Biancur Field

Biancur Field
Eglin Air Force Base Auxiliary Field #6
Biancur Field; Eglin Air Force Base Auxiliary Field #6
Part of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC)
Located near: Valparaiso, Florida
	2006 USGS airphoto
	Biancur Field
Coordinates	30°37′54″N086°44′27″W / 30.63167°N 86.74083°W
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force ; Eglin Air Force Base
Site history
Built	1941
In use	1943-1959; 1970-present
Battles/wars	World War II
Airfield information
Identifiers	FAA LID: FL34, WMO: 725540
Elevation	37 metres (121 ft) AMSL
Runways
18/36	1,531 metres (5,023 ft) Asphalt

Last updated January 13, 2025

Biancur Field, (Eglin Air Force Base Auxiliary Field #6), ( FAA LID : FL34), is a satellite airfield located northwest of the Main Base, 5.9 miles north-northeast of Valparaiso, Florida. It is also known as site "Test Site B6".

Overview

The U.S. Army Ranger facility Camp Rudder is located here. It is designated Site B-6. The airfield remains under the ownership of the United States Air Force, and is under the jurisdiction of the 96th Test Wing (96 TW) at Eglin AFB.

History

Auxiliary Field 6 is named Biancur Field for 1st Lieutenant Andrew Biancur, a test pilot of the Medium Bombardment Section of the 1st Proving Ground Group, killed 8 January 1944 in the crash of a prototype YP-61-NO Black Widow night fighter aircraft, AAF Ser. No. 41-18883, c/n 711, at Eglin Field.

The history of Biancur Field is largely unknown, and the exact date of construction of Biancur Field is undetermined. It was opened in 1943 and was constructed in a similar manner to a fully equipped base with three 4,000 feet (1,200 m) runways, a large parking ramp, at least one hangar and numerous support buildings. The airfield was expanded sometime after the war, with an 8,000 feet (2,400 m) jet-capable runway laid down over the north/south runway, Runway 18/36. The airfield was incorporated into Eglin AFB on 9 October 1959 and was subsequently inactivated. During the early 1960s (and specifically October 1962, the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis), Field 6 was used for "touch & goes" by the Navy's Training Squadron FOUR (VT-4), at the time when VT-4 was a Student Naval Aviator strike jet pipeline training squadron based at Sherman Field, at nearby NAS Pensacola. As there was no mess hall, food was brought in from the Army Rangers at nearby Field 7.

Biancur was reactivated in 1970 as an Army Special Forces group facility, led by Col Arthur D. "Bull" Simons, for training select Army Special Forces and USAF Air Commando forces before deploying to Thailand for the attempted rescue on 20-21 Nov 1970 of US prisoners of war at the Son Tay prison camp in North Vietnam (Operation Ivory Coast).^{[ citation needed ]}

Afterwards, the United States Army Ranger training camp at Epler Field (Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #7) moved to Biancur Field to provide realistic jungle/swamp training. Today, the ground station has numerous modern buildings and the north-south airfield runway has been updated for use by helicopters with several hangars. Several UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters are parked on the ramp in recent aerial imagery of the airfield.^{[ citation needed ]}

The airfield also supports other USAF, DoD and other U.S. government agency requirements as necessary, one example being the NASA X-43 low-speed demonstrator that underwent testing out of Auxiliary Field 6 in November 2003.^[1]

Federal Prison Camp

A low security Federal Prison Camp, established under a maintenance contract with the Air Force, was originally located at the old Niceville Road Prison where German POWs had been incarcerated during World War II. It was moved to a 28-acre (110,000 m²) compound at Auxiliary Field 6 in November 1969, and served as a minimum security facility for non-violent offenders where it would gain the nickname "Club Fed". The facility was closed in 2006 as a cost-cutting measure, with most of the prisoners transferred to the Pensacola Federal Prison Camp at the former NAS Saufley Field, now part of the greater NAS Pensacola complex, in December 2005.^{[ citation needed ]}

Related Research Articles

Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about three miles (5 km) southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.

Hurlburt Field is a United States Air Force installation located in Okaloosa County, Florida, immediately west of the town of Mary Esther. It is part of the greater Eglin Air Force Base reservation and is home to Headquarters Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), the 1st Special Operations Wing (1 SOW), the USAF Special Operations School (USAFSOS) and the Air Combat Command's (ACC) 505th Command and Control Wing. It was named for First Lieutenant Donald Wilson Hurlburt, who died in a crash at Eglin. The installation is nearly 6,700 acres (27 km²) and employs nearly 8,000 military personnel.

McCoy AFB is a former U.S. Air Force installation located 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Orlando, Florida. It was a training base during World War II. From 1951 to 1975, it was a frontline Strategic Air Command (SAC) base during the Cold War and Vietnam War. It was Orlando's biggest employer and economic backbone prior to the opening of Walt Disney World in 1971.

Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola, "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United States Navy base located next to Warrington, Florida, a community southwest of the Pensacola city limits. It is best known as the initial primary training base for all U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officers pursuing designation as naval aviators and naval flight officers, the advanced training base for most naval flight officers, and as the home base for the United States Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the precision-flying team known as the Blue Angels.

Camp James E. Rudder is host to the third and final phase of a nine-week training course, dubbed the "swamp phase", of the U.S. Army Ranger School. The camp is located on the Eglin Air Force Base reservation, co-located with Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #6 / Biancur Field, approximately fourteen miles northwest of the main Eglin AFB airfield.

Duke Field, also known as Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #3, is a military airport located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Crestview, in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States.

Saufley Field is a military airport and support facility located in unincorporated Escambia County, Florida, United States, five nautical miles (9 km) west of the central business district of Pensacola.

Naval Air Station Glynco, Georgia, was an operational naval air station from 1942 to 1974 with an FAA airfield identifier of NEA and an ICAO identifier of KNEA.

Spence Air Base was a United States Air Force base that operated from 1941 to 1961. It was later reopened as Spence Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anniston Air Force Base</span> Airport in Lincoln, Alabama

Anniston Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force airfield located approximately 10 miles north-northeast of Talladega, Alabama. It was active from 1942 to 1945 and 1949 to 1952. It is currently the site of the Talladega Superspeedway and Talladega Municipal Airport.

Fort Sumner Municipal Airport is a village owned, public use airport located two nautical miles (4 km) northeast of the central business district of Fort Sumner, a village in De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation airport.

Naval Air Station Ellyson Field was a former U.S. Navy training base, established in Escambia County, Florida in 1940 at the outset of World War II as an auxiliary facility to Chevalier Field at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. It had three red brick hangars common to the various Navy airfields in the Pensacola area, and eight paved runways, the longest of which was 3,550 ft in length.

Naval Outlying Landing Field Choctaw is the United States Navy's designation for an auxiliary airfield that was originally constructed during World War II as Eglin Field Auxiliary Field # 10. It is located 16.6 miles northeast of Pensacola, Florida.

Wagner Field,, is a component of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. It is located northeast of the main base, 13.9 miles northeast of Valparaiso, Florida.

Pierce Field,, is a satellite airfield located northeast of the Main Base, 5.5 miles north-northeast of Valparaiso, Florida.

Peel Field,, is a closed United States Air Force field. It is located 5.7 miles west of Valparaiso, Florida.

Piccolo Field,, is a closed United States Air Force field. It is located 9.3 miles northwest of Valparaiso, Florida.

The Santa Rosa Island Range Complex is a component of the Eglin AFB testing range, located 17.5 miles west-southwest of the main base, on Santa Rosa Island, sitting between the communities of Navarre and Okaloosa Island.

Baldsiefen Field,, is a closed United States Air Force field. It is located 10.2 miles east of Valparaiso, Florida.

Epler Field,, is a satellite airfield located west-northwest of the Main Base, 18.2 miles west of Valparaiso, Florida. It is designated Site B-12.

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

↑ NASA.gov. Researchernews.larc.nasa.gov. Retrieved on 2011-10-31.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[bare_url_a-1] NASA.gov. Researchernews.larc.nasa.gov. Retrieved on 2011-10-31.

[1]