Ellington Airport (EFD/KEFD)

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Ellington Airport is a joint use civil/military airport located approximately 15 miles south of downtown Houston near Interstate 45 South.
It primarily supports the operations of the United States Armed Forces, NASA, and a variety of general aviation tenants. The airport is also the facility where many astronauts from the nearby Johnson Space Center receive their ongoing space training, and is home to the annual Wings Over Houston Airshow.

Ellington Airport is owned by the city of Houston and operated by the Houston Airport System (the fourth largest multi-airport system in the nation and the sixth largest in the world).

Established by the Army Air Service on May 21, 1917, it was named Ellington Field after Lt. Eric L. Ellington, who was killed in a plane crash in San Diego in 1913. It became one of the largest aviation training facilities in the nation; by the end of the war, approximately 5,000 men and 250 aircraft occupied the base.

Pilots and bombardiers were trained at Ellington, and there was a gunnery and radio school there. Men who trained at Ellington were assigned to combat posts in Europe.

As history would have it, during the succeeding years Ellington gradually fell into decline. The base was in a standby status until 1927, the year it was razed by fire and subsequently closed.

The imminence of World War II prompted Congress to appropriate $7 million to rebuild the base. Nine months after construction began, on June 26, 1941, the first plane landed at the newly constructed Ellington Field. Shortly thereafter the military began training pilots and bombardiers again for combat. With the U.S. in the throes of war, manpower at the base climbed once again to 5,000 personnel.

Ellington Field became Ellington Air Force Base in September 1947 when the U.S. Air Force was designated a separate service.

Ellington was again fully activated in 1949 as the only post-war U.S. Air Force navigator training school. When the Korean War began in 1950, Ellington resumed its duties of training men for war.

By 1976 the command of Ellington Field had changed hands several times. The 147th Fighter Interceptor Group (ANG) was designated by the Air Force to handle the phase-down transition. The last student of combat crew training was graduated by the 147th on May 4, 1976, the year Ellington was officially deactivated by the Air Force.

On July 1, 1984, some 63 years after the military installation opened, Ellington Field was acquired by the City of Houston's Department of Aviation. In January 2009, a name change from Ellington Field to Ellington Airport was approved by the Houston City Council

Runway 5/23
Dimensions: 9003 x 150 ft. / 2744 x 46 m
Runway 13/31
Dimensions: 9001 x 150 ft. / 2744 x 46 m

www.fly2houston.com/EllingtonAbout
www.txdot.gov/publications/aviation/directory/efd.pdf
www.globalair.com/airport/airport.aspx?aptcode=KEFD
www.airnav.com/airport/KEFD