Thunderbird Field was a military airfield in Glendale, Arizona, used for contract primary flight training of Allied pilots during World War II.

Backed by investors who included James Stewart, singer-actor Hoagy Carmichael, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Robert Taylor, and Margaret Sullavan, construction of the pilot training facility near Glendale, Arizona,[3] began on 2 January 1941, and was completed in three months.

The site, 25 miles (40 km) from central Phoenix, was laid out by artist Millard Sheets to resemble (from the air) an etching of a mythical Ancestral Puebloan Thunderbird.

To the southeast, adjacent to its single-story sage, cream, and terra cotta-colored buildings of Spanish Colonial rancheria design, was a square 2,800-square-foot (260 m2) ramp area.

Contractor Del Webb Construction built a hexagonal barracks, administrative building, mess hall and four hangars on the site, plus twin swimming pools.

The US Army Air Forces signed a contract with Southwest Airways to provide instructors and facilities for a primary training school for its aviation cadets in March 1941, beginning with a class of 59 candidates.