Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Wake Island Airfield (PWAK) is a US Air Force installation on the remote Pacific atoll of Wake Island, built around a single long hard-surfaced runway that once served as a vital transpacific refuelling stop for airliners and remains an emergency diversion field for jets crossing the ocean today. Steeped in the history of the 1941 Battle of Wake Island and the golden age of Pacific air travel, it offers a striking and unusual destination for the simulator pilot exploring the mid-Pacific.
Wake Island Airfield sits on the tiny US-administered Wake Atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly midway between Hawaii and Guam. It is a Department of Defense airfield, owned by the US Air Force and historically operated by the 611th Air Support Group, and it holds a unique place in Pacific aviation history as both a former Pan American World Airways seaplane and airliner stop and the site of a fierce World War II battle. For the simulator pilot, its isolation, its single very long runway, and its role as a transpacific refuelling and emergency diversion point make it an intriguing long-haul waypoint.
The airfield lies on Wake Island, part of Wake Atoll in the United States Minor Outlying Islands, at coordinates 19.2825 N, 166.637 E. Given its remote mid-Pacific position, oceanic air traffic control for the surrounding airspace is provided by Oakland Oceanic, as reflected in the field's operations frequency. There are no other airfields or towns nearby; Wake Atoll itself is the only landmass for a great distance in any direction.
Wake Island Airfield has a single physical runway, 10/28, oriented east-west and measuring 9,837 feet in length with a hard surface. Both runway ends are lit, but there is no ILS approach available.
Air-to-ground communication is available on 128 MHz. Operations traffic uses AAS RDO on 884.3 MHz, which is monitored by Oakland Oceanic Control given the airfield's position within oceanic airspace. There is no ILS, so any approach must be flown visually or using other available navigation means.
Wake Atoll itself, a small isolated coral atoll with no other landmasses nearby, is the primary visual reference for locating the field; the long east-west runway spans much of Wake Island and is the dominant feature visible on approach.
Wake Island's aviation story began in 1935 when Pan American World Airways selected the atoll as an intermediate base for its trans-Pacific seaplane routes to the Philippines. Pan Am's construction ship North Haven landed equipment on Wilkes Islet in May 1935 for transfer to Peale Islet, and on 9 August 1935 a Pan American Sikorsky S-42 flying boat made the first aerial landing at the atoll; a hotel, farm animals and hydroponic farming followed as the seaplane base developed. Two typhoons in 1940 caused extensive damage to these facilities. Recognising that the seaplane base could not support serious military activity, the US Navy began building a full runway for land-based aircraft, with a pioneer construction party of 80 men arriving from Oahu in December 1940 under contractor Morrison-Knudsen. This effort was still underway when the Battle of Wake Island began in December 1941; the atoll was held by Japan until September 1945. After the war, Wake Island became a scheduled stop on Pan Am's round-the-world service between San Francisco and New York, with Boeing 377 Stratocruisers calling at the field from 1950. The airfield gained wider historical significance in October 1950 when it hosted a face-to-face meeting between President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War, a meeting that presaged MacArthur's dismissal the following year. Through the 1950s and 1960s the field was used by a variety of carriers, including Transocean Air Lines' Lockheed Constellations on an Oakland-Honolulu-Wake Island-Guam-Okinawa routing, Brazil's Real Transportes Aereos on flights between South America and Japan, and Philippine Airlines' Douglas DC-8s, which used Wake Island as a fuel stop on westbound San Francisco-Honolulu-Manila services because the DC-8 lacked the range to fly the Honolulu-Manila leg nonstop. By 1969 Pan Am was running twice-weekly Boeing 707 service between San Francisco and Saigon via Wake Island, alongside daily all-cargo 707 flights. A terminal building was constructed at the airfield in 1962. The advent of longer-range jet aircraft in the early 1970s progressively removed the need for a mid-Pacific refuelling stop, and civil traffic declined sharply, with Pan Am filing to end its weekly Wake Island stops as annual passenger numbers fell to around 1,180 by 1970. A Pan Am Boeing 747 nonetheless made a symbolic visit in November 1985 to commemorate the first China Clipper flight.
Wake Island Airfield remains an active US Air Force facility, holding significance as a trans-Pacific refuelling depot for military missions and as a military training and missile testing location. Its long runway is also available for emergency landings by commercial jetliners on transpacific routes, a legacy of its earlier role as a scheduled refuelling stop for airline traffic. As a Department of Defense installation, access to the field is restricted.