UXO Site selected: Kingman Air to Air Gunnery Range, AZ |
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General Area: Kingman, AZ Site Type/Program: FUDS Location: The southern corner of the former Kingman Air to Air Gunnery Range is located approximately six miles north of the present city limits of the City of Kingman, Mohave County, Arizona. From this point, the former aerial practice gunnery range extended northward approximately 31 miles, generally following the Hualapai Valley. Brief History: In early 1943, the Army Air Corps acquired over 360,000 acres of land northeast of Kingman, Arizona for use by Kingman Aerial Gunnery School to train gunners in air-to-air firing techniques. Five target flight lines and two auxiliary landing fields were established within this range. Initially, gunnery trainees fired at targets towed along these target flight lines. This technique did not provide a sufficient quality of training and other training techniques were tried. One of the first tried was to place a gun camera on the machine gun and instead of firing bullets the camera would record the gunners site picture whenever the trigger was pulled. In this situation, instead of aiming at a towed target sleeve, P-39 and P-63 aircraft were used as targets. Another technique tried involved the use of frangible bullets which were fired at specially armored versions of the P-39 and P-63s. This was called Operation PINBALL. Kingman Army Air Field was set up to handle two classes of about 200 students at any one time. During 1943, the policy was to have a class fire 1,200 rounds per student for one week on the Kingman Air to Air Gunnery Range (week five of the training cycle) and then move to Yucca and have them fire 1,000 rounds during the second week. On 15 November 1945, the property was declared surplus, and between 1946 and 1950 the various parcels were returned and leases cancelled. Initially, the ammunition used on these ranges was .30 caliber. As the .50 caliber machine gun became available, the use of the .30 caliber was slowly phased out. The P-39 and P-63 aircraft, used as targets, were normally equipped with a 37mm cannon. When the aircraft was in use as a target, this cannon was supposed to be removed and a light replaced it which would signal the gunners when hits were scored on the aircraft. During the latter part of the period this range was operational, the policy was that the gun camera missions were flown on this range and the live fire missions were flown on the Yucca Air to Air Range. However, in the book Operation Pinball The USAAF's Secret Aerial Gunnery Program in WWII, by Ivan Hickman, the author stated, "We also enjoyed chucking 37 mm shells along the desert floor. |
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Range / Site Description: Associated Munitions: Activities Completed: The Archives Search Report (ASR) for the Kingman Air to Air Gunnery Range was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, in February 1998. Issues: The Huntsville Center Technical Advisory Group met and discussed this ASR on 12 January 1999 and determined NOFA for the entire site as the primary types of items expected to be found on this range are expended .30 and .50. caliber small arms ammunition. This FUDS is located in a very sparsely populated area and due to its immense size and desert-like characteristics, the potential of encountering hazardous 37mm residue is almost non-existent. Other Information: NOFA |
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