City Of Mesa Survey For Falcon Field Airport Historic Zone Project

Are you affiliated with Falcon Field Airport? The City of Mesa needs you input! A survey regarding the design and construction of improvements in Falcon Field Airport's Historic Zone Area has been made available and your involvement is requested. The project’s vision is to create a unique character, sense of place and destination for the said area. The Historic Zone includes Falcon Field Park, East Falcon Drive, Fighter Aces Drive, the City-owned T-hangars, the historic World War II hangars and the terminal building parking lot.

Falcon Field's rich history began before World War II with the founding of  Southwest Airways by Hollywood producer Leland Hayward and pilot John H. "Jack" Connelly with funding from notable persons like Henry Fonda, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, Hoagy Carmichael and others. It was supposed to be Thunderbird Field III but the British had it named after one of their birds. Several thousand pilots were trained here until the RAF installation was closed at the end of the war.

The City of Mesa purchased the field from the U.S. government for $1 and between 1945 and 1965, Falcon Field was leased out to industrial companies like Talley Defense Systems, Astro Rocket Inc., Rocket Power Inc. and others. It eventually became a civil airfield, now owned and operated by the city of Mesa. It is also the home of Airbase Arizona since 1976, which is one of the largest units in the Commemorative Air Force (CAF), as well as the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy, the largest flight school in the world.

The Historic Zone is a very visible and important part of Falcon Field. Designed and constructed over the next several years, the project once completed will enhance the overall appearance of this part of the airport and make it more useful and attractive to Mesa residents, businesses, out-of-town visitors and guests, and airport tenants and users.

Click here to access the survey which is to be completed by Friday, November 6. For questions about the project or survey, please contact Kurt Krause, City of Mesa Project Manager at (480) 644-5528 or kurt.krause@mesaaz.gov.    

Falcon Field Airport
4800 East Falcon Field Drive
Mesa, AZ  85215

City Of Mesa Survey For Falcon Field Airport Historic Zone Project