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77-469: Frans Kaisiepo Airport ( IATA : BIK , ICAO : WABB ) is an airport on Biak island, in Papua , Indonesia . It is also known as Mokmer Airport . The airport is named after Frans Kaisiepo (1921–1979), the fourth Governor of Papua . The airport has seven aircraft parking slots, of which two are capable of handling wide-body aircraft , and a small terminal without jet bridges . The airport's only runway

154-685: A " black op " unit, the 34th Squadron, better known as the Black Bat Squadron , of the Republic of China Air Force ; these were painted in ROCAF markings. The ROCAF P2V-7U/RB-69A's mission was to conduct low-level penetration flights into mainland China to conduct ELINT/ferret missions including mapping out China's air defense networks, inserting agents via airdrop, and dropping leaflets and supplies. The agreement for plausible deniability between US and Republic of China (ROC) governments meant

231-405: A 2,000 m runway. Mokmer airfield wasn't in use that time and this continued into 1951. Because of a letter from Nieuw Guinea's governor (number 38/a.2/1935,dated 17 September 1953), Boroku Airfield was closed. Since then, the government started to search for another airport site. The choice was then finalized to the former RAAF and Allied troop airbase, Mokmer Airfield. At first phase, the airport

308-517: A carrier-based nuclear strike aircraft by modifying the P2V Neptune for carrier takeoff using jet assisted takeoff ( JATO ) rocket boosters, with initial takeoff tests in 1948. However, the Neptune could not land on a carrier, therefore the crew had to either make their way to a friendly land base after a strike, or ditch in the sea near a U.S. Navy vessel. It was replaced in this emergency role by

385-534: A gunship, as an overland reconnaissance and sensor deployment aircraft, and in its traditional role as a maritime patrol aircraft. The Neptune was also utilized by the US Army's 1st Radio Research Company (Aviation), call sign "Crazy Cat", based at Cam Ranh Air Base in South Vietnam, as an electronic "ferret" aircraft intercepting low-powered tactical voice and morse code radio signals. The US Army operated

462-436: A low level electronic reconnaissance from Da Nang Air Base , flying over Thanh Hóa Province on 20 August 1963 to investigate an air resupply drop zone that turned out to be a trap for a ROCAF C-123B airdrop mission 10 days earlier due to the air-inserted agents having been captured and turned. Next year, an air defense radar mapping mission was also flown by 34th Squadron's RB-69A/P2V-7U aircraft into North Vietnam and Laos on

539-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

616-425: A safe altitude. The jets were also started and kept running at flight idle during low-altitude (500-foot (150 m) during the day and 1,000-foot (300 m) at night) anti-submarine and/or anti-shipping operations as a safety measure should one of the radials develop problems. Normal crew access was via a ladder on the aft bulkhead of the nosewheel well to a hatch on the left side of the wheel well, then forward to

693-450: A service life of 15,000 hours. Neptune Aviation Services proposes to replace them with British Aerospace 146 aircraft, which have an estimated service life of 80,000 hours and carry upwards of 3,000 US gal (11,000 L; 2,500 imp gal) of retardant. The third production P2V-1 was chosen for a record-setting mission, ostensibly to test crew endurance and long-range navigation but also for publicity purposes: to display

770-615: A stop-gap modern maritime patrol aircraft until sufficient numbers of the Avro Shackleton could enter service. The Neptunes were used from between 1952 and March 1957, being used for airborne early warning experiments as well as for maritime patrol. In Australia, the Netherlands, and the US Navy, its tasks were taken over by the larger and more capable P-3 Orion, and by the 1970s, it was in use only by patrol squadrons in

847-505: Is 3,571m long, designated as 11/29. The airport area and runway is also shared with Manuhua Air Force Base , a Type A airbase of the Indonesian Air Force . The airbase is named after Major (Posth.) Lambertus Manuhua, an Air Force commando that was killed during combat in 1962 . Starting on 13 June 2019, it served as the homebase of the 27th Air Squadron, operating CN-235 transport aircraft. As World War II started in

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924-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

1001-617: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

1078-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

1155-671: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

1232-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

1309-579: Is located to the northwest of Mokmer, and is clearly visible on aerial photography. After the war the airfield was used by the Dutch who had kept it as a military airfield, flying P-2V Neptunes and later Hawker Hunters from the base until the withdrawal of Dutch forces in 1962. After the Dutch withdrawal, the airfield was used by the Indonesian Air Force. On 21 April 1969, Boroku Airfield was renamed to Manuhua Airfield. The aerial operation of

1386-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1463-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1540-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1617-558: The Ministry of Transportation revoked the airport's licence to serve international flights. Taxis and civil transport cars ( Angkot ) can be used as public transport alongside private vehicles. There is a terminal with a check-in hall, a departure hall, and an arrival hall. The terminal is equipped with numerous facilities including a mosque, public telephone boxes, Automated Teller Machines (ATM), restaurants, and souvenir shops. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

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1694-852: The North American AJ Savage (transferred to the Pacific Fleet in October 1952) the first nuclear strike aircraft that was fully capable of carrier launch and recovery operations; it was also short-lived in that role as the US Navy was adopting fully jet powered nuclear strike aircraft. In 1954 under Project Cherry , the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) obtained five newly built P2V-7 and converted these into P2V-7U/RB-69A variants by Lockheed's Skunk Works at Hangar B5 in Burbank, California , for

1771-727: The United States Navy prior to September 1962) is a maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft. It was developed for the US Navy by Lockheed to replace the Lockheed PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon , and was replaced in turn by the Lockheed P-3 Orion . Designed as a land-based aircraft, the Neptune never made a carrier landing, but a small number were converted and deployed as carrier-launched (using JATO assist), stop-gap nuclear bombers that would have to land on shore or ditch. The type

1848-570: The Westinghouse J34 jet engines on P2Vs burned the 115–145 Avgas fuel of the piston engines, instead of jet fuel. The jet pods were fitted with intake doors that remained closed when the J-34s were not running. This prevented windmilling, allowing for economical piston-engine-only long-endurance search and patrol operations. In normal US Navy operations, the jet engines were run at full power (97%) to assure takeoff, then shut down upon reaching

1925-521: The 34th Squadron's black op missions remain classified by the CIA—though a CIA internal draft history, Low-Level Technical Reconnaissance over Mainland China (1955–66) , reference CSHP-2.348, written in 1972 that covers CIA/ROCAF 34th Squadron's black op missions is known to exist. The CIA does not plan to declassify it until after 2022. During the Vietnam War , the Neptune was used by the US Navy as

2002-583: The Asia-Pacific region, Japan started occupying New Guinea in 1942. In an effort to win the war, some naval bases and military airbases were built there. This also happened in Biak, particularly at the village of Ambroben, where Mokmer Airfield was built. It had a 2,000 m long, 40 m wide runway and was built by Romusha workers. Japan then attempted to build a second military airfield in Samao county. However,

2079-586: The CIA's own private fleet of covert ELINT/ferret aircraft. Later, to make up for P2V-7U/RB-69A operational losses, the CIA obtained and converted two existing US Navy P2V-7s, one in September 1962, and one in December 1964 to P2V-7U/RB-69A Phase VI standard, and also acquired an older P2V-5 from the US Navy as a training aircraft in 1963. Test flights were made by lead aircraft at Edwards AFB from 1955 to 1956, all

2156-840: The Canadian Forces in 1968, the Neptune was re-designated the CP122 and was officially retired two years later. Australia also acquired Neptunes to supplement and then replace the aging Avro Lincoln in the reconnaissance and anti-submarine role. The RAAF flew Neptunes from 1951 until 1978, at first with 11 Squadron (Pearce, WA) and then, from late 1953, with 10 Squadron (Richmond, NSW). RAAF Neptunes were fitted for ASW, surface ship detection and general reconnaissance. Twelve P2V4/5 (later designated P-2E) aircraft entered service with 11 Squadron in 1951. At first powered only by two R3350 radials, all were later retrofitted with Westinghouse J-34 auxiliary jets. Long-running severe spare parts shortages in

2233-812: The Escuadrilla Aeronaval de Exploración ( Naval Exploration Squadron ). They were intensively used in 1978 during the Operation Soberania against Chile including over the Pacific Ocean. During the Falklands War in 1982, the last two airframes in service (2-P-111 and 2-P-112) carried out reconnaissance missions over the South Atlantic and on 4 May, after detecting a group of British warships, helped to direct an attack by two Dassault Super Étendards that resulted in

2310-685: The Indonesian Air Force as the HQ for the Manuhua Air Force Base) and Sorido Airfield in the village of Samau (now used by the Indonesian Navy Aviation). Mokmer Airfield's runway was extended to 3,000 X 40 m. This airfield was used by the Royal Australian Air Force . The allied troops ended their presence in Biak in 1945. Mokmer Airfield was part of a complex of airfields built on Biak Island by

2387-528: The Japanese (Mokmer, Boroku, and Sorido), of which Mokmer was the main USAAF facility after the island was taken by the United States after fierce fighting in late May and June 1944. The Battle of Biak Island came about after a succession of Japanese defeats in 1943 and 1944 along the northern coast of New Guinea. Biak became a Japanese stronghold, which they were determined to hold to the last man. Unknown to

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2464-657: The Manuhua Airfield was later moved to the current Frans Kaisiepo Airport. At least by 1992, the airfield was disused. Sorido Airfield is due west of Mokmer, along the beach. Not used as an airfield after the American liberation, it became a Fifth Air Force Air Depot area; however, the old runways are evident in aerial photography. The government of Netherlands soon took over the airfield. After Proclamation of Indonesian Independence , commercial flights started to operate to and from Biak, using Boroku Airfield which had

2541-560: The Neptune was license-built from 1966 by Kawasaki as the P-2J , with the piston engines replaced by IHI -built T64 turboprops. Kawasaki continued their manufacture much later than Lockheed did; the P-2J remained in service until 1984. P-2/P2Vs have been employed in aerial firefighting roles by operators such as Minden Air Corp and Neptune Aviation Services. The fire fighters can carry 2,080 US gal (7,900 L) of retardant and have

2618-615: The Neptunes added bombing and strafing operations to their patrol duties. On 17 May 1962, a Netherlands Navy Neptune shot down an Indonesian C-47 transport. A truce ended the conflict in September 1962, with Dutch New Guinea passing to UN control before becoming part of Indonesia, and the P2V-7s returned to Europe. The aircraft were upgraded to SP-2H standard soon after returning to the Netherlands, and remained in service until March 1982, when they were replaced by Lockheed Orions. In Japan,

2695-506: The P-2 exited active U.S. naval service. VP-23 was the last active duty patrol squadron to operate the SP-2H, retiring its last Neptune on 20 February 1970, while the last Naval Reserve patrol squadron to operate the Neptune, VP-94 , retired its last SP-2H in 1978. At the end of World War II, the US Navy felt the need to acquire a nuclear strike capability to maintain its political influence. In

2772-698: The P-2 from 1967 until 1972, flying 42,500 hours with no accidents. Observation Squadron 67 (VO-67) , call sign "Lindy", was the only P-2 Neptune aircraft squadron to ever receive the Presidential Unit Citation , flying Igloo White missions sowing seismic and acoustic sensors over the Ho Chi Minh trail . VO-67 lost three OP-2E aircraft and 20 aircrew to ground fire during its secret missions into Laos and Vietnam in 1967–68. The Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) secret 34th Black Bat Squadron's RB-69A/P2V-7U ELINT/SIGINT aircraft flew

2849-693: The P-2 in its hunter role: As the P-2 was replaced in the US Navy by the P-3A Orion in active Fleet squadrons in the early and mid-1960s, the P-2 continued to remain operational in the Naval Air Reserve through the mid-1970s, primarily in its SP-2H version. As active Fleet squadrons transitioned to the P-3B and P-3C in the mid- and late-1960s and early 1970s, the Naval Air Reserve P-2s were eventually replaced by P-3As and P-3Bs and

2926-679: The RB-69A would be manned by ROCAF crew while conducting operational missions, but would be manned by CIA crew when ferrying RB-69A out of Taiwan or other operational area to US. The P2V-7U/RB-69A flew with ROCAF Black Bat Squadron over China from 1957 to November 1966. All five original aircraft (two crashed in South Korea, three shot down over China) were lost with all hands on board. In January 1967, two remaining RB-69As flew back to NAS Alameda , California, and were converted back to regular US Navy P2V-7/SP-2H ASW aircraft configurations. Most of

3003-484: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . Lockheed P-2 Neptune The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (designated P2V by

3080-513: The U.S. Navy signed a letter of intent for two prototype XP2Vs, which was confirmed by a formal contract on 4 April 1944 with a further 15 aircraft being ordered 10 days later. It was not until 1944 that the program went into full swing. A major factor in the design was ease of manufacture and maintenance, and this may have been a major factor in the type's long life and worldwide success. The first aircraft flew in May 1945. Production began in 1946, and

3157-983: The US Naval Reserve and the Dutch Navy. The 320 Squadron of the Royal Dutch Navy retired its last seven Neptunes in March 1982 as they were being replaced by the Lockheed Orion. The US Naval Reserve retired its last Neptunes in 1978, those aircraft also having been replaced by the P-3 Orion. By the 1980s, the Neptune had fallen out of military use in most purchasing nations, replaced by newer aircraft. The Netherlands received its first Neptunes in 1953–54, when it acquired 12 P2V-5s. These remained in service until 1960, when they were transferred to Portugal. The P2V-5s were initially not replaced, with

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3234-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

3311-623: The advancing Allies, the Japanese began fortifying the island and when the Allies invaded on 27 May 1944, the Japanese put up a fierce defense. The only tank vs. tank battle in New Guinea occurred on Biak, where Japanese Ha-Go light tanks were knocked out by American Sherman tanks . Japanese soldiers were well entrenched in the interior of the island in limestone caves and fortifications, a trend that would be seen again in islands like Palau . These entrenched troops fought an excellent defense and

3388-587: The aircraft painted with dark sea blue color but with USAF markings. In 1957 one P2V-7U was sent to Eglin AFB for testing aircraft performance at low level and under adverse conditions. The initial two aircraft were sent to Europe, based at Wiesbaden , West Germany , but were later withdrawn in 1959 when the CIA reduced its covert aircraft assets in Europe. The CIA sent the other two P2V-7U/RB-69As to Hsinchu Air Base , Taiwan, where by December 1957, they were given to

3465-540: The aircraft was accepted into service in 1947. Potential use as a bomber led to successful launches from aircraft carriers. Beginning with the P2V-5F model, the Neptune became one of the first operational aircraft fitted with both piston and jet engines. The Convair B-36 , several Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter , Fairchild C-123 Provider , North American AJ Savage , and Avro Shackleton aircraft were also so equipped. To save weight and complexity of two separate fuel systems,

3542-598: The aircraft, "The Turtle" set out from Perth , Australia to the United States. With a crew of four (and a nine-month-old gray kangaroo , a gift from Australia for the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. ) the aircraft set off on 9 September 1946, with a RATO (rocket-assisted takeoff). 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 days (55h, 18m) later, "The Turtle" touched down in Columbus, Ohio after 11,236.6 mi (18,083.6 km). It

3619-631: The airfield was never completed and abandoned when Allied troops attacked Japan's military and defense bases. Meanwhile, Mokmer Airfield was completed and was now capable of supporting Japan's military aircraft, either single-engine or twin-engine. The allied troops landed at Biak on 16 November 1944. With the most complex equipment of that time, they built many military facilities, including air services for troop mobility, logistic hub, and defense base. Two other airfields were built at Biak; Boroku Airfield in Boroku Subdistrict (now used by

3696-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

3773-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

3850-400: The anti-submarine aircraft requirement being met by carrier-borne Grumman S-2 Trackers . A new, urgent, requirement for maritime patrol aircraft soon developed, for service over Dutch New Guinea , and 15 new P2V-7s were purchased, entering service from September 1961. While initially employed on reconnaissance and patrol duties, as Indonesian infiltration attempts against New Guinea increased,

3927-566: The anti-submarine, anti-shipping, and maritime reconnaissance roles, as a stopgap pending deliveries of the Canadair CP-107 Argus , which began in 1960. Canadian Neptunes were delivered without the underwing Westinghouse J34 jet engine pods, which were retrofitted in 1959. Armament included two torpedoes, mines, depth charges, bombs carried internally plus unguided rockets mounted under the wings. Twenty five Neptunes served with 404, 405 and 407 squadrons until 1960. Upon unification of

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4004-482: The capabilities of the US Navy's latest patrol bomber, and to surpass the standing record set by a Japanese Tachikawa Ki-77 . Its nickname was The Turtle , which was painted on the aircraft's nose (along with a cartoon of a turtle smoking a pipe pedaling a device attached to a propeller). However, in press releases immediately before the flight, the US Navy referred to it as "The Truculent Turtle". Loaded with fuel in extra tanks fitted in practically every spare space in

4081-531: The casualties at Biak were high - for the American Army, 435 KIA and 2,360 WIA. The Japanese lost an estimated 6,125 KIA, with 460 POWs, and 360 Formosan POWs. Postwar, the airfield complex became a major reclamation site for all types of surplus Allied aircraft. Mokmer Airfield is located to the west of Mokmer village on Biak, parallel to the coastline and the Yapen Strait and is the only one of

4158-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

4235-580: The early 1950s made it necessary to put 6 of the 12 aircraft in long-term storage from 1953. In August 1953, the rear and front turrets were removed and replaced with a MAD boom and a clear Perspex nose for observation. In the late 1960s, RAAF Neptune operations were wound down and it was replaced with the P-3B Orion. With the founding of NATO in 1949 and the resulting additional maritime commitments it entailed for Britain, The Royal Air Force Coastal Command operated 52 P2V-5s, designated Neptune MR.1, as

4312-585: The earthquake, the airport reopened. In 1998. due to financial crisis, Honolulu flights were ended and it only serves domestic flights (which operated by two airlines including Garuda and Merpati) In December 2017, two Tu-95 strategic bombers belonging to the Russian Air Force exercised at the Manuhua airbase, prompting RAAF Base Darwin in Australia to raise its alert level. In April 2024,

4389-730: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

4466-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

4543-425: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

4620-545: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

4697-430: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

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4774-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

4851-505: The night of 16 March 1964. The RB-69A took off from Da Nang, flew up the Gulf of Tonkin before coasting in near Haiphong , then flew down North Vietnam and the Laos border. The mission was requested by SOG for helping plan the insert or resupply of agents. Seven AAA sites, 14 early warning radar sites and two GCI radar signals were detected. The Argentine Naval Aviation had received at least 16 Neptunes of different variants since 1958 including eight former RAF examples for use in

4928-403: The observer nose, or up through another hatch to the main deck. There was also a hatch in the floor of the aft fuselage, near the sonobuoy chutes. Before the P-3 Orion arrived in the mid-1960s, the Neptune was the primary U.S. land-based anti-submarine patrol aircraft, intended to be operated as the hunter of a '"Hunter-Killer" group, with destroyers employed as killers. Several features aided

5005-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

5082-451: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

5159-527: The short term, carrier-based aircraft were the best solution. The large Fat Man nuclear munitions at that time were bulky and required a very large aircraft to carry them. The US Navy Bureau of Ordnance built 25 outdated but more compact Little Boy nuclear bomb designs to be used in the smaller bomb bay of the P2V Neptune. There was enough fissionable material available by 1948 to build ten complete uranium projectiles and targets, although there were only enough initiators to complete six. The U.S. Navy improvised

5236-481: The sinking of the British destroyer HMS  Sheffield . The lack of spare parts, caused by the US having enacted an arms embargo in 1977 due to the Dirty War , led to the type being retired before the end of the war; Argentine Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules took over the task of searching for targets for strike aircraft. The Royal Canadian Air Force's Air Command replaced their aging Avro Lancaster maritime aircraft beginning in 1955 with P2V-7 Neptunes in

5313-452: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

5390-461: The three currently used as an airport and is now called Frans Kaisiepo International Airport . Mokmer Airfield also became a major refueling point for airline flights from the United States to destinations in Indonesia, prior to non-stop cross Pacific flights. On 16 July 1957, KLM Flight 844 crashed into Cenderawasih Bay shortly after takeoff. 58 out of 68 passengers on board the Lockheed 1049E Super Constellation propliner perished. Boroku Airfield

5467-401: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

5544-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

5621-526: Was Amsterdam via Tokyo, which operated by KLM in 1951 to 1962, as of 1970s. There are no scheduled international flights, which only served domestic flights to Ambon, Makassar, Jayapura, Sorong, Timika, Nabire, Manokwari and Manado (via Sorong) International flights resumed in November 1986 when Garuda Indonesia airlines ran a flight from Jakarta to Los Angeles in the US, via Bali , Biak, and Honolulu ; Biak

5698-547: Was designated as a refueling stopover before flying the Trans-Pacific leg. In 1993, Garuda flew four times a week to Honolulu and Los Angeles with their Boeing 747-200 Combi and McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 wide body jetliners. In 1990, the airport's management and operation was handed over to Angkasa Pura I . Following the earthquake and tsunami in February 1996, the airport closed until further notice. Soon after

5775-629: Was revamped to accommodate piston airliners such as the Douglas DC-3 . This phase was completed in 1954. With the advent of jet airliners such as the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 , the airport went through another modernization to start accommodating them. This modernization was completed in 1959. Sorido Airfield was closed to civilian traffic and is now used by the Indonesian Navy 's Naval Aviation in Biak. The first international flight

5852-571: Was successful in export, and saw service with several armed forces. Development of a new land-based patrol bomber began early in World War II, with design work starting at Lockheed's Vega subsidiary as a private venture on 6 December 1941. At first, the new design was considered a low priority compared to other aircraft in development at the time, with Vega also developing and producing the PV-2 Harpoon patrol bomber. On 19 February 1943,

5929-553: Was the longest un-refueled flight yet beating the unofficial 10,212 mi (16,435 km) record set by the Japanese Tachikawa Ki-77. This would stand as the absolute unrefueled distance record until 1962 when it was beaten by a USAF Boeing B-52 Stratofortress , and would remain as a piston-engined record until 1986 when the Rutan Voyager broke it circumnavigating the globe. "The Turtle" is preserved at

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