Hesler - Noble Field Hesler - Noble Field is a public use airport in Jones County , Mississippi , United States . It is owned by Laurel Airport Authority and located three nautical miles ( 6 km ) southwest of the central business district of Laurel , Mississippi . This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011 – 2015 , which categorized it as a " general aviation " facility . There is no scheduled commercial airline service . History . Laurel Airport was first opened in April , 1940 , having been constructed by the Works Project Administration , providing commercial airline service to the area . Alarmed by the fall of France in June 1940 , Congress funded an increase in the strength of the United States Army Air Corps from 29 to 54 combat groups . The quickest way for the Air Corps to obtain additional bases was to utilize existing civil airports . The Air Corps signed an agreement to lease Laurel Airport , but because of technicalities in the land transfer , construction did not begin until mid 1942 . Once begun , a large construction program was needed to turn the civil airport into a military airfield . Construction involved runways and airplane hangars , with three concrete runways , several taxiways and a large parking apron and a control tower . Several large hangars were also constructed . Buildings were ultimately utilitarian and quickly assembled . Most base buildings , not meant for long - term use , were constructed of temporary or semi - permanent materials . Although some hangars had steel frames and the occasional brick or tile brick building could be seen , most support buildings sat on concrete foundations but were of frame construction clad in little more than plywood and tarpaper . On December 18 , 1942 , Laurel Army Airfield was opened and assigned to the Third Air Force . The 473d Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron was the host unit at the airfield Initially , the mission of the new Air Force field was to fly antisubmarine patrols over the Gulf of Mexico , with the 69th Observation Group flying light aircraft ( Douglas O - 38 , Douglas O - 46 , North American O - 47 ) from November 1942 until March 1943 . In Mid - 1943 , Laurel AAF ' s mission changed to training medium and light bomber crews ( B - 25 Mitchell , A - 20 Havoc ) as well as photo reconnaissance units for deployment overseas . Known units that trained at the airfield were : In early 1944 , a phase down of training activity was begun , and plans were made to convert Laurel AAF into a specialized storage facility . Most activities at the airfield were moved to Jackson Army Air Base and Laurel was transferred to Air Technical Service Command on 1 July 1944 . Large numbers of aircraft were sent to Laurel , both from other training bases , and later from returning overseas units after the War . Excess aircraft were sent to reclamation facilities after being processed at Laurel . The airfield was placed on inactive status May 31 , 1946 and returned to civil control . Hesler - Noble Field returned to being a civil airport until the early 1970s , when commercial airline service was shifted to Hattiesburg - Laurel Regional Airport in May 1974 . Since then it has served the general aviation community . Facilities and aircraft . Hesler - Noble Field covers an area of 1 , 350 acres ( 546 hectare ) at an elevation of 238 feet ( 73 m ) above mean sea level . It has one runway designated 13 / 31 with an asphalt surface measuring 5 , 513 by 150 feet ( 1 , 680 x 46 m ) . For the 12 - month period ending April 19 , 2012 , the airport had 22 , 975 aircraft operations , an average of 62 per day : 95 % general aviation and 5 % military . At that time there were 43 aircraft based at this airport : 58 % single - engine , 21 % multi - engine , 9 % jet , 7 % ultralight , and 5 % helicopter .