Rankin Aeronautical Academy - California

Rankin Field is a former airport and military airfield located approximately southeast of

Tulare, California Tulare ( ) is a city in Tulare County, California. The population was 68,875 at the 2020 census. It is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, eight miles south of Visalia and sixty miles north of Bakersfield. The city is named for th ...

. It was a

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 ...

basic (Level 1) flying training facility 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 ...

. It is now an agricultural and light industrial site.

History

Rankin Field was established by

Tex Rankin John Gilbert "Tex" Rankin (January 20, 1894 – February 23, 1947) was an aerobatic pilot, barnstormer, air racer, and flight instructor from the 1920s to the 1940s. He created the Rankin Flying Service which trained thousands of pilots at Ra ...

in 1940 when he signed a contract with the War Department to open a school to train

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

flight cadets. The "Rankin Aeronautical Academy, Inc." was established and in February 1941, the school began basic (level 1) pilot training in February 1941 at Mefford Field, located about six miles west of the still under-construction Rankin Field. Classes were moved to Rankin Field in May 1941. The airfield was an all-direction turf/soil surface; consisting of a 2,300' x 1,800' rectangular landing/takeoff field. It had a total of five auxiliary airfields for emergency and overflow landings/takeoffs. In 1939, when war broke out in Europe, Army schools had the capacity to train only 750 pilots a year. Recognizing the need to drastically expand, Hap Arnold initiated a program under which civilian schools provided the first 60 hours of flight time to Army Aviation Cadets. The new program was so successful that the U.S. was able to train pilots faster than it could produce aircraft. While Germany lost air superiority because it was not able to replace pilots killed in combat, Arnold's program began tapering off nine months before D-Day. Rankin Field became one of the 62 civilian-owned flying schools in the U.S. that taught 1.4 million World War II Army pilots to fly. It was assigned to West Coast Training Center (later Western Flying Training Command). Known sub-bases and auxiliaries were: * Hunter Auxiliary Field (A-1) * Tipton Auxiliary Field (A-2) * Strathmore Auxiliary Field (A-3) militarymuseum.org, Strathmore Auxiliary Field
/ref> * Tulare Airport (A-4) * Trauger Auxiliary Field (A-5) Its primary training aircraft was the PT-17 Stearman, of which over 200 were assigned. The cadets at the school received both ground and flight instruction; with a ratio of one instructor to one cadet for the nine-week course. The mission of the school was to train the best pilots possible for the USAAF, and this was done with a highly rigorous and demanding course which many cadets were unable to complete satisfactorily. In addition to pilots, a ground mechanic school was conducted with the same high level of training and demands on the students. With the end of World War II, Rankin Academy closed and the airfield was inactivated on 30 September 1945. 10,000 pilots were graduated during its existence, including 12 who became Aces. Among those trained at Rankin were two Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, Major Richard Bong, who went on to become the top Ace of the United States Army Air Force, shooting down at least 40 Japanese aircraft, primarily in P-38 Lightnings in the Western Pacific, and Captain Frank Furey. The airfield was sold after the war, being used as a private airfield. Today a hangar and some of the wartime era buildings still remain. Today, the site operates as the Rankin Field Weapons Range, a shooting range operated by the Tulare County Sheriffs Association.

References

* Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas * Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.

External links

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields is an online database detailing information and first hand memories about airports in the United States which are no longer in operation, or are rarely used. The website was started by Paul Freeman in 1999 a ...

Rankin Field {{USAAF Training Bases World War II 1940 establishments in California Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California USAAF Contract Flying School Airfields History of Tulare County, California Buildings and structures in Tulare County, California Airports established in 1940 USAAF Western Flying Training Command American Theater of World War II

History

See also

References

External links