Payne Field, Military training airfield in West Point, United States

Payne Field was a 533-acre airfield 4.3 miles north-northeast of West Point, Mississippi, built in 1918 at a cost of $891,340. Dozens of wooden buildings served as headquarters, maintenance shops and officers' quarters, while enlisted men bivouacked in tents. It could accommodate up to 1,000 personnel.

The field was established in 1918 as one of thirty-two training camps created after the United States entered World War I. Operations ceased in 1920 when military aviation training in the country was reorganized.

The field honours Captain Dewitt Payne of South Bend, Indiana, who died on 1 February 1918 when his plane crashed as he flew to aid a pilot downed in a treetop at Taliaferro Field, Texas. Local officials expected the base to stay open after 1918 because of the combat record of Payne-trained pilots in Europe.

The site lies 4.3 miles north-northeast of West Point, Mississippi, on land leased to the Army in 1917. The Surgeon General called it one of the worst malaria belts in the United States, and physicians reported that 20 percent of their practice was malaria cases. No buildings or archaeological remains are documented as surviving; plan accordingly.

Macauley's westbound De Havilland DH-4 lost its propeller in a rainstorm and landed at Payne Field for repairs, but rain had left the runway too muddy to take off, delaying him over a week. The field's malaria belt also shaped daily life: physicians reported that 20 percent of their practice was malaria cases.