Desert Center Airport is a private-use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located five

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (6 mi, 9 km) northeast of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Desert Center, in

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The airport located at the end of an unnamed road, one mile (1.6 km) east of CA Route 177 (Desert Center - Rice Road), northeast of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

History

World War II use

Desert Center Army Air Field (AAF) was built in the early 1940s was a subbase of

Thermal Army Air Field Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport in Riverside County, California, United States. It is located in the southeastern Coachella Valley, 20 nautical miles (23 mi, 37 km) southeast of the ...

and served as a support base for the

Air Technical Service Command The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

near

Camp Desert Center The Camp Desert Center was a sub camp of the US Army, Desert Training Center in Riverside County, California. The main headquarters for the Desert Training Center was Camp Young, this is where General Patton's 3rd Armored Division was statione ...

. The airfield was located within the Desert Center Division Camp, which encompassed over . Desert Center was one of the areas included in the California Arizona Maneuver Area, used during 1942–44 to train General Patton's armored forces for desert combat prior to it deploying to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

. Desert Center AAF was first known as the Desert Center Airdrome. According to a history of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Airdrome Detachments, a detachment of the 475th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron was the first administrative unit stationed at Desert Center, arriving on 15 January 1943. It was described as having 5,500' runways. The field also had taxiways and a parking apron. More than 40 buildings were constructed at the airfield, including an operations building, power house, Link Trainer building, hangar and various supply buildings. The 74th Reconnaissance Group was the first flying unit at the field, arriving in December 1942 while the facility was under construction. It was variously equipped with O-52s, L-1s, L-4s, B-25s, P-39s and P-40s and trained to provide air support and reconnaissance to the Army ground forces training at the desert combat training facility. Desert Center AAF was officially opened in April 1943. The 3d Airdrome Detachment was activated on 1 August to maintain the installation and assist in the administration and training of tactical organizations stationed at the airfield for training and maneuvers. When the training area closed in 1944, the airfield was assigned to the

Fourth Air Force The Fourth Air Force (4 AF) is a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). It is headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, California. 4 AF directs the activities and supervises the training of more than 30,000 Air Force Reser ...

, and operational activities decreased greatly. The airfield remained open, however, and was used by

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

crews flying training missions from

March Field March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Ma ...

Civil use

In 1946, following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the airfield was turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers, and the buildings were auctioned off to the public. It was listed as "Desert Center CAA Site 17" in the "Aerodromes" table on the 1955 San Diego Sectional Aeronautical Chart. It described the field as having two 5,000' bituminous runways. The airfield was listed among active airports in the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory, under the name of "FAA Site 17". It was described as having two 5,000 ft bituminous runways: 13/31 & 4/22, and the operator was listed as the FAA. It was closed in the mid-1960s, but listed as an emergency airfield. The airport was reopened as a civil airport (owned by Riverside County) at some point between 1966 and 2002. However, as of 2002 it was all but abandoned. There were no aircraft based at the field, and the Airport Facility Directory data listed a mere 150 takeoffs and landings per year. The sole remaining maintained runway is 5/23, which consists of a 4,200 ft asphalt strip which was overlaid over remains of the original military runway. Two buildings were still standing.

Recent history

Today, there are remains of Patton's army all around the airport including foundations from the old buildings and pieces of discarded equipment mixed in with the remains of old agriculture and vandalism. The abandoned Runway 13/31 is barely discernible, covered with sand and bushes. There are no historic buildings left, although there are numerous foundations and a concrete parking ramp. In 2003, the airfield was being used to fly unmanned aircraft. The hangar had been converted to a workshop and an inclined launching ramp was constructed. In 2004 the airfield was again put up for sale by Riverside County and bought by Chuckwalla Valley Associates, LLC, to service the new Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.

Facilities and aircraft

Desert Center Airport covers an area of 1,129

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (457 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 559 feet (170 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 5/23 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

surface measuring 4,200 by 50 feet (1,280 x 15 m). For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2006, the airport had 150

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 ...

aircraft operations.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . * * Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History's Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004. * Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub,

External links

Desert Center USA
*
{{Authority control Airports in Riverside County, California Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California Desert Center, California World War II airfields in the United States Airports established in 1942 1942 establishments in California