Dawson Field (Al-Thawra Airport)

Dawson Field, also known as Zerka Airfield and Al-Thawra Airport, was a military airfield located 35 miles northeast of Amman in Zarqa Governorate, Jordan. The Royal Air Force (RAF) established the site as a remote airstrip during World War II, naming it after Air Chief Marshal Sir Walter Dawson. During the war, the airfield operated with a nearby bombing range and hosted Supermarine Spitfires of No. 32 Squadron RAF as well as captured Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52s.

The RAF withdrew from Dawson Field in 1958. Following the withdrawal, the site saw no aviation activity throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. Instead, it served as an artillery and vehicle park for the adjacent Zarqa Military Camp, housing field artillery, tanks, prime movers, and support vehicles.

In 1970, Wadie Haddad and engineers from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) rehabilitated the airfield to make it operational. Renamed Al-Thawra Airport, the facility was operated by the PFLP. In September 1970, PFLP operatives forced three hijacked commercial airliners to land at the airfield, where the aircraft were subsequently destroyed after hostages were evacuated.

By the 1990s, the airfield was used occasionally by military aircraft to support dispersal, staging, and aircraft recovery operations.