engineering

Naval Air Station Patuxent River

Naval Air Station Patuxent River is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Naval Air Station Patuxent River rather than just read about it. In short: Naval Air Station Patuxent River (IATA: NHK, ICAO: KNHK, FAA LID: NHK), also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States naval air station in St. Mary’s County, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River.

Key takeaways

Naval Air Station Patuxent River belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Naval Air Station Patuxent River to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Naval Air Station Patuxent River from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Naval Air Station Patuxent River (IATA: NHK, ICAO: KNHK, FAA LID: NHK), also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States naval air station in St. Mary’s County, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. It is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, the Atlantic Test Range, Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, and serves as a center for test and evaluation and systems acquisition relating to naval aviation. The station also operates a small outlying field, NOLF Webster. Commissioned on April 1, 1943, on land largely acquired through eminent domain, the air station grew rapidly in response to World War II and continued to evolve through the Cold War to the present.

Geography The 6,400 acres (26 km2) Naval Air Station Patuxent River site is located in Lexington Park, Maryland, at the confluence of the Patuxent River and the Chesapeake Bay on a peninsula known as Cedar Point.

Environmental contamination Naval Air Station Patuxent River (PAX) operated several landfills and other historical disposal areas. The landfills received solid and hazardous wastes. This included spent oil absorbents, solvents, paints, antifreeze, thinners, pesticides and photo lab wastes, sewage treatment plant sludge, cesspool wastes. In the late 1950s, DDT was sprayed and from 1962–1989 various pesticides, including fungicides and insecticides and herbicides, were used, contaminating the ground surface water and groundwater. Base residential housing was within a quarter mile. In May 1994, PAX was added to the Superfund program's National Priorities List. As of 2022, several areas were considered "cleaned up" after removing contaminated soil, but there are ongoing maintenance activities such as monitoring and treatment of landfill gas, groundwater, and using land use controls and institutional controls, eg. restricting fish consumption. At the remaining areas, investigations and remedy selection activities continue. For example, in April 2021 the Navy disclosed at a NAS Patuxent River Restoration Advisory Board meeting that 84,757 ppt of PFOS were detected in the groundwater at Webster Field.

History

Genesis: 1937 Prior to 1937 the area was prime farmland, consisting of several large plantations, Mattapony, Susquehanna, and Cedar Point, as well as numerous tenant and sharecropper properties and a few clusters of vacation homes. The Cedar Point community included several churches, a post office, and a gas station. Some of the old homes now serve as quarters for Navy personnel stationed there. In 1937, the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics sought to consolidate aviation test programs, previously being conducted at several stations, including Dahlgren and Norfolk, the Washington Navy Yard, Naval Air Station Anacostia in Washington, D.C., and the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cedar Point was selected due to its remote location on the coastline, well removed from air traffic congestion, with ample space for weapons testing.

1940s: Wartime urgency

Fast-track chartering of base and start of construction The onset of American involvement in World War II spurred establishment of the new air station. Rear Admiral John Henry Towers, Chief of Bureau of Aeronautics, requested approval and authorization to begin construction on December 22, 1941. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox gave approval on 7 January 1942. Construction began on 4 April 1942.

Hardships for original civilian residents

The original civilian residents had about a month, until 1 March 1942, to relocate, as the federal government purchased all the land at a cost of $712,287 for 6,412 acres (26 km2). Many residents were forced to sell land that had been in their families for generations. Some families had roots in the area going back 300 years. These included traditional farming, crabbing and fishing families and there were protests. National wartime urgency was felt in Washington at the time to take precedence, and the process of eminent domain went through.

Rehabilitation of rail line A lack of transportation in Saint Mary's County led the Navy to acquire and revitalize a branchline called the Washington, Brandywine and Point Lookout Railroad, aka "The Farmers' Railroad", from Brandywine to Mechanicsville, Maryland, in June 1942 and build an extension south from Mechanicsville to the air station. Known as the U.S. Government Railroad, the rail line was steam-powered and operated south of Brandywine for exclusive official use until 1954, when the Pennsylvania Railroad assumed operation of the line. Rail service ended in 1965, and the line was scrapped, although the right-of-way is still very visible.

Extension of highway A highway extension to the new air station was required by the project—250,000 tons of material were transported by either truck or water routes during a year of construction.

Construction boom town Employing some 7,000 at its peak of construction, the area had a Gold Rush "boom town" feel as local residents were joined by workers from all over the country, eager to get on the high-paying jobs on station.

Foundation

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Naval Air Station Patuxent River

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Naval Air Station Patuxent River claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Naval Air Station Patuxent River before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Naval Air Station Patuxent River ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Naval Air Station Patuxent River

In research: Naval Air Station Patuxent River appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Naval Air Station Patuxent River in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Naval Air Station Patuxent River is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 establishments in Maryland, Aviation in Maryland, Chesapeake Bay, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Naval Air Station Patuxent River outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Naval Air Station Patuxent River in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Naval Air Station Patuxent River means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Naval Air Station Patuxent River out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Naval Air Station Patuxent River in simple terms?

Why does Naval Air Station Patuxent River matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Naval Air Station Patuxent River?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Naval Air Station Patuxent River.