Ankang Wulipu Airport (Chinese: 安康五里铺机场) was an airport serving the city of Ankang in Shaanxi Province, China. It was located in the town of Wuli in Hanbin District, 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from the city center.[1] The new Ankang Fuqiang Airport replaced the Wulipu Airport when it opened on September 25, 2020.[2]
Ankang Wulipu Airport 安康五里铺机场 Ānkāng Wǔlǐpù Jīchǎng | |||||||||||
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| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Location | Ankang, Shaanxi, China | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 262 m / 860 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 32°42′29″N 108°55′52″E / 32.70806°N 108.93111°E | ||||||||||
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  AKA Location of airport in China | |||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2021) | |||||||||||
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Source:[1] | |||||||||||
Facilities
editThe airport had one runway that is 1,600 meters long and 30 meters wide (class 3C), and a 1,200 square-meter terminal building.[1]
History
editWith the threat of the Empire of Japan following the Manchurian Incident of 1931, General Yang Hucheng first built the airfield in Ankang in 1933 for preparations in the support of anticipated air force operations against Imperial Japanese military ambitions; this was the airbase where Chinese Air Force war hero Colonel Gao Zhihang transited enroute after receiving a new inventory of Polikarpov I-16 fighter planes in November 1937, but was killed in a Japanese bombing attack in his next refueling stop at Zhoujiakou airfield.[3][4] The airfield was deemed unsafe for use however, and was rebuilt as Wulipu in 1938, and listed as the 59th Air Station of the Nationalist Air Force of China.[1][5] After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the airport was in use by the United States Army Air Forces Fourteenth Air Force as part of the China Defensive Campaign. The Americans called the airbase Ankang Airfield, and flew photo-reconnaissance aircraft from the airport over Japanese-held territory on intelligence gathering combat missions between April and August 1945. In addition, P-61 Black Widow night interceptor aircraft provided protection against night Japanese bomber and fighter attacks from April until the end of the war in September. The Americans closed their facilities at the airport in early October 1945.[6]
Civil flights first started in the 1964 but ceased in 1986. The airport was expanded to its current size in 1993 and served civil flights again from 1995 until July 2001, when the opening of the Xi'an-Ankang Railway forced the airport to close again. Flights resumed for the third time in April 2006.[1]
See also
editReferences
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This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- ^ a b c d e 机场简介 Archived March 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "New airport opens in west China". Xinhuanet. 2020-09-25.
- ^ "东北飞鹰 空军战魂——空军抗日英雄高志航-新华网".
- ^ 王晓华; 徐霞梅 (September 2011). 国殇：国民党正面战场空军抗战纪实（第三部）. ISBN 9787512605237.
- ^ "寻访陕西抗战遗迹 安康五里机场意义非凡(组图)-搜狐滚动".
- ^ Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4