History

According to documents in the Air Base 4 general archive, the first Control Tower of the then Air Base 5 was built in 1941, on the site of the present residence of the AB4 Commander. At that time, Air Traffic Control was done with lights, since the first aircraft operating on this base, the "Gladiator", was not equipped with radio.

On september 30th 1943, the British arrived on Terceira, and in this very same year they built a wooden tower at Canada do Engenho - Lajes, about 300 meters away from Café Vitória. However, this building was unable to withstand the typical weather conditions of the Azores and was torn down by a gale. In order to replace it, another tower was built, also by the British, on top of their Operations Center, today the AB4 Communications Center. This new tower was nicknamed "The chimney", because was located on the roof.

Meanwhile, on January 9th 1944, the American arrived on this island, on their way to Santa Maria, were they settled in August of that year. Later, on June 3rd 1946, the British officially left this base, which they called "Lagens Airfield", and on September 1st that year, the "1931st Army Air Force Base Unit" came back from Santa Maria and at this time they came to stay. In July, this Portuguese Air Force Base, was denominated Air Base 4, its present denomination.

At the beginning of 1948, on top of Santa Rita Hill, close to the present tower, the "Portuguese Army Practical School of Engineering" commenced the construction of the control tower that went into service in 1950. Next to it, the American Forces (USFORAZ) built a single storey wooden building, where they installed the RAPCON (Radar Approach Control), which included PAR (Precision Approach Radar) and ASR (Airport Surveillance Radar) finals. The only remaining structures from that tower are its ground and 1st floor and the part of the top that used to lead to the tower cab, and even those have recently been abandoned. It was also in 1950 that the Americans started calling this base "Lajes Field".

The USAF unit operating today on this base is the "65th Air Base Wing" from th "Air Combat Command" based at Langley AFB. They started the present Air Traffic Control Complex, under a U.S. Navy contract, in September 1993 and it went into service in November 1994. It now includes the Control Tower and the RAPCON, as well as the management offices. Radar Final Control is no longer performed (PAR since October/96 and ASR since January/98) once both runways are now equipped with ILS (Instrument Landing System).