Naval Air Station Patuxent River, located at Lexington Park in St. Mary’s County, Maryland on a peninsula between the Patuxent River and Chesapeake Bay, is the US Navy’s primary aircraft test and evaluation complex — home to the Naval Test Pilot School (NTPS), the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), and the operational test and evaluation organizations that qualify every aircraft system entering Navy service. Test pilots, project officers, flight test engineers, and the maintenance personnel supporting test flights at Pax River tested every category of Navy aircraft — including prototype and production aircraft with asbestos-containing brake and engine components — throughout the Cold War era.

Test Aircraft Component Asbestos

Flight test and engineering personnel at NAS Patuxent River worked with prototype and production aircraft across every naval aviation category, all with asbestos-containing components during the Cold War era:

  • Prototype aircraft brake assemblies on every Navy aircraft type undergoing qualification testing used asbestos friction material in brake assemblies maintained by Aviation Structural Mechanics during test aircraft maintenance — including first-of-class testing on aircraft types before their fleet introduction
  • Engine component testing on prototype and production engines at Pax River’s engine test facilities involved high-temperature engine gaskets and components using asbestos-containing materials throughout the era of asbestos use in aircraft engines
  • Aircraft firewall and thermal protection testing on new aircraft designs incorporated asbestos materials in firewall construction in production aircraft tested at Pax River throughout the Cold War
  • Ejection seat and escape system testing on prototype escape systems at Pax River used asbestos thermal protection materials on ejection seat components in some seat types

Older Station Building Infrastructure

NAS Patuxent River was established in 1942 as a WWII-era test and development facility, and the station includes significant WWII-era building infrastructure:

  • WWII-era hangars and technical facilities built in 1942-1944 using asbestos-containing construction materials in their building fabric and mechanical systems
  • Base steam heating and utility systems serving older Pax River buildings using asbestos-insulated pipe in the base utility distribution
  • Technical laboratory buildings and wind tunnel facilities at Pax River built in the postwar era with asbestos-containing construction materials in building mechanical systems

Test pilots and Naval Flight Officers attending NTPS at Pax River flew an extensive variety of aircraft types — “the curriculum aircraft” spanning multiple decades of Navy aviation — maintaining currency in aircraft with asbestos-containing components as part of their test pilot training.

VA Claims for NAS Patuxent River Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure at naval air stations. Veterans who served at NAS Patuxent River in aviation maintenance ratings or in test and evaluation billets before the early 1980s asbestos phase-down and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.