Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport — Harding Field

The airport was built in 1942 as Harding Field, a U.S. Army Air Forces maintenance and supply base. Pilots trained here to fly P-47 Thunderbolts. Other aircraft used at Harding included P-40 Warhawks, P-39 Airacobras, A-36 Apaches, and B-26 Marauders. Quentin Aanenson, a Thunderbolt pilot trained at Harding, survived the war and appeared in Ken Burns' 2007 PBS film The War. Five members of Aanenson's group of 40 trainees died before they could go overseas. Other than the runways, virtually no traces remain of the military installation. The airport is now Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR), also known as Ryan Field, located four miles north of Baton Rouge's central business district. The airport covers 1,250 acres at an elevation of 70 feet above mean sea level. It has three runways.