Finney Field

🏛️The era

In the late 1930s, flying still carried a sense of adventure, especially in small towns on the High Plains. Aviation clubs sprang up across the country as local enthusiasts pooled their money to buy light planes and teach themselves and their neighbors to fly. The flat, open land around Plainview suited them well, with long sightlines, few obstacles and plenty of room to set down.

At the same time, war was spreading in Europe and Asia, and Washington was quietly preparing. In 1939 the federal government launched the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which used civilian flight schools and colleges to build a reserve of trained pilots before the country entered any war. Private operators became contractors, and many small airfields took on a role in national defense.

When the United States entered World War II, the need for pilots became urgent. The Army Air Forces expanded at extraordinary speed and relied on civilian-run schools and small-town airfields across the country, especially in the South and West, where good flying weather and open land were plentiful. Finney Field was one of them.

👥People & events

The story starts modestly, with the Plainview Flying Club and a single two-seat Aeronca Chief powered by a 65-horsepower engine. The club flew first from a site south of town, then moved north near Finney Switch. In September 1940, the City of Plainview and Hale County jointly bought 320 acres there for a municipal airport and named it Finney Field.

The war transformed it. Clent Breedlove, a civilian contractor who had worked in the Civilian Pilot Training Program since 1939, signed a contract in May 1942 to train pre-glider students here. On June 1, 1942, the Plainview Pre-Glider School was activated, officially a glider training detachment of the Army Air Forces. The field grew to two runways and 23 buildings, including hangars, barracks, a mess hall and a medical clinic, with three auxiliary fields nearby.

The training was distinctive. With an instructor aboard, a student climbed to between 1,000 and 5,000 feet, cut the engine, and glided the plane down to a landing with no power, which pilots call a dead-stick landing. After four weeks, graduates moved on to advanced glider schools. Of 1,169 students, 876 completed the course. A liaison pilot program then trained another 241 before Breedlove moved the operation to Lamesa in April 1943. After the war years, Ralph Brown and Claude Hutcherson ran the field as a private airport, and the land later became the site of Cloverlake Dairy.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

Military gliders were one of World War II's more unusual weapons. Towed behind powered aircraft and then released, they could land troops, vehicles and equipment silently behind enemy lines. The Allies used them in major airborne operations, including the invasion of Normandy in 1944. A glider pilot had exactly one chance to land, often in a small field under fire, so the dead-stick skills taught at places like Finney Field were fundamental.

Finney Field also shows how the United States built its wartime air power. Instead of relying only on large military bases, the government contracted with civilian operators and local airports to train pilots quickly and in huge numbers. Programs like the Civilian Pilot Training Program turned small municipal fields into essential parts of the war effort almost overnight.

The field's history also follows a larger postwar pattern. Many wartime airfields reverted to civilian or agricultural use once the emergency passed. This one became a private airport and then a dairy. The national effort left few buildings behind, but it reached into communities like Plainview and drew them into the defining conflict of the century.

🧭If you visit

Little of the wartime field's infrastructure is likely to survive, since the land passed to private aviation and then to a dairy. Come for the marker and the story rather than expecting hangars or runways, and respect any private property nearby.

Take a moment to look at the land and sky. The flat, open horizon that made this ideal country for flying is still here, and it helps to imagine a small trainer overhead, its engine suddenly quiet, as a young student guided it silently back to earth.

Plainview makes a convenient stop on a High Plains road trip, and the region has other markers and museums connected to aviation and World War II. The advanced glider schools named on the marker, such as those at Dalhart and Fort Sumner, make natural companion stops for anyone following the trainees' path.

If you are traveling with children, the dead-stick landing is a good conversation starter. Ask them what it would take to land a plane with the engine off. The answer is exactly what these students came here to learn.