Мэриленд штатындағы Патукстент Ривер әскери-теңіз базасы

Military naval air station and flight test centre in Maryland, United States

Naval Air Station Patuxent River , also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States naval air station located in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. It is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the U. S. Naval Test Pilot School, the Atlantic Test Range, Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, and serves as a center for test and evaluation and systems acquisition relating to naval aviation. The station also operates a small outlying field, NOLF Webster. Commissioned on April 1, 1943, on land largely acquired through eminent domain, the air station grew rapidly in response to World War II and continued to evolve through the Cold War to the present.

The Naval Air Station Patuxent River site is located in Lexington Park, Maryland, at the confluence of the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay on a peninsula known as Cedar Point.

Naval Air Station Patuxent River (PAX) operated several landfills and other historical disposal areas. The landfills received solid and hazardous wastes. This included spent oil absorbents, solvents, paints, antifreeze, thinners, pesticides and photo lab wastes, sewage treatment plant sludge, cesspool wastes. In the late 1950s, DDT was sprayed and from 1962–1989 various pesticides, including fungicides and insecticides and herbicides, were used, contaminating the ground surface water and groundwater. Base residential housing was within a quarter mile. In May 1994, PAX was added to the Superfund program's National Priorities List.

Prior to 1937 the area was prime farmland, consisting of several large plantations, Mattapony, Susquehanna, and Cedar Point, as well as numerous tenant and sharecropper properties and a few clusters of vacation homes. The Cedar Point community included several churches, a post office, and a gas station. Some of the old homes now serve as quarters for Navy personnel stationed there. In 1937, the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics sought to consolidate aviation test programs, previously being conducted at several stations, including Dahlgren and Norfolk, the Washington Navy Yard, Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington, D. C., and the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cedar Point was selected due to its remote location on the coastline, well removed from air traffic congestion, with ample space for weapons testing. The unofficial name had been Cedar Point or the Naval Air Station at Cedar Point, but officials were concerned about possible confusion with the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, so the new facility was named for the adjacent river. In 1945 the Test Pilot School was established with the Navy's Flight Test Group transferred from Naval Air Station Anacostia, Washington, DC to NAS Patuxent River.

The base became a center for testing as several facilities were constructed throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including the facilities for United States Naval Test Pilot School (1958), the Weapons Systems Test Division (1960), and the Propulsion System Evaluation Facility. The base also served as the testing facility for the V 22 Osprey. In addition to its role in testing naval aircraft, during the 1950s to 1970s Patuxent River served as an operational base for a Transport Squadron VR 1, a TACAMO squadron VQ 4, Airborne Training Unit Atlantic AEWTULANT, and VW 11, VW 13 AN VW 15 and a number of Patrol Squadrons including VP 8, VP 44, VP 49, VP 24, VP 30 and VP 68.

By 1965, reconnaissance Squadron VQ 4, based at NAS Patuxent River, began using Lockheed C 130s equipped with special communications equipment to perform their around the clock Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) mission. VQ 4 provided long range, very low frequency communications relay between the National Command Center and the ballistic missile submarine fleet. Two LTV A 7 Corsair II aircraft made the transatlantic crossing from NAS Patuxent River to Évreux, France, in 1967, racking up 3,327 nautical miles in just over seven hours, an unofficial long distance, non refueled flight by light attack jet aircraft. Cooperation with the British led to transatlantic visits to Pax River by RAF squadrons.

Research and development at NAS Patuxent River forged ahead in the 1970s. The Grumman F 14 Tomcat, the McDonnell Douglas AV 8B Harrier II jump jet, and the Lockheed P 3 Orion were just a few of the major aircraft programs undergoing the rigorous test and evaluation process at NAS Patuxent River. Helicopter programs also achieved major milestones during the 1970s. The Naval Air Test Center (NATC) at NAS Patuxent River took part in helicopter development and testing for new roles, such as minesweeping. The final flight of the service acceptance trials for the Bell AH 1 SuperCobra gunship was made at NATC Patuxent River.

On 1 April 1976, Patuxent River's airfield was named after pioneering aviator VADM Frederick M. Trapnell, a former commander of the Naval Air Test Center at the station. Keynote address speaker, ADM Frederick H. Michaelis, Chief of Naval Material, noted: "All who fly in Navy blue remain indebted to Vice Admiral Trapnell. This field will serve as a living reminder of that debt."

Since the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure measures have migrated research and testing facilities for both rotary and fixed wing aircraft to NAS Patuxent River from decommissioned bases. The complex now hosts over 17,000 people, including active duty service members, civil service employees, defense contractor employees, and military dependents.

The base was used as a filming location for the Harrison Ford film Random Hearts (1999). Ford and director Sydney Pollack both visited Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Ford, a certified pilot, flew the aircraft himself.

In January 1992, the Pax River Station acquired the Aircraft Division of the Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWCAD). The Naval Test Wing Atlantic (NTWL) was already located there, which was a branch of the Naval Air Warfare Center, created in 1991, and located in Washington, DC. Its mission was the development and improvement of weapons. The partnership of these two units led to a "flourishing" of aircraft research and development at Patuxent. A number of new laboratory facilities on the forefront of research were created: a manned flight simulator, the Aircraft Anechoic Test Facility, the Air Combat Environment Test and Evaluation Facility, the Aircraft Test and Evaluation Facility, and the Captain Steven A. Hazelrigg Flight Test Facility. The physical plant was expanded by new construction: the U. S. Naval Test Pilot School academic building, an Aviation Survival Training Center pool facility and a new air traffic control tower. The base's social infrastructure has grown as well. In 2013, a new, large size child development center was completed. In September 2014, Captain Heidi Fleming became the first female commanding officer of NAS Patuxent River, where she served until 2016. For the future, the researchers are looking in the direction of unmanned flight.