Departure
94%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Bangor International Airport lies on the western edge of the city of Bangor in Penobscot County, Maine, and offers one of the longest runways on the eastern seaboard, a legacy of its Cold War role as a Strategic Air Command base. Today it is a joint civil-military field, home to the Maine Air National Guard's 101st Air Refueling Wing, and remains a favoured transatlantic tech stop and diversion airport for aircraft crossing the North Atlantic. For a simulator pilot, its 11,432-foot runway, ILS approaches and mix of military and civil traffic make it a distinctive northeastern US destination.
Bangor International Airport (KBGR) sits on the west side of the city of Bangor, Maine, and is owned and operated by the City of Bangor as a joint civil-military public airport. It is best known among aviators for its exceptionally long runway, a legacy of its Cold War role as a B-52 base, which today makes it a regular refuelling and diversion stop for aircraft flying the North Atlantic routes between Europe and the eastern United States. The field also hosts the Maine Air National Guard's 101st Air Refueling Wing, giving it a continuing military character alongside its civil operations, and its history stretches back to the earliest days of American aviation.
Bangor International is located on the western side of the city of Bangor, Penobscot County, Maine, and is classified as Class C airspace. Its position on the great-circle air corridors linking Europe with the East Coast of the United States has long made it a natural refuelling and diversion point for transatlantic traffic, as well as a stop for military charter flights.
The airport has a single physical runway, 15/33, measuring 11,432 feet and surfaced in hard-standing (asphalt). The runway is lit and served by an ILS, making it usable for large jet and military traffic in a wide range of weather conditions.
Bangor works traffic on Tower at 120.7 MHz, with Clearance Delivery/Ground on 121.9 MHz and a further clearance frequency listed at 135.9 MHz. Approach and Departure control is provided on 118.925 MHz, and ATIS/ASOS weather information is broadcast on 127.75 MHz. UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz and a Radio frequency is listed at 122.2 MHz. Additional military frequencies are published for the resident Air and Army National Guard operations, at 31.1 MHz and 41.2 MHz respectively. An ILS is available for the runway, supporting instrument approaches in poor weather.
The airfield began life in 1921 as Godfrey Field, on land owned by Bangor attorney Edward Rawson Godfrey. In August 1923 it hosted a large practice landing by fifteen Martin bombers and eleven DeHavilland scout planes under General Billy Mitchell, representing virtually the entire US Army Air Corps of the day. Regular passenger service began in 1931 with Boston-Maine Airways, an operation backed by the Boston and Maine and Bangor and Aroostook railroads and flown under contract to Pan American, which saw Bangor as a potential stepping-stone on a future transatlantic route to Europe. Amelia Earhart, an investor in the airline, flew on its first service into Bangor in 1933, and the field was fitted with floodlights for night flying as early as 1937. Boston-Maine became Northeast Airlines in 1940, which itself merged into Delta Air Lines in 1972. Just before the Second World War the airfield was taken over by the Army Air Corps and became Bangor Army Air Field, later operating as Dow Air Force Base until 1968. In 1948 the airport was a stop on the round-the-world flight of Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to pilot an aircraft around the globe; she departed Dow for Canada, was turned back by Canadian authorities, and defied them to complete her crossing. The Air Force built the current 11,440-foot runway in 1958 to handle the B-52 Stratofortress, at the time the longest runway on the eastern side of the Mississippi River. Dow Air Force Base closed as an active-duty installation in 1968, and most of the site passed to the City of Bangor, reopening the following year as Bangor International Airport; the remainder became the basis for the Air National Guard base and Army Aviation Support Facility still present today. In October 1969 the hijacked Trans World Airlines Flight 85 refuelled at Bangor en route to Rome. From the 1970s into the 1990s the airport became a well-used refuelling stop for thousands of charter jet flights a year linking Europe with the West Coast of the United States, and the Caribbean and Mexico.
Bangor International remains a joint civil-military facility, home to the Maine Air National Guard's 101st Air Refueling Wing on the adjoining Air National Guard Base, alongside continuing civil operations. The Federal Aviation Administration classes it as a non-hub primary commercial service airport, and it continues to attract diverted transatlantic flights and military charter traffic thanks to its location on major air corridors between Europe and the eastern United States. It has also been designated by NASA as an emergency landing site for the Space Shuttle.
