Holtville Airport is a county-owned, public-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 miles (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 Holtville, a city in

Imperial County Imperial Count (german: Reichsgraf) was a title in the Holy Roman Empire. In the medieval era, it was used exclusively to designate the holder of an imperial county, that is, a fief held directly ( immediately) from the emperor, rather than from ...

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 ...

. Holtville was a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

airfield during

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 ...

History

U.S. Navy

In 1937 the

purchased to build an airfield to support flight training. Holtville was chosen by the Navy because it boasted 360 days of

visual flight rules In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) are a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better ...

flying per year. The airfield was commissioned in 1943, with two concrete runways. Holtville was used by the Navy to train pilots in skip bombing, night flying, and air-to-ground rocket firing.

F6F Hellcat The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier Grumman F4F Wildcat, F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United St ...

s and

F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft which saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production contract ...

s were among the aircraft operated from Holtville. In 1944 Holtville was significantly expanded. The upgrades included the runway being extended to and two new ground training buildings. In 1944 Holtville had a total complement of 2,980 officers and enlisted. To the east of Holtville Airport 7 miles is the abandoned Sand Hill Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, a single northwest/southeast 4,000-foot paved runway. Also called the ''Holtville Naval Auxiliary Landing Field'' and ''Old Holtville''. The landing strip was used for Field Carrier Landing Practice and opened in 1944 for World War 2. For 1944 and 1945 a catapult and arrester system for carrier takeoff and landing training was installed at the runway at . By 1972 the Navy had stopped using the runway, but still owned the land.

After the war

Following the end of World War II, Holtville was used for a few months to store 111 PV-2 Harpoons. In 1946 It was redesignated from Holtville NAAS to Holtville Airport. In 1947 Holtville was transferred to Imperial County to be used as a civilian airport. Holtville may have been reactivated as a military airfield at some point between 1951 and 1955, as it was depicted once again as a Navy airfield on the 1955 San Diego Sectional Aeronautical Chart. It was evidently relinquished by the military (again) at some point between 1955–66, as "Holtville" was depicted as a civil airport on the 1966 San Diego Sectional Chart. Due to the field's proximity to Yuma MCAS and El Centro NAF, it is apparently still used for infrequent military aircraft training, as the Airport Facility Directory includes the notes "Be alert frequent military training activity during daylight hours & dark; includes tactical aircraft, helicopters & parachuting. No vertical takeoffs or landings permitted at airport AV-8 Harrier." A section of the airfield's runways was designated as Holtville Aerodrome International Raceway (HAIR), and was regularly used by the San Diego Region of the

Sports Car Club of America The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...

from approximately 1965 to 2001.

Proposed expansion

In November 2015, Representative

Juan Vargas Juan Carlos Vargas (born March 7, 1961) is an American businessman and politician who has been the U.S. representative for California since 2013. His district includes all of Imperial County and the southernmost portions of San Diego County. V ...

(D-51) introduced legislation in the

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washingto ...

to transfer 3,500 acres from the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

to Imperial County to allow the Holtville Airport to be expanded into a regional cargo airport.

Facilities

Holtville Airport covers an area of 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 59 feet (18 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 8/26 with a

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

surface measuring 6,000 by 150 feet (1,829 × 46 m).

Federal Aviation Administration 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 ...

records show the airport and runway as being "closed indefinitely". For the 12-month period ending March 6, 2000, there were no recorded aircraft operations and no aircraft based at the airport. There are, however, photos of

USMC The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

and

USN The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

on the strip on Google Maps.

References

External links

Aerial photo as of 8 June 2002
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

'' {{US-airport-minor, L04 Airports in Imperial County, California