Tonopah Test Range Airport , at the Tonopah Test Range (Senior Trend project site PS-66) is southeast of Tonopah, Nevada, and northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a major airfield with a runway, instrument approach facilities, and nighttime illumination. The facility has over fifty hangars and an extensive support infrastructure. Overview Tonopah is controlled by the USAF Air Combat Command. The known primary use of this airport is to shuttle government employees to the weapons test range from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. The primary (paved) access to the facility is off of U.S. Route 6 at the north end of the airport. Dirt road access points also exist on the south and east sides of the range. The site is plainly visible from commercial airliners, which pass north of the base on transcontinental flights. History The Tonopah Range Airport first opened in 1957, supporting operations on the test range itself, which was used for United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, later Department of Energy or DOE) funded nuclear weapon programs. It was apparently not a World War II era field, as it is not listed in the 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields. Eventually, the installation and its 6,000 ft asphalt runway was abandoned. The area was open range, with wild horses running free. The earliest known depiction of the airfield was on the July 1970 Air Force Tactical Pilotage Chart. The 1982 Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Airport Directory described the Tonopah Test Range airfield as having a single paved runway. Foreign technology evaluation The advent of Operation Rolling Thunder during the Vietnam War in March 1965 led to the introduction of the obsolete and subsonic MiG-17 (J5) and the supersonic MiG-21 by the North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF) being pitted against U.S. aircraft. On 16 August 1966, Iraqi Air Force Captain Munir Redfa took off from Rasheed Air Base, near Baghdad on a routine navigation training flight. He headed southwest in an attempt to defect from Iraq to Israel. Crossing the Jordanian border, Jordanian interceptors were unable to catch him, and upon crossing the Israeli border, two Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Mirage III interceptors approached his aircraft. Captain Radfa lowered his landing gear, making a signal that he posed no threat, and he was attempting to defect. He landed his Soviet-built MiG-21F-13 (Fishbed "E") fighter at Hatzor Airbase, Israel and was granted asylum. The