Bryan Air Force Base

Bryan Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located just west of Bryan, Texas. Today, the location houses The Texas A&M University System RELLIS Campus.

Bryan Air Force Base Bryan Army Airfield Riverside Campus, Texas A&M University
Part of Air Training Command (ATC)
Brazos County, near Bryan, Texas
2006 USGS Airphoto
Bryan AFB
Coordinates	30°38′16″N 96°28′43″W
Type	Air Force Base
Site history
Built	1942
In use	1942-1947; 1951-1958; 1960-1961

Bryan Air Force Base was originally activated in 1943 as a U.S. Army Air Forces installation known as Bryan Army Air Field. The base housed a flight instructors' school and was assigned the task of developing a standardized system of instrument flight training. The Full Panel Attitude System developed at the base was one of the most significant contributions the base made to pilot training. The instrument training school at Bryan AAF was the only one of its kind in the United States Army Air Forces.[1]

The installation became Bryan Air Force Base upon the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as a separate service in September 1947. Assigned to the Air Training Command, it conducted advanced flight training in the T-33 Shooting Star. Deactivated in May 1961, the land and buildings were deeded to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University) in 1962.[2] It also functions as an uncontrolled private airport with a single 7000 foot runway for limited flight operations. In this capacity, it is named Texas A&M Flight Test Station Airport and has an FAA airfield identifier of 83TX.[3]

In 2006, the Texas A&M College of Architecture completed an 8,000-square-foot (700 m²) Built Environment Teaching and Research Facility also known as Architecture Ranch.[4] Architecture Ranch is located on 12 acres (4.9 ha) of the Texas A&M Riverside Campus.[5]

A Texas A&M System high density library was constructed in June 2012. The facility was designed to hold one million books and eliminate redundancy in the collections of the two university systems.[6]

In September 2015, the 2,000-acre tract was transferred to the Texas A&M System. The campus that was originally Bryan Air Force Base underwent a major change to what is known now as the Riverside Campus. The campus will become a research, technology development, and education center.[7]

Chancellor Sharp estimated as many as 10,000 students eventually could be studying at the RELLIS Academic Alliance, as the education center would be called. Chancellor Sharp said the Texas A&M System is talking to the System’s 11 universities, as well as the Blinn College District, the local community college, about how best to serve students. The idea is for one campus to have the ability to shift ideas from laboratories to the marketplace while allowing a new path toward a college degree.[8]

In August 2019, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved the construction of a $130 million combat development complex for the United States Army Futures Command. The facility will include a "one-of-a-kind, kilometer-long tunnel" used for hypersonic research.[9]