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Rockwell Field

First Airport Site
Photograph of the first flight inaugurating contract air mail from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, Las Vegas (Nev.), April 17, 1926. Stanley Paher Photograph Collection. UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives.

"Commercial aviation in Las Vegas got its start here [Sahara Avenue and Paradise Road] on April 17, 1926. With the inaugural flight of Western Air Express, today's Western Airlines, using an oiled landing strip known as Rockwell Field, Western picked up mail pouches and fueled its wood-and-fabric biplanes at this stopover on its Los Angeles to Salt Lake City run - officially, contract air mail route No. 4.

Senior Airline of Las Vegas and The Nation, Western Airlines dedicates this spot in honor of the Four Horsemen, its first pilots - Fred Kelly, Jimmy James, Al Degarmo and Maury Graham."

(Senior Airline of Las Vegas and The Nation, Western Airlines)

Was located near present-day Sahara Avenue and Paradise Road in Winchester, Nevada.