Sondrestrom Air Base Sondrestrom Air Base , originally Bluie West - 8 , was a U . S . air base in central Greenland . The site is located north of the Arctic Circle and from the northeast end of Kangerlussuaq Fjord , formerly known by its Danish name Søndre Strømfjord . The base is approximately west - northwest of Ravneklippen and west of Sisimiut . Following World War II , the base was briefly returned to Danish control between 9 October 1950 and 20 July 1951 . The 1951 Greenland bases treaty led to the return of Sondrestrom to American control . The base was turned over to the Greenland government in 1992 and is now a civilian community ( Kangerlussuaq ) and airport ( Kangerlussuaq Airport ) , although the USAF operates a small Air National Guard detachment in the former base . History . Founding and Construction . Following the fall of Denmark to Germany in World War II , responsibility for the security of Greenland passed to the American military under the terms of a 9 April 1941 treaty with the defected Danish ambassador in Washington . Military leaders responded by building several bases in Greenland , the largest of which were Bluie West One in Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland and Bluie West Eight along the Kangerlussuaq fjord . The site of BW - 8 had already been contemplated for an airfield , and Professor William Hobbs of the University of Michigan had operated a meteorological station there in 1927 - 28 . That station was named Mount Evans , while the supporting base camp at the site of the present seaport was named Camp Lloyd . A 1 , 500 foot long dirt airstrip eight miles east was prepared for the expected aircraft of Atlantic flyers Bert Hassell and Parker Cramer . They , however , ran out of fuel and walked the remaining distance to Sondrestrom . The location at the bottom of Sondrestromfjord is about as far from the coast as one can get on land in Greenland , and though the climate is severe , it is much more favorable for aviation than the coast . The approaches are clear , although the runway has a slope . During August 1940 , the U . S . Coast Guard Cutter supported an aerial survey commanded by Army Captain Julius K . Lacey . From Lacey ' s Curtiss SOC - 4 , numerous photographs were obtained of promising runway alignments in the area . From 6 to 11 May 1941 , the South Greenland Survey Expedition led by Lt . Cdr . William E . Sinton further examined the area from the , which now carried the same SOC - 4 for aerial surveys . Charts and plans were drawn up in expectation of a major construction expedition that fall . The expedition also charted seaplane operating sites at Monroe Bay ( Tatsip Ata ) and Angujartorfik downfjords from Sondrestrom . Bluie West - 8 was founded on 7 October 1941 by a 31 - man expedition commanded by Captain ( later Colonel ) Bernt Balchen of the United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF ) . A major sealift followed . The airport was ready for operation in the spring of 1942 . A road of about ten miles length connected the airfield site with the port location ( Camp Lloyd ) farther down the fjord . Seasonal access for ships is during late summer and early autumn , but during the early days the fjord ice was broken for a much longer period . To identify and guide the approach to BW - 8 , an auxiliary station was placed at Cruncher Island , also known as Simiutak , at the entrance to Sondrestromfjord . This station , operational 4 September 1942 , provided meteorological reports , radio communications , radio beacon and lights for air and sea traffic . It was known as BW - 9 . Operations . BW - 8 was intended as a link in a northern air ferry route known to U . S . planners as the Crimson Route , but it transpired that few aircraft were ferried to Europe through it . Instead , the base earned its keep as an alternate field , a radio and weather reporting station , and as a departure point for search - and - rescue operations elsewhere in Greenland . During the two years Colonel Balchen was in command , he led numerous expeditions throughout the island , primarily in rescue operations for downed aircrew . As a reliever for the Greenland Command headquarters base in Narsarsuaq , Bluie West One , BW - 8 was by late 1942 assisted by small fields at Bluie East Two in East Greenland , and Teague Field on the west coast about midways between BW - 8 and BW - 1 . The Danish government briefly controlled the base in 1950 , but following a renewed base treaty ( also resulting in the construction of Thule Air Base ) , the United States reopened BW - 8 under the name of Sondrestrom Air Base on 27 April 1951 . Sondrestrom AB then became instrumental in the airlift to build Thule AB , although it had little function of its own , and rarely had permanently stationed aircraft . However , the base also served to support air refueling tankers , and trans - Atlantic ferry flights for short - ranged jet fighters continued to transit in the post - war period . When the Distant Early Warning Line was constructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s , Sondrestrom AB received a new lease on life . It assisted especially in the building of the four radar stations spanning Greenland ( DYE - 1 through 4 ) . In the mid - 1950s , Scandinavian Airlines System ( SAS ) began using the base as a refueling station on the then new " polar route " between Scandinavia and the United States . This use fell off in the 1960s as airliners gained greater range . However , the base became the hub of Greenland air traffic and was the destination for almost all regular air service from and to Copenhagen . The United States Air Force continued to use the base for occasional traffic , and in particular for the yearly resupply of the DYE stations . It was also a center for seasonal scientific activity . Following the fall of the Soviet Union and the abandonment of the DYE stations in 1988 , the usefulness of the base was greatly diminished . The last US Air Force personnel left the base on 30 September 1992 . It then became Kangerlussuaq airport , still the main hub for Greenland air travel . Rocket launches . Since 1971 , rockets such as the Nike Apache , Petrel , Nike Tomahawk , Black Brant , Terrier Malemute , Taurus Orion , and Taurus Nike Tomahawk TNT have been launched from a site close to Kangerlussuaq ( specifically , at ) for examination of the upper atmosphere .