Watsonville Airport was an airport in

Watsonville, California Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Predomi ...

, United States. It was used 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 ...

for

antisubmarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

blimps in the defense of California. Opened in 1930 by Watsonville Airport Incorporated, it was the city's first airport. Watsonville Airport Incorporated sold five thousand shares of stock to purchase 85 acres of land southwest of the city. The airport was built at

California State Route 1 State Route 1 (SR 1) is a major north–south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U.S. state of California. At , it is the longest state route in California, and the second-longest in the US after Monta ...

and Salinas road in

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

. The airport has three 2,300 feet dirt runways in a triangle shape. In 1930, Watsonville Airport Incorporated's first president was Harlow Ford, and Claude Wilson was the first airport manager and flight instructor.

World War II

The

US 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 of ...

leased the Watsonville Airport in 1942 and used it as an auxiliary field, called Watsonville NAAF (LTA). Antisubmarine

blimp A blimp, or non-rigid airship, is an airship (dirigible) without an internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships (e.g. Zeppelins), blimps rely on the pressure of the lifting gas (usually helium, rather than hydr ...

s from

Moffett Field Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an Local government in California#Counties, unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States, ...

were stationed at the Watsonville Airport, after the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

on December 7, 1941. The Navy paved the runways and built three blimp mooring circles. The Navy also built barracks for 166 troops stationed at the airport, and used the airport's existing 60 x 60 foot hangar. One or two

K-class blimp The ''K''-class blimp was a class of blimps (non-rigid airship) built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio for the United States Navy. These blimps were powered by two Pratt & Whitney ''Wasp'' nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine ...

s and a

L-class blimp The L-class blimps were training airships operated by the United States Navy during World War II. In the mid-1930s, the Goodyear Aircraft Company built a family of small non-rigid airships that the company used for advertising the Goodyear name. ...

were based at the airport. The blimps departed in 12-hour shifts to look for submarines, give convoy support, and help in air-sea rescues. At the end of the war in late 1945, the Navy closed the base there and returned the airport to Watsonville Airport Incorporated. It was renamed to Watsonville Airport No. 2, as the larger Watsonville Municipal Airport had opened three miles (5 km) northwest of Watsonville. In 1947, Watsonville Airport Incorporated sold the land to Edwin and Flora Peterson. The land was turned into a cattle feed lot. There are no traces of the Watsonville Airport today.Naval aerofiles.com, Flying Fields in the USA
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References

External links

Watsonville Municipal Airport
(official site) {{US Navy navbox Watsonville, California World War II Navy Airfields World War II Navy Airfields

World War II

See also

References

External links