Departure
95%
vs 95% ▼ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Dover Air Force Base sits on the Delmarva Peninsula just southeast of Dover, Delaware, and is one of the United States Air Force's principal strategic airlift hubs, home to the 436th Airlift Wing and the Air Force Reserve's 512th Airlift Wing flying the C-5M Super Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III. For the simulator pilot it offers some of the longest runways in the eastern United States, full ILS coverage, and a rich wartime history stretching back to 1941.
Dover Air Force Base is a major United States Air Force installation under Air Mobility Command, located on the Delmarva Peninsula close to the city of Dover, Delaware. It is the host base for the 436th Airlift Wing, known as the Eagle Wing, and the co-located Air Force Reserve 512th Airlift Wing, the Liberty Wing, which together operate the C-5M Super Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III. The base is also notable as the site of the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs, the Department of Defense's largest military mortuary, and hosts the Air Mobility Command Museum in the historic Hangar 1301. For a sim pilot the field is a striking destination thanks to its huge runways, heavy airlifters, and long lineage dating to the Second World War.
The base lies about two miles southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware, in the centre of the Delmarva Peninsula shared by Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. As an active military airfield it sits within its own controlled airspace and is served by its own approach, departure and tower frequencies rather than a civilian terminal control area.
Dover has two paired hard-surfaced, lit runways. Runway 01/19 is 9,595 ft long and equipped with ILS at both ends. Runway 14/32 is the longer of the pair, with published lengths of 8,668 ft in the 14 direction and 12,897 ft in the 32 direction; both are hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 23 ft.
Dover operates a full military air traffic service. Published frequencies include Approach on 132.425 MHz, ATIS on 135.05 MHz, Clearance Delivery on 125.55 MHz, Departure on 32.3 MHz, Ground on 118.875 MHz, Tower on 126.35 MHz, and a weather/PMSV service on 34.2 MHz. A command post/PTD frequency is listed on 134.1 MHz, and RDO Millville is noted on 111.4 MHz. The field is equipped with an ILS serving runway 01/19.
The site began life as the Municipal Airport, Dover Airdrome, with construction starting in March 1941 and the field opening on 17 December 1941, only days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was rapidly taken over by the U.S. Army Air Corps and converted to military use, with three concrete runways, taxiways, a large parking apron and a control tower built during the initial construction programme. The first unit to arrive, on 20 December 1941, was the 112th Observation Squadron of the Ohio National Guard, which flew anti-submarine patrols off the Delaware coast. In early 1942 three B-25 Mitchell squadrons of the 45th Bombardment Group arrived to continue the anti-submarine mission under what became Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command. The field was renamed Dover Army Air Base on 8 April 1943, becoming a sub-base of Camp Springs Army Airfield, Maryland, while the main runway was lengthened to 7,000 ft. Full operational capability was restored in September 1943, when seven P-47 Thunderbolt squadrons arrived for fighter training under the 83d Fighter Group, later redesignated the 125th Base Unit. Later in the war the base also hosted air-to-air missile testing and pilot training squadrons while continuing to help safeguard the eastern seaboard. The airfield became Dover Army Airfield on 2 February 1944, and with the creation of the United States Air Force it was redesignated Dover Air Force Base on 13 January 1948. The base later transitioned to an all-C-5 Galaxy fleet by 1973, the first Air Force wing to do so, and passed to the newly formed Air Mobility Command in 1992. Its mortuary facility has handled remains from major national events, including the Jonestown deaths in 1978 and the losses of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia.
Dover remains a fully active Air Force installation, home to the 436th Airlift Wing and the Air Force Reserve's 512th Airlift Wing, operating C-5M Super Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft on worldwide airlift missions. The base also houses the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs, the Department of Defense's largest military mortuary, which continues to receive the remains of service members killed overseas. The Air Mobility Command Museum, in the historic Hangar 1301, is open to visitors, though the base itself is not generally open to the public and prior permission is required for any visiting flight.
