King Hussein Air Base
airport in Jordan

King Hussein Air Base (IATA: OMF, ICAO: OJMF; Arabic: قاعدة الملك الحسين الجوية), also known as Mafraq Air Base and King Hussein Air College, is an air base 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) northeast of the city of Mafraq, in the Mafraq Governorate of Jordan.
History
In the 1920s, Mafraq was used as a location for armoured cars of the RAF. New buildings and a concrete runway were built in an expansion that took place in 1951. It was used as a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Mafraq. The airfield had air firing ranges and was operational by 16 UE aircraft. It became an asset of the Jordanian government on 31 May 1957 when RAF Mafraq was evacuated, and sat unused for a year. It was renamed King Hussein Air Base in June 1959, with No.1 Fighter Squadron (Hawker Hunters) and later No.2 Squadron (de Havilland Vampires) of the Royal Jordanian Air Force moving from Amman.
In the 1920s, Mafraq was used as a base for aircraft and armored cars of the RAF. By 1931, Mafraq, which is situated on a large, flat desert expand 8 km (5.0 mi) from the Syrian border, was used as the major staging and refueling post for international flights and for the transfer of air supplies, personnel, freight and mail.
The base was used the following RAF squadrons:
Detachment from No. 6 Squadron RAF between October 1954 and September 1955 with the de Havilland Venom FB.1/4
Detachment from No. 14 Squadron RAF between February 1920 and June 1924 with the Bristol F.2 Fighter
No.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “King Hussein Air Base” as airport in Jordan. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as airport in Jordan. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11824199. Authority coordinates are 32.356, 36.259. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1951, 1957, 1959 and 1931.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “King Hussein Air Base” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.