Departure
89%
vs 95% ▼ 6
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Lae Airfield, on the coast of Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea, was the country's principal aerodrome from the late 1920s until its closure in 1987, when its role was fully taken over by Lae Nadzab Airport. It is remembered above all as the point from which Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan departed in July 1937 on the leg of their round-the-world flight that ended in their disappearance, and for its central role in the Guinea Airways goldfield airlift and in the Pacific War.
Lae Airfield, also known historically as Lae Drome or Lae Aerodrome, was a civilian and later military airstrip serving the town of Lae in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Built in the late 1920s to support the Guinea Airways goldfield airlift, it grew into one of the busiest airlift operations in the world before the Second World War, was fought over and occupied during the war, and continued as Lae's civil airport into the 1980s before being superseded by Lae Nadzab Airport. For a simulator pilot, it is of interest chiefly as a historic strip associated with Amelia Earhart's final confirmed departure and with intensive Pacific War air operations.
The airfield sits at Lae, in Morobe Province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, close to the town's central district, referred to locally as "Top Town". It lies near the Markham River delta and is separate from, and much closer to the town than, the later Lae Nadzab Airport (ICAO AYNZ), which lies some 42 kilometres away along the Highlands Highway and took over Lae's air traffic from 1977 onward.
The field has a single physical runway, 10/28, oriented east-west, with a grass surface and a length of 975 feet. There is no ILS or other instrument approach associated with the field.
A monument to Amelia Earhart stands near the old airfield site, close to a preserved Japanese anti-aircraft gun, and is a well-known landmark overlooking the old strip from the direction of Lae's "Top Town" CBD. The former Air Niugini terminal building, visible in photographs of the site, also marks the old airfield location.
The airstrip at Lae originated in the 1920s, built to support gold mining operations around Wau after Cecil John Levien, a former District Officer of Morobe turned prospector, formed the Guinea Gold syndicate in 1923, which became Guinea Airways Limited in November 1927. The first aircraft to land, a DH-37 flown by E. A. "Pard" Mustar, arrived on 31 March 1927 after being shipped from Essendon Airport to Rabaul. From 1922 to 1942 the field anchored one of the largest airlift operations in the world, ferrying freight and equipment to the Bulolo goldfields using rugged Junkers W34 and G31 aircraft, which could be loaded or unloaded in fifteen minutes through a roof hatch via a gantry crane. The airfield is most famously associated with Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan, who departed from Lae in July 1937 on the leg of their round-the-world flight bound for Howland Island, after which they disappeared. During the Second World War the airfield was occupied by Japanese forces from early 1942, who also upgraded the nearby Malahang strip as a satellite field. It was heavily bombed by Allied aircraft, including raids by the 19th Bombardment Group's B-17s in June 1942 and a Martin B-26 Marauder raid on 9 June 1942 in which future US President Lyndon B. Johnson flew as an observer, earning a Silver Star. Lae was recaptured in September 1943 in a pincer movement involving the 7th and 9th Australian Divisions alongside the airborne assault on nearby Nadzab. After the war the airfield remained central to the development of Papua New Guinea's air transport network. Its importance declined from 1977 with the opening of Lae Nadzab Airport, and political disputes over the two airports' futures continued until 1982, when the Lae terminal building was destroyed by fire in circumstances that were never resolved.
Lae Airfield continued to be used by Air Niugini and third-level airlines until 1987, after which it closed to civil traffic. It also served as a base for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force until that role was transferred to Port Moresby in 1992. The site has since been redeveloped and no longer functions as an active aerodrome; current air services for Lae are handled by Lae Nadzab Airport.
