Ford Island’s airfield — first in the state — turns 100

One hundred years ago today, Army biplanes took off from Ford Island — the first airfield in Hawaii — setting an aviation milestone that helped shrink Hawaii’s isolation from the world.

On Sept. 26, 1918, the 6th Aero Squadron began operations out of the northeast corner of 450-acre Ford Island with a handful of JN-4 “Jennys” and a captured German Fokker D-7, said Burl Burlingame, historian for the adjacent Pacific Aviation Museum Pearl Harbor.

The airfield’s centennial memorializes an important transportation event and is part of a series of uniquely Hawaiian aviation firsts, Burlingame said.

“Just try to imagine Hawaii without aviation,” he said. “(Ford Island) is the very first professional airfield — purposely built in the Islands for the operation of aircraft.”

A 2-mile-long unused asphalt runway remains beneath weeds, the “22” at one end visible only when standing practically on top of it.

In late 1910, J.C. Bud Mars made the first powered airplane flight in Hawaii in a Curtiss P-18 biplane from a Moanalua field, according to the state’s aviation website.

Ford Island would become most famous as ground zero for the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, which targeted adjacent Battleship Row and the island’s seaplanes.

Vestiges of Ford Island’s very early aviation history remain, including a row of Army pilot homes constructed in 1918 on the north end of the island where Claire Chennault — later the leader of the famed Flying Tigers in China — once lived, according to Burlingame.

Army warehouse-type buildings also are still standing. In 1919, the Army named its installation Luke Field after a pilot killed in World War I.

Curtis LeMay, who pioneered low-altitude firebombing raids over Japan near the end of World War II, was stationed on Ford Island and at Wheeler Field in the 1930s, Burlingame said.

Amelia Earhart had flown twice across the Pacific, first from Hawaii in 1935 and then to Hawaii in 1937, according to the Navy. On take-off in 1937, Earhart’s Lockheed Electra ground-looped on Ford Island, damaging the plane.

“This is a historic site, and it’s a historic battlefield,” Burlingame said. “It’s like Lexington and Concord. This is like Normandy beach. Hawaii is the only place (in the United States) with airfields that were attacked in battle.”

In recognition of that rich history, the Navy in February embarked on the construction of a 4.1-mile Ford Island Historical Trail with informational panels.

One such wayside is at the spot where a bomb dropped by a Japanese “Val” dive bomber on Dec. 7, 1941 struck just off Hangar 1 (also known as Building 6) — leaving a radius of scarring on the concrete that’s still visible today.

PBY flying boats were destroyed, sailor Ted Croft was killed and the hangar burned.

Burlingame said Ford Island’s Army history started with a grassy field.

“Basically, aircraft in those days took off into the wind,” with the biplanes needing only 200 to 300 feet of runway space, he said.

Army seaplane ramps also still exist on the southwest side of the island. Curtiss R-6 float planes and Curtiss HS2L hydroaeroplanes were quickly supplemented by Curtiss “Jenny” land planes and De Havilland DH-4s, Burlingame said.

The Navy, meanwhile, had established some N-9 floatplanes using tent hangars at a wharf where the shipyard is now, the historian said.

“The Navy saw the facilities that the Army built (on Ford Island) and demanded that the War Department surrender the Army facilities to the Navy because Pearl Harbor was a Navy base,” Burlingame said.

The dispute went all the way to arbitration.

“And the secretary of war — like Solomon splitting the baby in half — divided Ford Island between the Army and the Navy,” which is how the Navy ended up in the southwest corner of the island, he said.

The Army and Navy also had a spat over where the aircraft of each service could fly — with the Navy declaring that Navy planes could fly over water and Army planes were only allowed to fly over land, according to Burlingame.

LeMay, as a lieutenant and Army pilot, said “he only had two decisions to make in the morning — whether to fly around Oahu clockwise or counter-clockwise, because he couldn’t go anywhere (else),” Burlingame said.

In 1936, a runway and taxiways were built connected to the hangars on the Army’s side of the island. Paving expanded during World War II to cover most of the island’s center.

With both services needing expansion space, Ford Island became entirely Navy by 1939 with the Army Air Corps relocating to Hickam Field.