In the event of a night raid, Richmond’s city lights would be darkened. Servicemen trimmed the surrounding brush to leave P-47–shaped silhouettes.Ĭonstructed in response to fear of attack by German aircraft, which were being manufactured with ever-increasing range, Virginia’s decoy airfield was little more than a stage set, but its planners hoped it was convincing when viewed from on high by an anxious Luftwaffe bombardier.

The airplanes were plywood, propped on “landing gear” made from two-by-fours. The trucks were cloth and wire, so light you could pick them up and carry them. The field, recorded in land registries as the Elko Tract, soon appeared to be populated by aircraft, hangars, and vehicles-all fakes, assembled using techniques dreamed up by Hollywood set directors at the start of the war. Using bulldozers, the troops cut and graded dummy runways to create a near-exact imitation of Byrd’s triangular layout and maze of taxiways. In late 1942, a wooded tract of land in Henrico County, Virginia, five miles southeast of Richmond’s airport, Byrd Field, was invaded by the U.S.

Secret world runway lights