While doing research for historical flight plans I usually run into the problem of which airfield did they use if there is more than one field in the area, and so end up with some little pieces of airfield history that I thought I would include with these plans.

Since KNA was based out of Seoul I started there and narrowed the choices down to Gimpo and what FS calls Seoul Domestic.

Gimpo:

Gimpo airport is located in the west of Seoul, Republic of Korea. The history of Gimpo airport started when the Japanese army built a landing strip at the present site in 1939. After Korean Independence from Japan in 1945, the American air force used it and commercial airplanes were allowed to land at the airport. From 1954, the Korean government was partly allowed to use this airport. Gimpo airport was renamed Gimpo International Airport by Presidential Order in 1958 and its full-scale upgrade into an international airport was completed in 1971. Gimpo International Airport has been the gateway to Seoul, Republic of Korea and nowadays it is giving new pleasures to airport travellers of enjoying the complex space, called 'Sky City' which is, a place of culture, leisure and shopping.

This info plus some pictures I found on airliners.net led me to not use Gimpo and instead use Seoul Domestic which was actually named Sinchonri. This is now strictly for military use and I was not able to find and info on its history.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0105877/M

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0105878/M

Next in line was the city of Busan which has 2 airfields, Gimhae Intl. and Busan Aero. Since the Aero field is only a runway in FS I went with Gimhae but am doing more research as the current location is not the original and the original field did not open till the middle of '58. Korean War era maps show 2 airfields in the Busan area, K1 and K9 but I have been able to find little info on them.

Gimhae Intl:  

Gimhae International Airport is located at Daejeo 2-dong, Gangseo-gu, Busan. This airport began the service as Busan Suyong airfield for the first time on August 1958, and was raised to Busan International Airport on September 1963. It was moved to current location on August 1976 to expand the facilities and changed the name to Gimhae International Airport.

The last field for which I have a little history is Gwangju Intl. and although it is the only field in area I thought it interesting to note that it too has been moved at least once.

Gwangju International Airport was opened on Nonmember 16, 1948, and the first commercial plane (DC-3) had its virgin flight on February 10, 1950. On January 10, 1964, the airport was relocated to the present address, and since then the traveller terminals, taxi way, apron and other facilities have been upgraded for full-scale transportation. While being developed with a proper "airport" appearance, the airport was bought, and has been managed, by the Korea Airports Corporation since June 1990.

Thanks for reading and if you have any info or can point me to sources please send me a pm if you are a dc3airways member or e-mail me at al dot nix at verizon dot net.

Al Nix
DCA-964
May 14, '07
