Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Southwestern Arkansas
© 2002, © 2008 by Paul Freeman. Revised 3/11/08.
Chaffee Army Airfield (revised 10/22/06) - Eberts Field (revised 3/11/08)
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34.8 North / 91.92 West (East of Little Rock, AR)
According to the Arkansas History Commission, the 640-acre Eberts Field
was named for native Arkansan, West Point graduate, and Signal Corps Captain Melchior Eberts.
Eberts died in May 1917 while making airplane exhibition flight at Columbus, NM.
Construction of Eberts Field began December 11, 1917.
The Primary Flying Course was an 8-week course with a student capacity of 300.
Eberts Field also housed a Temporary Storage Depot.
The earliest depiction of Eberts Field which has been located
It depicted the field as having a long row of hangars running north/south along the east side of the field,
with the airfield area to the west.
A circa 1918 photo of a JN-4 being refueled at Eberts Field (courtesy of Johnnie Bransford).
An undated photo of Eberts Field (courtesy of Colin Christie).
According to Colin, the original panoramic photo depicted “the planes lined up... wing tip to wing tip... containing more than 100 planes.
Each plane has two soldiers at attention in front of their Jennys.
My Grandfather, George Christie, was a flight instructor at Eberts Field.”
According to a historic marker at the site of the field,
approximately 2,500 enlisted men & officers were stationed at Eberts Field from 1918-19.
Although a large number of planes were reportedly operated from the field,
not a single fatal accident occurred.
Several WW1-era photos of hangars & biplanes at Eberts Field (courtesy of Robert Horton).
The First World War ended (November 11, 1918) before Eberts Field's first class graduated.
Construction at Eberts Field ended in January 1919, at a total cost of $1,829,560.
The airfield at Eberts Field was evidently reused as Lonoke Municipal Airport,
as that is how it was listed in The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airport Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo).
The field was described as being located 1.5 miles west of the town of Lonoke.
It was said to consist of a 320-acre rectangular field, measuring 5,200' x 2,460'.
According to Scott Murdock, “I believe that this was also the site of a WW2 contract glider school,
operated by Kenneth Starnes Flying Service for the AAF.”
However, no airfield in Lonoke was listed in the April 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer).
A single north/south “Landing Strip” was depicted along the eastern edge of the site of Eberts Field on the 1984 USGS topo map.
A single north/south “Landing Strip” was depicted along the eastern edge of the site of Eberts Field on the 1990 USGS topo map.
However, the majority of the airfield area of the former Eberts Field had been flooded & turned into a fish farm.
In the 2001 USGS aerial photo,
the row of at least a dozen concrete hangar foundations was still visible along the east side of the site of Eberts Field.
The majority of the former airfield area was filled in with fish ponds.
A 2005 photo by Scott Murdock of the remains of a concrete hangar foundation at the site of Eberts Field.
Scott Murdock visited the site of Eberts Field in 2005.
“The line of hangars for this W.W.I airfield runs north-south, at the east edge of the former flying field.
I had access to the hangar foundations - about a dozen of them - via a paved road running north-south just to their west.
A historical marker describes the field & its wartime contribution.
Much of the area of the flying field itself is now bermed-up & used as a fish farm.”
A 2005 photo by Scott Murdock of a historical sign at the site of Eberts Field.
[The assertion that “a thousand planes” were used here is particularly suspect.]
The site of Eberts Field is located southwest of the intersection of Interstate 40 & Route 89.
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Chaffee Army Airfield, Fort Chaffee, AR
35.3 North / 94.32 West (Northwest of Little Rock, AR)
Chaffee AAF, as depicted on the August 1953 Little Rock Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airfield while open has not been located.
Construction began on the Army's Fort Chaffee in 1940.
From 1942-46, the base was used to train the 6th, 14th, and 16th Armored Divisions.
An airfield was first established on Fort Chaffee at some point between 1949-53,
as no airfield was yet depicted on the January 1949 Little Rock Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
The earliest depiction which has been located of Chaffee Army Airfield
was on the August 1953 Little Rock Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
It depicted “Chaffee AAF” as having a 2,200' unpaved runway.
The purpose for this original Chaffee AAF has not been determined.
Chaffee AAF apparently was improved with paved runways at some point between 1953-59,
as the February 1959 Little Rock Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks)
described the field as having 3 concrete runways, with the longest being 2,640'.
Chaffee AAF continued to be depicted on the February 1960 Little Rock Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
Chaffee AAF was evidently abandoned (for reasons unknown) at some point between 1960-64,
as it was no longer depicted on the July 1964 Little Rock Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
It was labeled “Abandoned Airfield” on the January 1965 Little Rock Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks),
and was not depicted at all on the 1972 Memphis Sectional Chart (according to David Brooks).
Chaffee AAF was evidently reactivated (for reasons unknown) at some point between 1972-77,
as Chaffee AAF was once again depicted on the 1977 Memphis Sectional Chart (according to David Brooks).
The multiple concrete runways of the original Chaffee AAF were evidently removed before the field was reactivated,
as the May 1979 Memphis Sectional Chart (courtesy of David Brooks)
depicted the field as having only a 2,200' unpaved runway.
The reason for this change in airfield configuration has not been determined,
but it may have reflected a change in training objectives in the post-Vietnam era.
Chaffee AAF continued to be depicted on Memphis Sectional Charts through the 1980s (according to David Brooks).
According to David Brooks, in the mid-1980s the Army constructed another airfield 5 miles to the southeast,
called Arrowhead Assult Strip (AZU).
It consists of a single 4,500' dirt runway,
and is presumably used for training Army soldiers using C-130 type aircraft conducting operations into austere fields.
Chaffee AAF was evidently closed again (for reasons unknown) by 1991,
as it was no longer depicted on the 1991 Memphis Sectional Chart (according to David Brooks).
It was presumably replaced by the newly-constructed Arrowhead Assault Strip.
The 1995 USGS topo map depicted the field as having 2 unpaved runways,
labeled simply as “Landing Field”.
The 2001 USGS aerial photo showed that the remains of 2 unpaved runways were still recognizable,
along with what might be the remains of one of the original concrete runways (running northwest/southeast).
But roads had been constructed across some of the former airfield,
and some of the land had been plowed up along the southeast side.
The site of Chaffee AAF is located southwest of the intersection of Route 253 & Route 255.
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