Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Arkansas International Airport (KBYH) lies just northwest of Blytheville, Arkansas, on the site of the former Cold War-era Blytheville/Eaker Air Force Base. Its single, enormous 11,605-foot runway - a legacy of Strategic Air Command B-52 operations - makes it an unusually imposing destination for a general aviation or simulator flight into a quiet corner of the Mississippi Delta.
Arkansas International Airport sits on the grounds of the former Blytheville/Eaker Air Force Base, three nautical miles northwest of Blytheville in Mississippi County, Arkansas, close to the Missouri state line. It is a public-use field owned jointly by the Blytheville Gosnell Regional Airport Authority, and it retains the single massive concrete runway built for the Strategic Air Command's B-52 fleet, making it a striking sight for any pilot used to more modest general aviation strips. Today it combines light general aviation and National Guard training traffic with a substantial aircraft maintenance and engine-disassembly operation housed in former Air Force hangars.
The airfield is located in Mississippi County, Arkansas, about three nautical miles northwest of the city of Blytheville and just south of the Arkansas-Missouri border. Traffic in the area is worked by Memphis Center. There is no dedicated control tower service at the field itself.
The airport has one physical runway, 18/36, a hard-surfaced strip 11,605 feet long that is lit and served by an ILS to runway 18. Its great length is a direct legacy of the site's former role as a Strategic Air Command bomber base.
Traffic should monitor the CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 122.7 MHz. Memphis Center can be contacted on 134.65 MHz for the surrounding controlled airspace. An ILS is available for runway 18.
The field lies roughly three nautical miles northwest of central Blytheville, just south of the Missouri border, and its very long single runway and extensive former Air Force ramps and hangars make it readily identifiable from the air amid the surrounding Delta farmland. A notable aircraft storage and dismantling yard on the airfield, associated with the on-site maintenance operation, is another distinctive feature visible on approach.
The site began in 1942 as a US Army Air Force B-25 advanced pilot training school built northwest of Blytheville, training cadets on the BT-13, AT-6, AT-9 and AT-10 and reportedly graduating over 3,000 pilots. The Army released the airfield to the city in October 1946, and it operated as Blytheville Municipal Airport, with wartime dormitories converted to veterans' housing. In 1955 the Tactical Air Command reopened it as Blytheville Air Force Base, hosting three squadrons of B-57 bombers involved in exercises such as Operation Redwing. In 1959 the base passed to the Strategic Air Command as part of the expanding B-52 fleet, gaining a Ready Alert Facility in 1960 that allowed B-52s to be scrambled at short notice; during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis two B-52G bombers there were readied for Operation Chrome Dome nuclear strike missions. The base, later renamed Eaker Air Force Base, closed in December 1992 under the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure process, after which the land passed to the cities of Blytheville and Gosnell for joint civilian use as Arkansas International Airport.
Since October 2008 Aviation Repair Technologies (ART) has been headquartered at the airport, operating heavy maintenance, short-term storage and engine disassembly facilities for regional turboprop and jet aircraft including the ATR 72, ATR 42, CRJ family, Embraer 120 and various ERJ types; its engine-disassembly joint venture with Air France-KLM, Turbine Support International, works on CFM56 and CF6 series engines. A US Air Force-built jet engine test cell on the field, capable of testing engines producing up to 56,000 lbs of thrust, has been leased exclusively to ART. The airport also supports Arkansas Army and Air National Guard training activity and hosts around 30 based aircraft, with roughly 16,000 annual aircraft operations recorded in recent years. Locally, efforts are underway to convert the former SAC Alert Facility into the National Cold War Center, a museum with a projected opening in 2027.
