C-17 Landing Zone complete

Published May 21, 2008
By Airman 1st Class Rebekah Phy
305th Air Mobility Wing public affairs

McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- The new C-17 Northeast Landing Zone at Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station was recently completed and officially put to use May 19.

Col. Balan Ayyar, 305th Air Mobility Wing commander, was the first to land an aircraft on the area. A ribbon cutting followed the landing.

The new 3500x90-foot wide area is complete with a state-of-the-art lighting system, which is operational at less than five airports worldwide. It allows each of the light fixtures on the same circuit to be controlled and monitored independently. The project also includes two concrete taxiways, which connect the landing zone with existing runways at Lakehurst.

The new landing zone allows aircrew training for contingency operations to support East Coast C-17 and C-130 units, the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, and the U.S. Air Force Weapons Instructor Course Flight Operations. It also provides aircrews with realistic training in conducting operations in an airfield environment similar to that at forward operating locations.

"Aircrews are required to participate in eight training events and one evaluation on an actual landing zone each year," said Lt. j.g. Christopher Allen, Lakehurst site project engineer, Naval Facility Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic. "C-17 squadrons based here and at Dover AFB, Del., used to have to fly to Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield, N.Y., or Northfield, S.C., for training."

According to Lieutenant Allen, the new C-17 Landing Zone will drastically increase airfield operations in the future.

"The nature of future operations will change from an airfield currently serving predominately helicopters to one with an approximately even number of fixed wing and helicopter operations," Lieutenant Allen said. "This assumption holds when considering the airfield and landing zone altogether.

"There are currently 38,528 annual operations at the airfield, of which 80 percent are helicopters," he said. "Twenty percent of operations are attributed to fixed wing operations. Future conditions will double the overall number of operations to an approximate annual total of 80,600."