Delano Municipal Airport is six miles southwest of

Delano Delano or DeLano may refer to: Places in the United States * Delano, California * Delano, Wichita, Kansas, a neighborhood in Wichita and former community before merging with Wichita * Delano, Minnesota * Delano, Nevada * Delano, Pennsylvania * De ...

, in

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States. Most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

and IATA, but Delano Municipal Airport is DLO to the FAA and has no IATA code.Great Square Mapper: KDLO - Delano, California (Delano Municipal Airport)
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Facilities

Delano Municipal Airport covers and has one

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runway (14/32) measuring . In the year ending January 23, 2006 the airport had 19,000 aircraft operations, average 52 per day, all

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

. 44 aircraft are based at this airport: 68% single engine, 5% multi-engine and 27%

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History

Delano Airport opened in April 1940. It was built by the federal government with monies appropriated by Congress for Development of Landing Areas for National Defense. It was built by the Civil Aeronautics Administration. In late 1943 the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

acquired usage rights to the airport. It was placed under the jurisdiction of the IV Fighter Command. The

481st Night Fighter Operational Training Group The 481st Night Fighter Operational Training Group (481 NFOTG) was a unit of the United States Army Air Forces. It was inactivated on 31 March 1944 at Hammer Field, California. The group was the primary night fighter Operational Training Unit ( ...

(NFOTG) used the facility, named Delano Army Airfield, as part of the Army Air Forces Night Fighter School which had transferred from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Hammer Field Fresno Yosemite International Airport is a joint military/public airport in Fresno, California, United States. It is the primary commercial airport for the San Joaquin Valley and three national parks: Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon. It o ...

, California. Delano was used as an auxiliary training airfield. The school operated a combination of modified

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A-20 Havocs for night fighter operations, designated P-70, and new prototype

YP-61 Black Widow The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed specifically as a night fight ...

purpose-built night fighters. Between 31 March and 15 June 1944, the

426th Night Fighter Squadron 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

trained at Delano; the 548th Night Fighter Squadron between June and September 1944. In addition, flights of P-61s from the 427th, 547th, 549th and 550th Night Fighter Squadrons moved in and out of Delano AAF during 1944 as part of their training prior to being deployed to combat units, primarily in the

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and CBI theaters. In December 1944, the 481st NFOTG was inactivated as part of an AAF reorganization. Delano Field was transferred over to the jurisdiction of Air Technical Service Command on 10 December. It was placed on standby status and the airport was only used for emergency, being under the control of Hammer Field. With the end of the war, the base was declared excess to requirements and returned to civil control. Delano has had almost no scheduled airline flights, but did appear in the OAG circa 1969.

References

External links

* {{USAAF 4th Air Force World War II 1940 establishments in California Airports in Kern County, California Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California Airports established in 1940

Facilities

History

See also

References

External links