Qualla: Pearls Airport https://qualla.com/pearls-airport en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/j/pearls-airport-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Pearls Airport https://qualla.com/pearls-airport Pearls Airport: Introduction https://qualla.com/pearls-airport/ Photo credit Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR, Public domain. Two aircraft have not moved in over forty years. A Cubana Airlines AN-26 turboprop and a Soviet-gifted AN-2R biplane sit rusting beside a cinder block terminal on Grenada's northeast coast, exactly where U.S. Marines found them on the morning of October 25, 1983. Pearls Airport, the island nation's first airfield, opened in 1943 and closed for good in 1984. In between, it served Allied warplanes, Caribbean island-hoppers, and briefly became a staging ground for one of the Cold War's most contested military operations. Today the old runway doubles as a drag racing strip -- a peculiarly Grenadian reinvention for a place that once sat at the intersection of superpower rivalries.

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Image: Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR | Public domain

]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/j/pearls-airport-wp/ddhj-pearls-airport-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Pearls Airport: A Runway Hemmed by Hills https://qualla.com/pearls-airport/ Photo credit Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR, Public domain. Pearls Airport came into existence during World War II, when the Allies needed forward airfields across the Caribbean. The runway, oriented at 082/262 degrees and stretching 5,200 feet, was carved into a coastal strip 19 miles northeast of the capital, St. George's. Grenada's fir...

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Image: Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR | Public domain

]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/j/pearls-airport-wp/ddhj-pearls-airport-a-runway-hemmed-by-hills.mp3 0:06 2 full Pearls Airport: Cold War on the Tarmac https://qualla.com/pearls-airport/ Photo credit Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR, Public domain. By the early 1980s, Grenada had become a flashpoint in Caribbean geopolitics. The revolutionary government of Maurice Bishop, which had seized power in 1979, maintained close ties with Cuba and the Soviet Union. A new international airport was under construction at Point Salines ...

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Image: Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR | Public domain

]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/j/pearls-airport-wp/ddhj-pearls-airport-cold-war-on-the-tarmac.mp3 0:06 3 full Pearls Airport: Replaced and Reclaimed https://qualla.com/pearls-airport/ Photo credit Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR, Public domain. The airport that Washington had worried about -- the one at Point Salines -- opened in 1984 as Grenada's new international gateway. It was renamed Maurice Bishop International Airport, honoring the prime minister who had been executed in the internal coup that preceded the Americ...

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Image: Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR | Public domain

]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/j/pearls-airport-wp/ddhj-pearls-airport-replaced-and-reclaimed.mp3 0:06 4 full Pearls Airport: Relics in the Tropical Air https://qualla.com/pearls-airport/ Photo credit Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR, Public domain. What makes Pearls Airport remarkable is its visibility. This is not a classified site or a fenced-off memorial -- it is an open field on Grenada's Atlantic coast where anyone can walk up to the corroding remains of Cold War aviation. The AN-26, a workhorse Soviet transport, and t...

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Image: Reconstructive art by D'Col A. M. "Mike" Leahy, USMCR | Public domain

]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/d/h/j/pearls-airport-wp/ddhj-pearls-airport-relics-in-the-tropical-air.mp3 0:06 5 full