New Century Air Center

Kansas · United States · House

The former Olathe Naval Air Station trained combat pilots from the Second World War through Vietnam. A night landing in bad weather went wrong.

New Century Air Center in Olathe, Kansas was the Olathe Naval Air Station, a training centre for combat pilots from the Second World War through to the Vietnam era. The base was handed over to Johnson County in the early 1970s and became a commercial airport, industrial estate and business park.

Some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s a pilot was killed attempting a night landing in bad weather.

That is the incident everything reported here traces back to, and it is exactly the kind of accident a pilot training base produced regularly. Night landings in poor visibility were the hardest thing a trainee had to do and the thing that killed most of them.

The site is a working airfield and business complex, so the accounts come from people employed on it rather than from visitors.

FAQ

Where is New Century Air Center located?

New Century Air Center is in Kansas, United States.