Delamar Dry Lake

Delamar Dry Lake is a dry lakebed located in the Dry Lake Watershed near Alamo in Lincoln County, Nevada. The lakebed is located on federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

Delamar Dry Lake Landing Strip

Delamar Lake Landing Strip was designated as an emergency landing site for the X-15. No structures were built there. The lake bed remains but it is no longer maintained as an airport.

Delamar was listed as having one runway:

• Runway 15,000 feet, Surface: unpaved dry lakebed

However, on a dry lake bed an aircraft may actually land in any direction.

History

The airfield was established in 1943. Delamar Lake Landing Strip was one of the designated emergency landing sites for the X-15 because it was underneath the Delamar Dry Lake Drop Zone where the X-15s were drop-launched from the B-52 for high altitude and space flights.

On May 21, 1962, X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong (later a Gemini and Apollo astronaut) flew an F-104 to Delamar Dry Lake in case it would be needed for an upcoming X-15 flight. The F-104 was damaged in the landing attempt at Delamar when the landing gear began to retract. Armstrong got the plane back in the air and diverted to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas.

During Flight 1-63-104 on May 6, 1966, an X-15 experienced an engine failure and landed at Delamar Dry Lake.

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