Liberal Army Airfield was a World War II Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber training base of the United States Army Air Forces' Second Air Force. It is currently the city-owned Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport.HistoryThe first tangible move to implement the decision to locate an Army Air Corps four-engine pilot school on a site selected one mile west of Liberal in western Kansas, was the grant of a contract to Murray A. Wilson and Company, engineers, to make a complete survey and layout for an airfield. The new airfield was situated in Sections 1, 6, 25, 30, 31, and 36, Townships 34 and 35 South, and Ranges 33 and 34 West, with a dimension of two miles north and south and two miles east and west. The field formed part of a flat, low plateau.By 16 January 1943 the survey had been completed. But even before the survey had been officially finished, contracts were let on 9 January, with Peter Kiewit Sons named as prime contractor. The entire field, some 1,946.7 acres, was purchased by the government. In addition, 3.3 acres on the north extremity of the north-south runway were leased to provide zone clearance space. Just nine days later construction began on the site.Facilities on Liberal Army Airfield were to cost approximately $8,000,000. Initially three concrete runways were built, each 7,000 feet in length and 150 feet wide, with a gross load capacity of 37,000 pounds. Portable B-2 type runway lights were installed. In addition, a concrete parking apron of some 276,318 square yards was constructed, along with three concrete taxiways 100 feet in width. In 1943, a second set of three runways, identical and parallel to the first three were built. An enclosing loop taxiway was also constructed. This doubled the capacity of the airfield for landings and takeoffs.
