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Carswell Air Force Base AI simulator
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Carswell Air Force Base AI simulator
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Carswell Air Force Base
Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings.
Carswell was a major Strategic Air Command (SAC) base during the Cold War. It was the headquarters of several SAC intercontinental bombardment wings, equipped with the latest heavy bombers from B-29 Superfortresses; B-36 Peacemakers and B-52 Stratofortresses. The west side of the airfield is home to United States Air Force Plant 4, a 602-acre (2.44 km2) industrial complex occupied over the decades by Convair, General Dynamics, and now by Lockheed Martin. The bulk of the Air Force Convair B-36, B-58 Hustler, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, EF-111 Raven and F-16 Fighting Falcon fleets were built there. The F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and various NATO and Allied partner nations is currently built there.
With the end of the Cold War and the subsequent downsizing of the American military, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission of 1991 recommended that Carswell AFB be closed by 1994. In lieu of outright closure, the majority of the installation was transferred to the U.S. Navy for use as a naval air station to replace the nearby Naval Air Station Dallas that was also being closed due to BRAC action.
Today, the facility is known as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth / Carswell Field. It retains an Air Force Reserve Command presence from its previous status as an air force base that includes the headquarters for an Air Force Reserve numbered air force and a tenant Air Force Reserve fighter wing. The installation also hosts tenant Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Army Reserve and Texas Air National Guard flying units which were formerly located at Naval Air Station Dallas.
Carswell Air Force Base was named after Medal of Honor recipient Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. (1916–1944). Major Carswell was returning from an attack on Japanese shipping in the South China Sea on 26 October 1944. He attempted to save a crewmember whose parachute had been destroyed by flak. He remained at the controls of his crippled bomber and died while crash-landing the B-24 Liberator near Tungchen, China. The base was renamed in his honor on 29 January 1948.
Carswell's origins date back to the early years of aviation. After the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917, General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing invited the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to establish training fields in the southern United States where the warmer weather would be more conducive for flying year-round. In June, the War Department inspected 6 sites around Fort Worth, Texas which had been offered by the Chamber of Commerce. In August the War Department signed leases with the RFC on 3 sites around Fort Worth. Known as the Flying Triangle, these sites were Hicks Field (#1), Barron Field (#2), and Benbrook (later Carruthers) Field (#3) based on their locations. In April 1918 these airfields were turned over to the Air Service, United States Army as training fields for American pilots. Hundreds of pilots learned their basic and primary flying skills at these airfields in the Fort Worth area during the war. They were closed in 1919 when the war ended.
In 1940 the City of Fort Worth had filed an application with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), asking for a primary pilot training airfield for the Army Air Corps. In May, General Jacob E. Fickel visited Fort Worth on an inspection visit. Fickel had learned to fly at Carruthers Field in 1918. At the same time, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce was trying to convince aircraft manufacturers to build an aircraft assembly plant in the area. Consolidated Aircraft, wanting to build in the area, suggested to the Air Corps that they jointly build an airfield adjacent to the heavy bomber plant they wanted to build in Fort Worth. On 16 June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved $1.75 million to construct an airfield next to the Consolidated manufacturing plant. The Army wanted to have the airfield ready quickly before the plant was put into production and construction of the Lake Worth Bomber Plant Airport began almost immediately.
However, after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army changed its plans and instead of being an operational base, Tarrant Field, as the facility was called, became a heavy bomber training school. The first unit assigned to the base was the Army Air Forces Training Command Combat Crew School on 1 July 1942. At the same time, the Consolidated plant began assembly of B-24D Liberator aircraft in May,[citation needed] with the first aircraft being assigned to the school in August. On 29 July, the base was again renamed as Fort Worth Army Air Field (Fort Worth AAF).
Carswell Air Force Base
Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings.
Carswell was a major Strategic Air Command (SAC) base during the Cold War. It was the headquarters of several SAC intercontinental bombardment wings, equipped with the latest heavy bombers from B-29 Superfortresses; B-36 Peacemakers and B-52 Stratofortresses. The west side of the airfield is home to United States Air Force Plant 4, a 602-acre (2.44 km2) industrial complex occupied over the decades by Convair, General Dynamics, and now by Lockheed Martin. The bulk of the Air Force Convair B-36, B-58 Hustler, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, EF-111 Raven and F-16 Fighting Falcon fleets were built there. The F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and various NATO and Allied partner nations is currently built there.
With the end of the Cold War and the subsequent downsizing of the American military, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission of 1991 recommended that Carswell AFB be closed by 1994. In lieu of outright closure, the majority of the installation was transferred to the U.S. Navy for use as a naval air station to replace the nearby Naval Air Station Dallas that was also being closed due to BRAC action.
Today, the facility is known as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth / Carswell Field. It retains an Air Force Reserve Command presence from its previous status as an air force base that includes the headquarters for an Air Force Reserve numbered air force and a tenant Air Force Reserve fighter wing. The installation also hosts tenant Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Army Reserve and Texas Air National Guard flying units which were formerly located at Naval Air Station Dallas.
Carswell Air Force Base was named after Medal of Honor recipient Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. (1916–1944). Major Carswell was returning from an attack on Japanese shipping in the South China Sea on 26 October 1944. He attempted to save a crewmember whose parachute had been destroyed by flak. He remained at the controls of his crippled bomber and died while crash-landing the B-24 Liberator near Tungchen, China. The base was renamed in his honor on 29 January 1948.
Carswell's origins date back to the early years of aviation. After the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917, General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing invited the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to establish training fields in the southern United States where the warmer weather would be more conducive for flying year-round. In June, the War Department inspected 6 sites around Fort Worth, Texas which had been offered by the Chamber of Commerce. In August the War Department signed leases with the RFC on 3 sites around Fort Worth. Known as the Flying Triangle, these sites were Hicks Field (#1), Barron Field (#2), and Benbrook (later Carruthers) Field (#3) based on their locations. In April 1918 these airfields were turned over to the Air Service, United States Army as training fields for American pilots. Hundreds of pilots learned their basic and primary flying skills at these airfields in the Fort Worth area during the war. They were closed in 1919 when the war ended.
In 1940 the City of Fort Worth had filed an application with the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), asking for a primary pilot training airfield for the Army Air Corps. In May, General Jacob E. Fickel visited Fort Worth on an inspection visit. Fickel had learned to fly at Carruthers Field in 1918. At the same time, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce was trying to convince aircraft manufacturers to build an aircraft assembly plant in the area. Consolidated Aircraft, wanting to build in the area, suggested to the Air Corps that they jointly build an airfield adjacent to the heavy bomber plant they wanted to build in Fort Worth. On 16 June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved $1.75 million to construct an airfield next to the Consolidated manufacturing plant. The Army wanted to have the airfield ready quickly before the plant was put into production and construction of the Lake Worth Bomber Plant Airport began almost immediately.
However, after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army changed its plans and instead of being an operational base, Tarrant Field, as the facility was called, became a heavy bomber training school. The first unit assigned to the base was the Army Air Forces Training Command Combat Crew School on 1 July 1942. At the same time, the Consolidated plant began assembly of B-24D Liberator aircraft in May,[citation needed] with the first aircraft being assigned to the school in August. On 29 July, the base was again renamed as Fort Worth Army Air Field (Fort Worth AAF).