Schilling Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force Base located three nautical miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Salina, a city in Saline County, Kansas, United States. It was also known as Smoky Hill Air Force Base.
During World War II, "Smoky Hill Army Airfield" (AAF) became significantly historic as it was in the first group United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bases for initial training on the aircraft in the summer of 1943. Along with Walker Army Airfield near Victoria, Pratt Army Airfield near Pratt and Great Bend Army Airfield near Great Bend the initial cadre of the 58th Bombardment Wing was formed. The 58th Bomb Wing was the first B-29 combat wing of World War II and engaged in the first long-range strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands beginning in March 1944 from bases in India.
Later, during the postwar years and the Cold War era, the base was one of the initial airfields of the new Strategic Air Command in 1946, and the United States Air Force upon its establishment in 1947. Later it was a major SAC base that hosted two B-47 Stratojet Bombardment Wings, and the headquarters of an Air Division and an ICBM squadron. When it closed in 1965, it reopened as Salina Municipal Airport.
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