Eglin Air Force Base

Eglin Air Force Base
Characteristics
ICAO code	KVPS
IATA code	VPS
Coordinates	30 ° 29 ′ 0 ″  N , 86 ° 31 ′ 31 ″  W Coordinates: 30 ° 29 ′ 0 ″  N , 86 ° 31 ′ 31 ″  W
Height above MSL	27 m (89  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	12 km northeast of Fort Walton Beach , 15 km northwest of Destin
Street	I-10 / US 98 / FL 85 / FL 123 / FL 189
Basic data
operator	United States Air Force
Terminals	1
Passengers	875,000 (2016)
Flight movements	52,499 (2016/17)
Runways
01/19	3048 m × 91 m asphalt
12/30	3654 m × 91 m asphalt / concrete

The Eglin Air Force Base is around 1,876 square kilometers of area, the largest base of the United States Air Force (USAF) . At the same time it is a census-designated place (CDP) with 2274 inhabitants (status: 2010). The CDP borders the city of Valparaiso to the east and Choctawhatchee Bay to the south . It is located around 30 km south of Crestview and around 70 km east of Pensacola in the US state of Florida .

The Air Force Base

Eglin AFB is assigned to the Air Force Materiel Command , whose Air Armament Center there develops and tests airborne weapons. The base includes two runways with a length of 3,050 m and 3,660 m. Most of the area - including 30 km of coastline and parts of the Gulf of Mexico - is used as a weapons test area, in the eastern area there is a radar station for space surveillance.

The facility has two runways that the base shares with the civilian Destin – Fort Walton Beach Airport .

history

In 1931 the Army Air Corps began to take an interest in the uninhabited, swampy area around Valparaiso in order to use it as a shooting range and bomb dropping area. A first airfield was built in 1933 and opened on June 14, 1935 as the Valparaiso Bombing and Gunnery Base . On August 4, 1937, it was renamed Eglin Field in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Frederick I. Eglin , a World War I pilot who was killed in a plane crash on January 1 of the same year. By 1941 the base had already expanded to 1,554 km² and was now an important test center for aircraft, weapons and equipment of the Luftwaffe, as well as for training air combat tactics. The first military missiles were also developed here from 1946. After the Second World War , the name of the base changed to today's Eglin Air Force Base . In the period that followed, the USAF tested numerous aircraft (including the F-100 to F-106 and the B-52 ), drones and missiles here. Today, the focus is on developing and testing airborne weapons for the Air Force.

The now independent Hurlburt Field belonged since the early 1940s as a Field No. 9 to the Eglin AFB.

In addition to military rockets, NASA civil sounding rockets are also launched at Eglin AFB , for which three launchers (one at latitude 29.6700 north and longitude 85.3700 west on Cape San Blas, two on Santa Rosa Island at latitude 30.3800 north and longitude 86.7400 west and one at 30.3800 north Latitude and 86.8170 west longitude) are available. Airbus tested the A350 here in a special hangar in hot and cold conditions, as did Bombardier the CSeries.

Demographic data

According to the 2010 census, the then 2274 inhabitants were distributed over 1336 households. 77.2% of the population identified themselves as whites, 8.9% as African American , 0.5% as Indians and 2.2% as Asian Americans . 3.5% said they belonged to another ethnic group and 7.7% to several ethnic groups. 13.7% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos .

In 2010 children under the age of 18 and 31.2% of all households lived in 51.8% of all households with persons at least 65 years of age. 67.7% of households were family households (consisting of married couples with or without offspring or one parent with offspring). The average household size was 2.62 people and the average family size was 3.37 people.

39.2% of the population were younger than 20 years, 41.0% were 20 to 39 years old, 6.5% were 40 to 59 years old, and 13.3% were at least 60 years old. The mean age was 25 years. 43.5% of the population were male and 56.5% were female.

The median annual income was $ 30,845, with 6.8% of the population living below the poverty line.

In 2000, English was the first language of 91.22% of the population, 6.13% spoke Spanish and 2.65% had another mother tongue.

Web links

Commons : Eglin Air Force Base  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

• Homepage of the Eglin AFB
• Eglin in the Encyclopedia Astronautica (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eglin AFB Destin Fort Walton Beach. transtats.bts.gov , accessed June 29, 2017 (English). 
2. ↑ AirportIQ 5010: Eglin Air Force Base / Destin Fort Walton Beach. GCR1.com, accessed September 22, 2017 . 
3. ^ Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 . United States Census Bureau . Retrieved April 9, 2015.
4. ↑ Language distribution 2000 . Modern Language Association . Retrieved April 9, 2015.