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Thread: Giant Ring Mystery! EAA Chapt 32? Smartt Airport Conspiracy? Can Someone Help?

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  1. #1
    Barnstorm's Avatar
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    Rolls Eyes Giant Ring Mystery! EAA Chapt 32? Smartt Airport Conspiracy? Can Someone Help?

    Hello Everyone,

    A fellow instructor came to me with a mystery about Smartt Airport (KSET St. Charles County Smartt Airport).

    He flew over it last week and saw a HUGE ring encompassing the airport. We checked on google earth and it really is there.

    I emailed an FBO at the airport and they seem as clueless as we are as to what purpose the ring served.

    Here are my email transactions with the FBO:

    ------------------------------------------------------------
    My name is Tim O'Connor, I am a CFI from Cincinnati, Ohio.


    A fellow employee recently flew over your airport and noticed a ring going around your airport grounds.


    We looked it up on bingmaps and google earth and sure enough there it is!


    We have found no information on the internet about this and conspiracy theory's abound from circular test runways from WWII to horse racing.


    Can anyone there tell us what the ring structure is from so we can do some myth-busting?
    -----------------------------------------------------------
    Hello! Yes! This airport was a WWII training facility for Naval Pilots. I had heard that they needed up to 8 approaches for the training they did. I have also heard that the ring was more visible up until a few years ago.
    -----------------------------------------------------------
    Thank you Sandy!


    Was the ring a runway or a marker they had to land in?


    I am afraid we still don't understand how it was used.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------

    I am told that all of the runways they used back then were encompassed in the ring. I am afraid that is all I know or anyone knows around here...

    Good luck!
    ----------------------------------------------------------

    So, as you can see we have not made much progress uncovering the mystery.

    WWII UFO Base?
    Giant R/C control line for WWII bombers?
    Runway for airplanes with one landing gear shorter then the other?
    Early particle accelerator beam project?

    Does anyone know???Name:  Smartt airport Ring.jpg
Views: 983
Size:  84.4 KB

    http://msrmaps.com/map.aspx?t=1&s=11...22&w=700&h=700
    Last edited by Barnstorm; 03-07-2012 at 02:07 PM.
    "The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport"— Orville Wright
    Tim OConnor, CFI, Commercial Pilot Rotorcraft, Sport Pilot Fixed Wing, FAA Advanced Ground Instructor:..
    You CAN Afford to FLY ! --> http://www.YouCanAffordToBeAPilot.com

  2. #2

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    Looks like an old access road around the perimeter of the airport.

  3. #3

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    Happy

    Quote Originally Posted by vaflier View Post
    Looks like an old access road around the perimeter of the airport.
    Smartt field was the first place where I ever landed on pavement. My flight instructor was an army air corp flight instrucftor who lived on top of a hill North of Grafton, IL Smartt field was a Navy training base. There were three pairs of paralell runways with approximately 120 degree spacing. I am not sure and my math doesn't come up with the 120 degrees but I believe that the runways were two each 18/36, 9/27,13/31,4/22. with a circle taxi way that joined the ends of all the runways. Navy pilots didn't normally have to do much crosswind operations but had to fly heavy and fast airplanes off of short runways/carriers. It was 1963 when I first landed there in a Cessna 170 B the field was built during 1941. There may be some in this forum from the St. Louis area that may know the name Jonh Surgeon the instructor who took me to Smartt or Reese Oldfather from St. Louis who was the owner of Corporate flight school located on the South West side of Lambert. I hope this information is useful to the group.

  4. #4
    Jim Hann's Avatar
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    Tim, it is a shadow of the past. Smartt was a training field back in WWII, I will post a picture of it later tonight if one of my fellow Chapter 32 mates doesn't beat me to it.

    Jim
    Jim Hann
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    The answer is pretty simple to us old guys, Landing fields were just that, a place where you lined up with the wind sock and landed,some fields were round and some were square, Runways and cross wind landings did come along until later.

  6. #6
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    My first thought was a dirigible airfield, with a mooring mast in the middle with room for the airship to swing. Diameter's too big, though.

    Maybe it's one of these?

    Name:  circular.jpg
Views: 1108
Size:  87.0 KB

    Ron Wanttaja

  7. #7
    dewi8095's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Downey View Post
    The answer is pretty simple to us old guys, Landing fields were just that, a place where you lined up with the wind sock and landed,some fields were round and some were square, Runways and cross wind landings did come along until later.
    I think Tom has the answer. In the early years of aviation, landing sites were designated "fields" and aircraft could land into the wind from any direction. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, aviation began to emulate sea ports which channeled traffic into berths or docks. Thus airfields became airports with designated runways, aprons, tarmacs, and the arrival and departure gates that we have today. During WW II the military compensated by laying out a main and two or more crosswind runways. Now the trend is for many airports, especially the old WW II training sites, to just maintain one or two runways because of the expense of maintaining the others. We see quite a few large WW II airfields in Oklahoma with the x-wind runways closed and deteriorating.

  8. #8

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    The pictures posted by Jim are really great! Finding a grass "field" out in the country can be a challenge especially if it's your first flight to that location. The circle and the star really stand out and that would certainly aid "newbie" cadets of WWII. The whole picture reminds me of a Deputy's badge.

    Joe

  9. #9
    Jim Hann's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe LaMantia View Post
    The whole picture reminds me of a Deputy's badge.

    Joe
    I thought the same thing the first time I saw this picture. Unfortunately, I don't remember/know where I got any of those pictures.

    Jim
    Jim Hann
    EAA 276294 Lifetime
    Vintage 722607
    1957 Piper PA-22/20 "Super Pacer"
    Chapter 32 member www.eaa32.org
    www.mykitlog.com/LinerDrivr
    Fly Baby/Hevle Classic Tandem


  10. #10
    Barnstorm's Avatar
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    Thank you everyone!!

    Jim, those photos are fantastic, you are a gem!

    .
    "The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport"— Orville Wright
    Tim OConnor, CFI, Commercial Pilot Rotorcraft, Sport Pilot Fixed Wing, FAA Advanced Ground Instructor:..
    You CAN Afford to FLY ! --> http://www.YouCanAffordToBeAPilot.com

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