Changes to limit airpark access, impact parking spaces Published Aug. 7, 2013 By Mike W. Ray Tinker Public Affairs TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Access to the Maj. Charles B. Hall Memorial Airpark adjacent to Tinker Gate will be limited for the next couple of months while preparations are made to slip a Navy aircraft among nine Air Force planes on display there. The entrance to the airpark parking lot, which is directly east of the base Visitor's Center on Air Depot Boulevard just south of 29th Street, was closed Wednesday evening and will remain barricaded until about the end of September. In addition, 10 parking spaces at the northern edge of the Commissary (Bldg. 690) parking lot will be reserved for the next couple of months. The parking spaces are needed as a staging area for a project in which a Navy EA-6B Prowler will be mounted on concrete pedestals for permanent display. "Understandably, the Navy wants to leave its footprint in the airpark," said Jim Ruth, historical property custodian and airpark manager. According to 72nd Air Base Wing Utilities Construction Administrator Deborah Flores, the Navy Seabees, in conjunction with the Navy League, Navy Civil Engineering and the 507th Civil Engineering Squadron, will construct the concrete pedestals for the aircraft, along with sidewalk around the static display, and will install lava rock landscaping. A ribbon-cutting dedication ceremony will be held after the project is completed, Mr. Ruth said. The Prowler is a twin-engine electronic warfare aircraft. It will be situated between a World War II-era C-47 Skytrain and a C-135 Stratolifter that's painted in the colors of the president's Air Force One. Other aircraft in the airpark include an A-7D Corsair II, an F-105D Thunderchief, a B-47 Stratojet, a B-29 Superfortress, an F-4D Phantom II, a B-52 Stratofortress, and a B-1 Lancer. Also in the park is an AGM-129 advanced Cruise Missile, a POW/MIA memorial, a memorial to "Rosie the Riveter," and a memorial honoring Maj. Charles B. Hall and the Tuskegee Airmen.