ZIP Code 67221

McConnell Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base in Wichita, Kansas. It is the home of Air Mobility Command's 22d Air Refueling Wing (22 ARW) and the Kansas Air National Guard's 184th Intelligence Wing (184 IW) The airbase was named in honor of the brothers Fred and Thomas McConnell of Wichita, who had both been Air Force pilots and veterans of World War II. The Boeing B-47 Strato jet bomber was the first jet bomber built in quantity for any air force, and was the mainstay of the Strategic Air Command during the 1950s and 1960s. The base was known during the first part of its existence as the Wichita Municipal Airport. It was originally designed to serve only municipal civil airport needs, but it had an Air Force connection almost from the beginning. The airport, at that time, was located about six miles from the city of Wichita and comprised some 1,337 acres. The runways were each 150 feet wide; two were 7,500 feet, one 7,100 feet, and one 6,000 feet. All had a wheel load capacity of 60,000 pounds. A parking apron with dimensions of 8,373 by 931 feet and seven taxi strips were provided. Other facilities at the airport, however, were meager. The field could boast of only one hangar and three small warehouses. No facilities were available either for troop housing or troop messing. No fuel storage facilities existed, and all such supplies were handled by commercial contract.

History

McConnell Air Force Base was known during the first part of its existence as the Wichita Municipal Airport. The airport, at that time, was located about six miles from the city of Wichita and comprised some 1,337 acres. Air Materiel Command's mission at the airport was to accept, service and coordinate the transfer of newly produced Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers to other installations. The Boeing plant at Wichita was shut down after World War II. However, on 3 September 1948, the first production order was placed for the B-47 Stratojet. In the summer of 1950, the United States. sought to make Wichita Airport a permanent military installation. Public hearings began to consider locating an Air Force base near the Boeing facilities, and the city was awarded $94 million to build a new airfield for its own use. Dwight D. Eisenhower later became known as Dwight Eisenhower National Airport, later known as Wichita D.C. National Airport and now known as the National Air Force Museum. The museum is located in Wichita, Kansas, and is open to the public. It is located on the former site of the Boeing Airplane Company Plant No. 1, in Wichita. The Museum is now home to the National Museum of the American Air Force, which was established in the 1930s and opened in the 1940s. The National Air Museum is currently located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and is home to a museum of the U.S. Air Force and Air Force memorabilia.

Based units

McConnell Air Force Base is home to the U.S. Air Force. The base is also home to a number of non-flying units, including the Air National Guard. It is one of the largest bases in the United States, with more than 1,000 military personnel based at the base. It was founded in 1961 and is the home of the Air Force's first base, McConnell Air Force Station, which was established in 1961. It has been home to Air National Guards for more than 40 years. It also hosts the Air Air Force Museum, which is based at McConnell. It opened in 1986 and has a museum dedicated to the history of the air force, including its roots in the Civil Air Force and World War II. The Air Force Academy was established at McConnell in 1988. It closed in 2000 and was replaced by the Air Education and Training Command, which has its own museum and museum. It reopened in 2010. It remains the home to an Air Force base that has been in operation since the 1950s and has since become a major military base for the United Nations. It's also home of a number of non-military units, such as the Air Guard and the Air Reserve. It is also home to the Air Nurse Corps, a unit that was created in the 1960s to provide medical care for wounded airmen and women. The U.N. also has a base in Washington, D.C. that has a mission to provide support to the Iraqi government.

Accidents and incidents

On 16 January 1965, USAF KC-135A 57-1442, crashed after an engine failure shortly after takeoff from McConnell Air Force Base in north Wichita, Kansas. A total of 30 were killed, including 23 on the ground and the seven member crew. A Boeing 747-400 Dreamlifter with registration N780BA mistakenly landed at the Colonel James Jabara Airport on 20 November 2013. The cause was determined to be a lack of engine response. On 13 January 1992, an F-16 84-1267 of the 184th TFG was returning from a practice firing sortie of a M61A1 20mm cannon. Major David Ternes of the 127th Fighter Squadron was forced to eject at 150 feet and two miles from base and the aircraft hit the side of a house and exploded. Both the pilot and the home's occupant survived uninjured. The NTSB opened an investigation about the wrong landing on 21 November 2013 at approximately 9:30 pm CST. The large cargo plane was supposed to land at McConnell Air force Base, taxi over to nearby Spirit AeroSystems, and pick up some fuselage parts for the assembly of Boeing 787 Dreamliners in Seattle, Washington. The plane successfully took off from Jabara. Airport at 1:15 pm CST on 21 Nov and landed shortly thereafter at McConnell AFB. It was later reported that the plane had taken off from the wrong airport and landed at a different one. The incident was investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).