Moffett Federal Airfield is a US military and civilian airport located in Santa Clara County , north of Mountain View and Sunnyvale , in the southern portion of San Francisco Bay . In the past, the airfield belonged to the US Navy . The owner is currently the Ames Research Center ( NASA ). It is home to the 129th California Air Force Emergency Rescue Wing and the headquarters of the 7th Group of psychological operations of the US Army Reserve. The aerodrome fleet includes search and rescue aircraft HC-130P Hercules (Combat King), tanker aircraft MC-130P Combat Shadow, as well as multi-purpose helicopters HH-60G Pave Hawk. Until July 28, 2010, the 12th US Air Force Space Squadron was also present at the airport.
| Moffett Federal Airfield | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aerodrome layout | ||||||||||
| IATA : NUQ - ICAO : KNUQ | ||||||||||
| Information | ||||||||||
| Type of | private | |||||||||
| A country | USA | |||||||||
| Location | Santa Clara County | |||||||||
| opening date | ||||||||||
| NUM height | +9.8 m | |||||||||
| Timezone | UTC-8 | |||||||||
| Site | Official site | |||||||||
| Runways | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
Hangar No. 1 (built in 1931), located at the airport, is one of the largest [1] free-standing buildings with an area of about 32,000 m².
Hangars No. 2 and No. 3 are considered one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. They were built during World War II as part of the US Navy’s coastal defense plan. The plan included the construction of ten airship bases, five of which still exist: two at Moffett Airport, two in Tustin, California, and one in Tillamook, Oregon.
The Ames Research Center , which includes the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex, is also located at the airport.
History
In 1931, the city of Sunnyvale acquired a plot of agricultural land (about 4 km²), bordering the San Francisco Bay, paying almost $ 480,000 [2] , after which it "resold" it to the US government for $ 1 for the construction of the base for the USS Macon airship (ZRS-5 ) US Navy. It was an ideal site for an aerodrome in terms of weather conditions, because most of the coastal zone of San Francisco Bay is often foggy.
The naval airfield was approved by Congress Act and signed by President Herbert Hoover on February 12, 1931. Construction began on July 8, 1931. [3] Initially, the base was named CAL Sunnyvale Airbase because they feared that the name Mountain View ( Eng. Mountain View , lit. mountain view ) would make officials think that airships could run into mountains. [4] This US Navy aviation station was commissioned on April 12, 1933 and named Sunnyvale. After the death of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett (who is credited with creating the airfield) [5] in the crash of the USS Akron airship on April 4, 1933, the airfield was renamed Moffett on September 1, 1933. After the forced landing on water of the USS Macon (ZRS-5) in February 12, 1935, in October 1935 the airfield was transferred to the U.S. Air Force.
On April 16, 1942, the U.S. Navy regained the airfield and again commissioned the US Naval Aviation Station Sunnyvale. Four days later, she was renamed the Moffett Airfield. From the end of World War II until the close, the Moffett Airdrome Station served several generations of ground-based anti-submarine weapons and naval patrol aircraft, including the Lockheed P2V Neptune and Lockheed P-3 Orion . Before the collapse of the USSR and some time after, from Moffett airport, flights were conducted for daily patrols of the Pacific coast, fleet support and training flights. Squadrons based at the airport were periodically sent to service in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf for up to 6 months.
In the 90s, the station was the main base of the US Pacific Fleet for conducting patrol operations using the P-3C . After the end of the Cold War and the associated reduction in defense bases, the airfield was closed in 1994. The patrol squadron has been disbanded and combined with the east coast patrol. On July 1, the Moffett Airfield was transferred to the Ames Research Center ( NASA ) and renamed the Moffett Federal Airfield. Since the closure, part of the station has become accessible to civilians.
Moffett Federal Airfield has moderate air traffic (averaging 5-10 ships per day): California National Guard Air Force, NASA, Lockheed Martin Space Systems , Google’s founding private jets, Santa Clara County Police Helicopters ( STAR 1 ) , Air Force One during US Presidential visits to the San Francisco Bay Area .
Notes
- ↑ NASA'S HANGAR ONE RE-SIDING PROJECT unspecified . Date of treatment August 30, 2011. Archived on September 18, 2012.
- ↑ McDonell, Michael G., “Moffett Field ... a long way from Macon,” Naval Aviation News , Chief of Naval Operations and the Naval Air Systems Command, Arlington, Virginia, March 1971, Volume 52, page 36.
- ↑ Bureau of Yards and Docks, 1947 , p. 251, Volume I - Part II: The Continental Bases
- ↑ Daniel DeBolt, "Moffett Field's serendipitous 75th anniversary," Mountain View Voice , Nov. 28, 2008, p. 6
- ↑ US Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, CA Historic District (Moffett Field) (unavailable link) . California's Historic Silicon Valley . National Park Service . Date of treatment March 13, 2007. Archived September 18, 2012.
Literature
- Bureau of Yards and Docks, US Navy. Building the Navy's Bases in World War II; History of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and the Civil Engineer Corps, 1940-1946 . - Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1947.