World War II was one of the largest mobilizations of manpower and machinery in human history. It built up cities like Mobile and others, but some quiet places saw their share of activity as well, including Madison at a site just off Old Canton Road.
While Ford plants were co-opted to build engines and factories were converted to make munitions, the United States was eager to turn open land into training facilities for the variety of skills and services they would need in combat abroad.
What is now known as the Madison Air Center started out as a quickly-thrown-together training camp to keep up with the high demand for pilots to aid the war effort.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt had commissioned nearly 50,000 airplanes a year to fight the threat of the robust German Luftwaffe and the Imperial Japanese Air Service. The United States alone would lose 38,418 aircraft over Europe and 14,533 over the waters and islands of the Pacific in combat during World War II.
Ward 4 Alderman Steve Hickok, who serves as Madison Airport manager, researched the history of the Madison Airport to get it recognized as a historical site nearly 12 years ago.
Hickok’s research fortunately put him in touch with several young men that had trained at the airfield, many of whom still lived in Madison and Ridgeland.
“I said while we are putting together this application we may as well have a history of the place that we can make available to the public,” Hickok said.
The center was built on nearly 220 acres of cotton fields purchased from the Whaley, McMillan and Cothern families by the Mississippi Institute of Aeronautics, Inc. in June of 1940. By September the first of three hangars had been erected and and the first 10 aircraft, Boeing PT-17 “Kaydet”, commonly called Stearmans, were onsite.
On Sept. 14, 1940, Class 41-C began with 32 cadets, many taking their first rides in the army planes by sundown.
“I was really struck by how quickly they began operating out of there. By September they had one hangar up and were building the other two and were already training on-site,” Hickok said.
By the end of November the other two hangars were nearly complete. The first iteration of the airport included three hangars and a dirt airfield that ran diagonally across the country form Northwest to Southeast.
The base facilitated about 240 cadets at a time, in various stages of training and trained nearly 3,000 young men over the course of the war from all over the nation.
Hickok’s history lists people working at the field including L.M. “Frenchie” Jacob, Jacksonian and founder of Jacob Aricraft, Jim White, a mechanic who provided Hickok with photographs from the time, Walter Weeks, a Madison resident and mechanic and Jim Pitman, also of Madison and a graduate of class 42A.
The famous image of Riveter Rosie pulling up her sleeve to show some muscle, famously signifies women entering a workforce dominated by men. At the airfield was Elizabeth McKay, of Jackson, a parachute rigger who was in charge of packing and inspecting parachutes used by the cadets and instructor pilots.
Hickok said that while researching the airfield he had heard rumors of foreign pilots, specifically Dutch exiles, training in the area.
“I have heard stories that we had foreign airmen training in the area. I found no evidence they trained in Madison. Best i can tell it was Hawkins Field in Jackson or maybe somewhere out in Clinton,” Hickok said.
An article on the Mississippi Department of Archives and History website confirms that Dutch exile airmen did train at Hawkins Field in Jackson.
The Madison Airport now houses about 94 planes and runs 6,000 operations a year. An operation is defined as a landing or a take off. It boasts facilities to house and maintain planes.
The Airport will have a brand new 5,000-square foot terminal building complete with a pilot’s lounge, terminal and flight planning facilities set to open in August. The project is using FAA and MDOT funds with a small match from the city.
“The current building is a modular, temporary structure and we wanted to bring the facility up to Madison Standards,” Hickok said.
The Commemorative Air Force also rents space from a city hangar that displays some old planes including a WWII-era plane in the style that would have been used for training at the facility.
For the full story of the Madison Air center visit the City of Madison website and click on the “Airport” button under the “Government” tab.
