Why stop here
A beloved general aviation airport that served the Eastside community from 1945 to 1983, where weekend pilots gathered for the joy of flying and stories of "$100 hamburger" runs to coastal cafes. Home to Seattle Flight, the Pacific Northwest's largest flight school with over 40 aircraft, this folksy airfield embodied the golden age of accessible aviation before urban sprawl closed its runways forever.
Before you go
Hours, fees, access, closures, parking, and trail conditions change. Use the directions link to identify the managing agency and confirm anything time-sensitive before making a special trip.
The short tour
Listen in the car on the way, or on headphones once you are standing there. The longer history and the sources are below.
Plays now. Save it to listen where there is no signal.
The long version
Bellevue Airfield opened in 1945, founded by Arthur Nordhoff, a World War I Army aviator who saw the potential for general aviation on the rapidly developing Eastside. Though he had purchased the land in 1941, wartime restrictions delayed the airfield’s opening. His daughter, Nancy Dunnam, flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II, bringing the family’s aviation legacy full circle.
The 160-acre property in Eastgate, east of what is now 156th Avenue SE and north of Interstate 90, was surrounded by a gun club, turkey ranch, mink farm, and garbage dump. It was rural Washington at its finest, far from the tech corridors and office parks that would eventually replace it.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bellevue Airfield was thriving. At its peak in 1969, 125 aircraft were based there, generating 80,000 operations per year. The early 1970s saw 51,000 takeoffs and landings annually, remarkable for a single 2,300-foot asphalt runway with no control tower.
The airfield became home to Seattle Flight, the largest flight school in the Pacific Northwest, operating more than 40 Piper aircraft. Weekend warriors and aspiring pilots filled the pattern, coordinating landings using runway lights until 11pm. When fog closed Boeing Field and Renton, Bellevue served as the weather alternate.
The atmosphere was folksy and welcoming, no bureaucracy, just pilots helping pilots. Tie-downs, hangar storage, fuel sales, and a FAA-licensed aircraft repair facility made Bellevue Airfield a complete aviation community.
This was the era of the “$100 hamburger”, recreational flights taken purely for the joy of flying, often to small airfields with on-site restaurants. The term referenced the total cost of renting an aircraft and fuel to fly somewhere for lunch, even though the actual meal might cost only $10-15.
Bellevue pilots would hop to Issaquah Sky Ranch, Kenmore, North Seattle Air Park, or coastal destinations like Bowerman Airport (KHQM) in Hoquiam, where Lana’s Cafe served breakfast to fly-in crowds every Sunday morning.
It was accessible aviation at its finest, post-WWII surplus aircraft, affordable flying clubs, and a tight-knit community where friendships formed over hangar talk and engine maintenance.
By the mid-1970s, the writing was on the wall. Bellevue was transforming from a sleepy Eastside town into a major suburban hub. Residential developments encroached on the airfield, bringing noise complaints and safety concerns.
A 1976 Cessna crash into the Eastgate Safeway heightened tensions. Insurance costs soared. Property taxes skyrocketed as the surrounding real estate values exploded. Meanwhile, Sand Point Naval Air Station’s runways were demolished in the 1970s instead of being converted to public use, removing a potential alternative.
The Nordhoff and Dunnam families, who had operated the field through Puget Sound Air Service (later Sound Air Service, Inc.), could no longer sustain operations. The airfield was sold in the early 1980s.
On May 2, 1983, Bellevue Airfield closed forever. Buildings were auctioned on May 21, 1983. The runway was paved over, and Boeing acquired portions for computer facilities while Cabot, Cabot & Forbes developed the site into office parks.
Today, the site is an office complex and commercial development in Eastgate. The City of Bellevue owns 27.5 acres designated as Bellevue Airfield Park, though it remains undeveloped. Small patches of original asphalt with faded runway markings were still visible as late as the mid-2010s, ghosts of a bygone era.
The Aerowood Animal Hospital across the street still carries the aviation-themed name, a small nod to the airfield’s legacy.
Bellevue Airfield represents a chapter in Pacific Northwest aviation that can never be repeated. It was a place where fathers taught sons to fly, where weekend pilots gathered to share stories, and where the dream of flight was accessible to ordinary people.
The Nordhoff family collection, photographs, scrapbooks, and ephemera documenting the airfield’s 38-year history, is now archived at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, preserving the memory of the Eastside’s aviation heritage.
For those who flew from Bellevue Airfield, it wasn’t just concrete and asphalt. It was where passions were born, mentorships happened, and the sky became a second home.
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