Eberts Field Eberts Field is a former military airfield , located northwest of Lonoke , Arkansas . The airfield was one of thirty - two Air Service training camps established in 1917 after the United States entry into World War I . It operated as a training field during World War I for the Air Service , United States Army between 1917 until 1919 . The airfield was also used as a contract glider training airfield during World War II by the United States Army Air Forces , being closed in 1943 . Today the land is used in aquaculture . History . Eberts Field was named for Signal Corps Captain Melchior Eberts , a native Arkansan and a West Point Graduate . On 11 August 1916 , he was attached to the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps and on 3 March 1917 received the rating of junior military aviation . He was ordered from his station at Rockwell Field , San Diego , California to Columbus Airfield , New Mexico on 3 May 1917 . Lieutenant Eberts was killed while making an airplane exhibition flight . World War I . In January 1918 , the Department of War sent a cadre of officers to the Lonoke , Arkansas area to survey sites for an aviation school . The group decided on a location northwest of Lonoke , and an agreement to lease the land for the Army was concluded , and the construction of some 50 buildings began . It covered ovrer 700 acres . Dozens of wooden buildings served as headquarters , maintenance , and officers ’ quarters . Enlisted men had to bivouac in tents . Built as a flying training airfield , the airfield consisted of a row of about a dozen hangars , arranged north - south on the east side of the airfield . Landings and takeoffs were on an all - direction turf field , measuring about 5 , 200 ' x 2 , 460 ' . Eberts Field opened in March 1918 as a World War I basic aviators school , approximately 2 , 500 enlisted men and officers were stationed there between 1918 and 1919 . In 1918 , flight training occurred in two phases : primary and advanced . Primary training took eight weeks and consisted of pilots learning basic flight skills under dual and solo instruction with a student capacity of 300 . After completion of their primary training at Mather , flight cadets were then transferred to another base for advanced training . Eberts Field ranked second among aviation training fields maintained by the U . S . government , and it was one of the leading training centers for aviators during the war . The first unit stationed there was the 181st Aero Squadron , which was transferred from Kelly Field , Texas . Only a few U . S . Army Air Service aircraft arrived with the 181st Aero Squadron , Most of the Curtiss JN - 4 Jennys to be used for flight training were shipped in wooden crates by railcar . Eberts Field served as a base for flight training for the United States Army Air Service . In 1917 , flight training occurred in two phases : primary and advanced . Primary training took eight weeks and consisted of pilots learning basic flight skills under dual and solo instruction with a student capacity of 300 . After completion of their primary training at Eberts , flight cadets were then transferred to another base for advanced training . Training units assigned to Eberts Field : The Arkansas Gazette reported that it was not uncommon to see several hundred planes flying in formation over the field . Planes from training schools in adjoining states sometimes joined them . With the sudden end of World War I in November 1918 , the future operational status of Eberts Field was unknown . Many local officials speculated that the U . S . government would keep the field open because of the outstanding combat record established by Eberts - trained pilots in Europe . Cadets in flight training on 11 November 1918 were allowed to complete their training , however no new cadets were assigned to the base . Also the separate training squadrons were consolidated into a single Flying School detachment , as many of the personnel assigned were being demobilized . The first newspaper in Arkansas to be delivered by plane was the Arkansas Gazette . On June 18 , 1919 , Lieutenant C . E . Johnson of Eberts Field delivered 300 papers to Lonoke in his plane to demonstrate the possibilities of aviation . However , World War I ended before the first class of flight cadets graduated . On November 21 , 1919 , an army flying team called the Flying Carnival visited Eberts Field for stunt flying exhibitions . A crowd of more than 3 , 000 viewed one exhibition from the banks of the Arkansas River at Little Rock ( Pulaski County ) , where the fliers in their open - cockpit flying machines appeared out of the skies at 3 , 000 feet to swoop under the Main Street Bridge spanning the river . The next day , about 2 , 000 boarded trains from Little Rock to see the daring fliers perform at Eberts Field . The airfield was closed at the end of November 1919 , and a small caretaker unit was assigned to the facility for administrative reasons . The War Department had ordered the small caretaker force at Eberts Field to dismantle all remaining structures and to sell them as surplus . The last Army personnel departed by the end of the year . Between the wars , the airfield was used as Lonoke Municipal Airport . World War II . Eberts Field was reopened by the United States Army Air Forces in 1942 as a contract glider training airfield . Training provided by Kenneth Starnes Flying Service . Used primarily C - 47 Skytrain s and Waco CG - 4 unpowered Gliders . The mission of the school was to train glider pilot students in proficiency in operation of gliders in various types of towed and soaring flight , both day and night , and in servicing of gliders in the field . Closed in 1943 and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers . Eventually discharged to private ownership though the War Assets Administration ( WAA ) . Current uses . Today , most of the airfield is flooded , being used in aquaculture as a shrimp farm . A row of at least a dozen concrete hangar foundations still exist . During Arkansas ’ s Sesquicentennial Celebration , the Lonoke County Arkansas Sesquicentennial Committee placed a marker with a brief history of where Eberts Field had been , located on the west side of Louisiana highway 89 , south of Interstate 40 ( note : no interchange ) . There was once a 20 - foot mound of dirt at the northeast end of the field . This was once the target for many thousands of rounds of machine gun bullets . Here , the fledgling aviators learned some of the fundamentals of operating a machine gun while flying an airplane . The lobby of Little Rock ’ s Aerospace Education Center houses a Flying Jenny that was flown at Eberts Field in that period .