How many of you guys go out there abd run your cars?
@ArizonaAdventures Full title, Tour of Aux 6 @ 60mph
@BigPapa2731 look it up where? youtube, google? tried here real fast but founde nothing?