page_title: Hunter Army Airfield
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Hunter Army Airfield / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Captain Frank Hunter, USAAS, World War I
context_page_description: Hunter Army Airfield, located in Savannah, Georgia, United States, is a military airfield and subordinate installation to Fort Stewart located in Hinesville, Georgia.
  Hunter features a runway that is 11,375 feet long and an aircraft parking area that is more than 350 acres. The runway and apron, combined with the 72,000 sq ft Arrival/Departure Airfield Control Group Facility and nearby railhead, allow the 3rd Infantry Division from nearby Fort Stewart to efficiently deploy soldiers and cargo worldwide. NASA identified Hunter as an alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle orbiters.
context_section_description: In 1929, the General Aviation Committee of the Savannah City Council recommended that the 730 acre (3 km²) Belmont Tract, belonging to J. C. Lewis, be accepted by the Council as the future site of the Savannah Municipal Airport. The cost of the land was $35,000. By September 1929, the runway and several buildings were ready and the city officially opened the new facility, known as Savannah Municipal Airport.
  The airport became a part of Eastern Air Transport Incorporated air route on 2 December 1931, when Ida Hoynes, daughter of the Mayor, Thomas M. Hoynes, broke a bottle of Savannah River water on a propeller blade of an 18-passenger Curtiss Condor II during the christening ceremony.
  The airport was named Hunter Municipal Airfield during Savannah Aviation Week in May 1940, in honor of Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.) Frank O'Driscoll Hunter, a native of Savannah and a World War I flying ace. Lt. Col. Hunter was not scheduled to appear in Savannah that week; However, he paid a surprise visit to the field on the first day of Aviation Week while en route to France to serve as a United States Military Air Attaché.
caption: Frank O. Hunter
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