Aeon Field
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Aeon Field | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | abandoned | ||||||||||
| Owner | Island Government of Kiritimati | ||||||||||
| Operator | none | ||||||||||
| Serves | none | ||||||||||
| Location | Kiritimati | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 016 ft / 5 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 001°45′48″N 157°11′43″W / 1.76333°N 157.19528°W | ||||||||||
 Interactive map of Aeon Field | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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Aeon Field is an abandoned airport located at Aeon Point on the southeastern peninsula of the Republic of Kiribati island of Kirimati. It was constructed in the late 1950s[1] by the British to support their nuclear tests held at the island.[2]
In spite of having been ground zero for nuclear testing with H-Bombs suspended from balloons,[3][4] a Japanese Aerospace organisation intended to use this airfield to launch and land an experimental plane from 2002 onwards as part of the space vehicle test program HOPE-X.[5] Although development of the airfield did start, the program was terminated before any test flights took place.
