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:

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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?
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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.
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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.

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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!
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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???:eek::confused:Attachment 1690

http://msrmaps.com/map.aspx?t=1&s=11...22&w=700&h=700

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

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

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.

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?

Attachment 1691

Ron Wanttaja

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Hann

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

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If you browse the abandoned airports website you will see several like this, a big round grass field with a perimeter road. One of the original fields East of St Louis used to be like this also - I'm thinking it was the original Parks Field, but I could be confused, it has been a while since i saw the old pics.

Just look at sectionals for a hint. Grass runways are an empty circle. Why? Just guessing, but I'm speculating it's because of the very reason stated above.

Here are the pictures I promised. The first one is labeled "Smartt 1943" and the second is undated. As you can see in the second, they had already reconfigured the airport for the two runways that still exist. The current 9-27 is 2,000 feet long (at the bottom of second picture) so you get an idea how long the old runways were.

Jim
Attachment 1694Attachment 1695

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Switzer

One of the original fields East of St Louis used to be like this also - I'm thinking it was the original Parks Field, but I could be confused, it has been a while since i saw the old pics.

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The Parks College field was a big square with two crossed grass runways, though earlier it was probably just a big square all in grass. When I was there in the mid 1970s there was still one runway and half of the other one was a taxiway leading out to it at midfield; the rest of the field was planted in soybeans. We flew R/C models off the taxiway. Except for special events, all of the full size flying was at nearby Bi-State Parks (now St. Louis-Downtown).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom Downey

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.

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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.

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
:cool:

Thank you everyone!!

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

.

Most of the WW2 OLFs (outlying landing fields) that the USN built in the Pensacola area were laid out like wagon wheels. Spencer Field a few miles from my home had six intersecting runways with a round perimeter taxi way. All concrete. Corry Field was asphalt. There are others. The grass has taken over now after 70 years, but you can still see the traces.

Back in 1960-1961 I flew out of a Miami area field called North Perry. I think that it is now called West Hollywood, KHWO. It had the standard Navy Wagon wheel layout in concrete back then. I punched the lat/longs into google and selected the satalite view. The wagon wheel is still visible under the present parallel RWs. Check it out. n26 00 04 w080 14 26.

The wagon wheel layout permitted the flight instructors to select a rw that was without a cross wind. Carrier pilots don't have to put up with cross winds.

If you are ever in the Houma. LA area (KHUM) take a look at the North ramp. You can plainly see three large concrete circles for the Blimp mooring. Remnents of the hangar may still be there.

With respect to the 1943 pic - probably just the easiest/quickest/cheapest way to build the perimeter fence/road - make a circle. That sucker's got 16 runways! 36L, 36R, 18L, 18R, 9R, 9L, 27L, 27R, 4R, 4L, 14R, 14L, 30L, 30R, 12L, 12R! Rather than straight-line fences along side each runway segment, it uses less fence to just circle it.

The other pic of the "circular airport of the future" looks positively scary. It's challenge enough to takeoff/land in a crosswind when the wind angle is constant. I don't think I'd like to try it in a turn - and a banked turn at that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joe LaMantia

The whole picture reminds me of a Deputy's badge.

Joe
:cool:

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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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vaflier

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

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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.

Hi Bob this is a very good description of a WWII navy training field. In a post that I entered a few minutes ago I mentioned that the first pavement I ever landed on was Smartt Field.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Dingley

Most of the WW2 OLFs (outlying landing fields) that the USN built in the Pensacola area were laid out like wagon wheels. Spencer Field a few miles from my home had six intersecting runways with a round perimeter taxi way. All concrete. Corry Field was asphalt. There are others. The grass has taken over now after 70 years, but you can still see the traces.

Back in 1960-1961 I flew out of a Miami area field called North Perry. I think that it is now called West Hollywood, KHWO. It had the standard Navy Wagon wheel layout in concrete back then. I punched the lat/longs into google and selected the satalite view. The wagon wheel is still visible under the present parallel RWs. Check it out. n26 00 04 w080 14 26.

The wagon wheel layout permitted the flight instructors to select a rw that was without a cross wind. Carrier pilots don't have to put up with cross winds.

If you are ever in the Houma. LA area (KHUM) take a look at the North ramp. You can plainly see three large concrete circles for the Blimp mooring. Remnents of the hangar may still be there.

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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.

The flood of 93 put a lot of real estate under water, I was a CAP unit commander during that time and flew some photo missions. I have some pictures of Smartt and SUS under water. They flew out everything that would fly and those that could not got dragged up on a mound on the South side of the field so that even at the peak of the flood you could still see some of them.