Marfa Municipal Airport

Marfa Municipal Airport(IATA: MRF, ICAO: KMRF, FAA LID: MRF) is a county owned public use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) north of the central business district of Marfa, a city in Presidio County, Texas, United States. The airport serves private aircraft and has no scheduled airlines service.

Facilities and aircraft

Marfa Municipal Airport covers an area of 816 acres (330 ha) at an elevation of 4,849 feet (1,478 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 13/31 is 6,214 by 75 feet (1,894 x 23 m) and 4/22 is 5,307 by 75 feet (1,618 x 23 m). It also has a third runway with a dirt surface: 9/27 is 2,825 by 60 feet (861 x 18 m).

For the 12-month period ending April 23, 2007, the airport had 15,000 aircraft operations, an average of 41 per day, all of which were general aviation. At that time there were 18 aircraft based at this airport: 61% single-engine, 6% multi-engine and 33% glider.

Gliders

In April 2008, the Marfa Airport was recognized as the 15th National Landmark of Soaring by the National Soaring Museum.

Marfa Airport (original)

Marfa Airport is a former airport, located 2 miles Northeast of Marfa, Texas. Airport operations ended in 1945.

History

The airport was established by the Air Service, United States Army in 1919 as part of a series of military airfields along the Texas/Mexico border. Assigned to the Army Surveillance Group (ASG) Marfa Airfield was used to carry out observation overflights along the Mexican Border. During this period, Mexico was enduring a period of revolution and unrest, which led to border violations and the deaths of American citizens.

The 104th Surveillance Squadron operated Dayton-Wright DH-4 reconnaissance aircraft from Marfa Field beginning in November 1919. As the unrest in Mexico died down by the middle of 1921, the 104th moved back to Kelly Field, Texas in July.

The next use of the airfield was when the Department of Commerce refitted the facility as one of its network of Intermediate Landing Fields, which were established in the 1920s & 1930s to serve as emergency landing fields along commercial airways between major cities. It was also used by the City of Marfa as their municipal airport. However, the Marfa Municipal Airport continued to be used by the Army Air Corps on an as-needed basis until the beginning of World War II.