Gila River Memorial Airport was a private-use airport owned and operated by the

Gila River Indian Community The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) (O'odham language: Keli Akimel Oʼotham, ''meaning "Gila River People"'', Maricopa language: Pee-Posh) is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the city of ...

, located southwest of the central business district of Chandler, in

Maricopa County Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

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. It was used for

cropdusting Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific sp ...

and

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

operations, with no scheduled commercial services.

History

Gila River Memorial Airport was built in 1942 as Williams Auxiliary Army Airfield #5, one of several satellite airfields for Williams Army Airfield. After the war, it was renamed Goodyear Air Force Auxiliary Airfield, with its original triangular configuration modified to accommodate early jet aircraft of the 1950s. During the 1960s, it passed on to civilian control as Goodyear Airport, then as Memorial Airfield. No hangar space existed at the airport until the late 1970s, when the airport began playing host to older piston-engined transport aircraft, many of which had been converted for use as

air tanker The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Gravity of Earth, Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating Atmo ...

s. The majority of the converted aircraft were operated by Biegert Aviation. By the 1990s, it had become an aircraft boneyard. By 2007, the Gila River Indian Community had assumed control of the airfield, renaming it Gila River Memorial Airport, and all commercial tenants were evicted from the property in the hopes of turning the airfield into a casino. In 2008, numerous aircraft were still present, including C-54s,

DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s. ...

DC-7 The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the ear ...

s, PV-2s, and a

Howard 500 The Howard 500 is an American executive transport aircraft produced by Howard Aero Incorporated during the early 1960s. Design and development During the 1950s and '60s, Howard Aero Inc., led by Durrell U. "Dee" Howard, had been remanufacturing m ...

. Many of them have since been removed, with some of the old airport outbuildings dismantled, with further plans to expand and develop the airport still in progress.

Facilities and aircraft

Facilities

Gila River Memorial Airport covers and has two

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 ...

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, concre ...

s: * 03/21 is * 12/30 is The last recorded aircraft operations were for the 12-month period ending November 16th, 1983. These statistics show that the airport had about 25,550 aircraft operations, an average of 70 per day. These statistics show that the traffic was made up of 98%

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 and 2% military aircraft.

Aircraft

61 aircraft were based at this airport: 31 single-engine and 30 multi-engine. Most of the aircraft have been sold for scrap and the remaining eight are totally dismantled.

Images

The following images are of the current state of the airport and aircraft.

References

External links

34AZ at Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields
* {{US-airport-minor, 34AZ
Pictures of the airport, circa 2011, on Flickr
Airports in Maricopa County, Arizona Gila River Indian Community