North Field, Tinian Island, North Mariana Islands v1.1

North Field, Tinian Island, North Mariana Islands v1.1

North Field airport (PZ19), Tinian Island, North Mariana Island
North Field is a former World War II airfield on Tinian in the North Mariana Islands. 5 miles SW of Saipan airport and a few miles north of the Tinian airport.

Abandoned after the war, today North Field is a tourist attraction. Along with several adjacent beaches on which Allied forces landed during the Battle of Tinian, the airfield is the major component of the National Historic Landmark District Tinian Landing Beaches, Ushi Point Field, Tinian Island.

At its peak during WWII the airport was home to over 260 B-29 Superfortresses including the Enola Gay and Bockscar B-29s which used all 4 of the 8000 feet runways aligned East to West.

Question: should I retain the Enola Gay model in the scenery pack?

Having no real purpose or any use after 1947, North Field was soon officially abandoned by the USAAF. Immediately after the war, the locals on the island did not have to farm or do work of any kind for the first two years after the airfield was abandoned because the withdrawing American military forces left entire stocks of almost everything ranging from food, brand-new military uniforms and even ice-cream makers (these were simply left behind in North Field’s many warehouses). Any of the locals who wanted to get a vehicle could just do so by heading to the airfield and drive it until it fell apart or could not be repaired anymore before getting another one. Some abandoned B-29 aircraft wrecks were also left behind at the airfield after the war ended, but these were eventually melted down for scrap metal in the 1950s.

The airfield has been steadily reclaimed by the dense tropical jungle on the island, being thoroughly abandoned and heavily overgrown. It is easily accessible by travelling just a few miles north of San Jose on the main north-south road, which is known as “Broadway”. The runways (constructed out of crushed coral) are grayish-looking and quite weathered, but Runway Able and Runway Baker and some of the taxiways remain usable for driving on in an ordinary car, with considerable weed growth on the surface.

The four runways at North Field were lettered “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” from north to south. Only Able is really useable and can be used by small aircraft. Baker runway is marginal and Charlie and Dog are NOT in service. A full sized replica of Enola Gay is located on the north side of Able adjacent to the 09 threshold.

v1.1 Runway materials corrected to a coral base layer and some other minor adjustments

v1.0 1st release, hopefully I’ll find a more suitable runway material for the next update

GPS Coordinates: 15.074754913393143, 145.64074468068674