The 2,403-acre (9.72 km2) site is bordered by farm land on the west and north, Sand Draw on the east, and Highway 20 on the south.

To construct the base, once land was acquired through condemnation and purchase from seven local landowners, laborers were hired from as far away as Omaha and Sioux City.

Two hundred Native Americans from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota came to Ainsworth and were put on the payroll as laborers.

By November 1942 the laborers had completed all housing at the base, and a spur was built from the existing Chicago Northwestern Railroad several miles to the south.

The 2,496-acre (10.10 km2) field had three 7,300 × 150-foot (46 m) concrete runways, a hangar, warehouse, repair and machine shops, link and bomb trainers, Norden bombsite vaults, and barracks for over 600 officers and enlisted men.

Ainsworth AAF was activated on 30 November 1942 as one of eleven United States Army Air Forces training bases in Nebraska.

In 1946 the United States Army Corps of Engineers issued a Revokable License to the City of Ainsworth for commercial aircraft operations at the Airfield.

[1] In the year ending June 25, 2020 the airport had 4,000 aircraft operations, average 77 per week: 98% general aviation and 1% military.