Ainsworth Regional Airport (formerly Ainsworth Municipal Airport) is seven miles northwest of Ainsworth, in Brown County, Nebraska. It is owned by the Ainsworth Airport Authority. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a general aviation airport. History The airport was built by the United States Army Air Forces between August and November 1942. The site is bordered by farm land on the west and north, Sand Draw on the east, and Highway 20 on the south. Sixty four buildings were built at what would be known as Ainsworth Army Airfield. To construct the base, once land was acquired through condemnation and purchase from seven local landowners, laborers were hired from as far away as Omaha and Sioux City. Two hundred Native Americans from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota came to Ainsworth and were put on the payroll as laborers. A total of 1,200 workers came to build the Airfield. By November 1942 the laborers had completed all housing at the base, and a spur was built from the existing Chicago Northwestern Railroad several miles to the south. These tracks brought most of the supplies for the base, including building materials, food, and coal. The field had three 7,300 × concrete runways, a hangar, warehouse, repair and machine shops, link and bomb trainers, Norden bombsite vaults, and barracks for over 600 officers and enlisted men. Ainsworth AAF was activated on 30 November 1942 as one of eleven United States Army Air Forces training bases in Nebraska. The base was under the command of the 353d Army Air Force Base Unit of the Second Air Force, based at Colorado Springs AAF Colorado. The 4315th Army Air Force Base Unit commanded the support elements at Ainsworth as part of Air Technical Service Command. Ainsworth was a satellite field of Rapid City Army Air Base, South Dakota. The primary objective of this facility was to train air crews of 540th and 543rd Bombardment Squadrons of the 383d Bombardment Group based at Rapid City Army Airfield for training with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft before being sent to the European Theater. The 540th and 543rd remained at Ainsworth between December 1942 to April 1943. Bomber crews practiced bombing runs over the wildlife refuge in Cherry County, the next county to the west. Other units that trained at Ainsworth during the war were: The 364th Fighter Squadron of the 357th