Cuddeback Airfield

Cuddeback Airfield, also known as Cuddeback Air-to-Ground Gunner Range and Cuddeback Lake Air Force Range (NASA LID: CUD) was an air-to-ground military training facility and emergency landing strip located on Cuddeback Lake in Mojave Desert, California. It was operated by the United States Air Force from 1959 until 1983, supporting live-fire strafing, bombing, and missile training for fighter and attack aircraft, including the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The range was also designed for the X-15 program, equipped with camera targets. The airfield operated in coordination with the nearby Edwards Air Force Base and George Air Force Base, and personnel were often rotated by helicopters due to its remote location.

Cuddeback Airfield
Part of George Air Force Base
Cuddeback Lake, Mojave Desert, California Near Edwards AFB / Mojave, California in United States
Site information
Type	Air-to-ground gunnery range and emergency landing strip
Owner	United States Department of Defense (formerly)
Operator	United States Air Force
Controlled by	Air Force Flight Test Center / George Air Force Base
Condition	Abandoned
Other facilities	Camera targets for X-15 program; air-to-ground gunnery targets
Location
Cuddeback Airfield Location in California Show map of California Cuddeback Airfield Cuddeback Airfield (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates	35°16′50″N 117°23′54″W
Site history
Built	1955 (1955)
Built for	Air-to-ground gunnery and emergency landing
Built by	United States Air Force
In use	1959 - 1983 (1983)
Fate	Closed
Events	15 November 1967 X-15 crash in which USAF astronaut Michael J. Adams lost his life.
Designations	Cuddeback Air-to-Ground Gunnery Range, Cuddeback Lake Air Force Range
Test information
Training	Simulated low-level nuclear delivery training (with NAS China Lake); air-to-ground gunnery and bombing practice
Remediation	None
Airfield information
Identifiers	LID: CUD
Elevation	700 feet (210 m) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 01/19 3,018.37 feet (920.00 m)
Other airfield facilities	Camera targets for X-15 program, gunnery scoring targets

History

Cuddeback Dry Lake was named after Leon D. Cuddeback, who was an early desert aviator & contemporary of Pancho Barnes. It is sometimes misspelled as "Cuddleback". Cuddeback Airfield was built between 1932-33 in the middle of Cuddeback Dry Lake, serving as an auxiliary airfield. By 1937, it operated both as an auxiliary airfield and civil airport, with a 15,840 x 5,280 feet long clay landing area. It was used by the United States Army as an artillery range. Between 1940-41, the airfield was abandoned. In 1955, the United States Air Force (USAF) acquired Cuddeback range, and purchased an additional 37.82 acres of adjacent land. Beginning in 1959, the Cuddeback Dry Lake Air Strip was used as an emergency landing site in preparation of the North American X-15 program. Subsequently, NASA designated the airfield and the adjacent dry lake as a launch site and drop-zone, named Cuddeback Dry Lake and Cuddeback Dry Lake Drop Zone. In June 1963, Cuddeback Airfield was converted to the Cuddeback Lake Air Force Range, also known as the Cuddeback Air-to-Ground Gunner Range (Cuddeback AGGR).^[1][2]

Cuddeback Airfield began operating as a drop-zone for air-launched rockets, with runway 01/19 mainly serving emergency landings. Cuddeback Dry Lake additionally operated a range for low-level simulated nuke targeting, which was facilitated by NAS China Lake. On the 500-knot run in, Navy pilots would drop practice bombs as big as 25-lb. Cuddeback Airfield was equipped with strafe lanes, two dive bomb circles, and two target circles. It was also equipped with three asphalt camera targets for the X-15 program, several landfills, ammunition burial pits, and four underground storage tanks. Infrastructure for stationed personnel included two scoring towers, a motor pool barn, a small mess hall, and a small operations building. Weather personnel from Detachment 12 of the 25th Weather Squadron provided meteorological support and forecasts, while range crews scored strafing, bombing, and missile accuracy from the two scoring towers. Due to the remoteness of the airfield, access was done by Huey helicopters. During exercises, Cuddeback Airfield was temporarily staffed with personnel.^[2][3]

On 3 November, 1965, an X-15A-2 External Tank Test was conducted from Edwards AFB, serving as the first flight with empty external tanks. It took off from launch platform NB-52 003, with a maximum altitude around 21,520 meters and maximum speeds at 2,414 kilometres per hour. It airdropped over Cuddeback Dry Lake, with the ammonia tank being recovered while the lox tank was destroyed.^[4]

1970s - 1998

From 1975 to 1979, small detachments of 6 men stayed for one week per rotation. Cuddeback Airfield was now under operation by George AFB. F-105 Wild Weasel squadrons recently returned from Southeast Asia conducted range training, along with F-4E Phantom II units. Occasionally, Convair F-106 Delta Darts of the Air Defense Command and Lockheed F-104 Starfighters of the German Air Force training detachments utilized Cuddeback. Bombing & strafing training were also done by the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, with regular visits by O-2s from Ontario AF Reserve for Forward Air Control operations, marking targets for Thuds & F-4s. By the late 1970s, McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom IIs from George AFB experimented with a new video guided missile over Cuddeback. Due to the constant activities, landing at Cuddeback Airfield was unsuitable.^[2]

In June 1983, a glider involved in an event lost altitude and conducted an emergency landing at Cuddeback Airfield, almost hitting a guy-wire in the process. The glider landed on a Saturday, while the range was closed, and the aircraft was shortly dismantled and loaded into a vehicle.^[2] In 1983, Cuddeback AGGR ceased operations. A clean-up was launched, and ordnance items used and found within the range were 20 MM TP & High Explosive Incendiary, BDU-33 & MK-76 (25-lb practice bombs), MK-106 (5 pound practice bomb), and Napalm fire bombs.^[1]

Closure

Between January-February in 1998, Cuddeback Dry Lake was used for the filming of Madonna’s music video for the song "Frozen".^[5] Eventually, Cuddeback Airfield was surplus to the USAF’s needs. On 13 April, 1992, the USAF officially removed Cuddeback Dry Lake from George AFB and Edwards AFB property holdings, ending the Air Force ownership of the land. In 2012, ownership of the land was given to the Bureau of Land Management. The former buildings at Cuddeback Airfield were dismantled and removed.^[6]

Present

In April 2015, eight members from American anarchist group Indecline spent six days spray painting the mural “THIS LAND WAS OUR LAND” on the disused runway of Cuddeback Airfield. The graffiti encompasses the full length and width of the runway, and is claimed to be one of the largest in the world by the group. Today, the runway remains intact, with all buildings being removed. It is occasionally used for UAV training.^[7]

Accidents & incidents

• On 19 July, 1960, an F-104C Starfigher registered as FG-906 was on a high altitude dive bomb and a low-angle strafe mission when it the aircraft experienced nozzle problems. The aircraft shortly crashed following an emergency landing attempt on Cuddeback Dry Lake, with witnesses reporting a large column of dust as the F-104C touched down. Fire rescue arrived to the scene and extinguished a fire on the tailpipe. The pilot of the aircraft, Captain John Houston was found dead in a "jack-knifed" position by the witnesses.^[1][8]

Firefighters survey the wreckage of the X-15 after the crash in which USAF astronaut Michael J. Adams lost his life (Nov. 15, 1967).

• On 15 November, 1967, an X-15-3 piloted by Major Michael J. Adams began deviating as a result of the pilot’s distraction by an electrical disturbance, and his misinterpretation of the instrumentation displayed. Subsequently, the aircraft fell into a spin, and Adams attempted to straighten out the X-15. Despite recovering from the spin at 118,000 feet, the aircraft went into a Mach 4.7 dive, inverted, at an angle between 40 and 45 degrees. By 65,000 feet, the X-15 speeded downwards at Mach 3.93, and experienced over 15 g vertically, exceeding the airframe’s structural limits. The plane broke up into pieces mid-air, before crashing northwest of Cuddeback. An Air Force pilot spotted the main wreckage of the destroyed X-15, and Mike Adams was killed upon impact. On the weekend after the accident, an unofficial search party located the camera, however, the film cartridge was unable to be found. Two weeks after the crash, Engineer Victor Horton organised another search, and the cassette was found, which was flown to Boston for processing. Michael Adams was posthumously awarded the Adams Astronaut Wings for his last flight, as he surpassed an altitude of 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. His name was also added to the Space Mirror Memorial at the Kennedy Space Museum in 1991. On June 8, 2004, a memorial monument to Adams was built near the crash site as a part of an Eagle Scout project.^[9]