War Eagle Field is a former airfield located in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

, about west of

Lancaster, California Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 173,51 ...

. It is currently used as a detention facility.

History

Polaris Flight Academy, which opened on the field's grounds on July 15, 1941, trained cadets for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

. (The school also used two auxiliary fields, Liberty Field and Victory Field.) The airfield had two hard-surfaced bituminous runways, one of 3,100' aligned NE/SW (05/23) the other of 2,950' aligned E/W (09/27). After the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor, the flight school began training cadets for the

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 ...

on 28 July 1942, being operated by the Polaris Flight Academy as a contract basic flying school (phase 1). The primary trainer in use was the

BT-13 Valiant The Vultee BT-13 Valiant is an American World War II-era basic (a category between primary and advanced) trainer aircraft built by Vultee Aircraft for the United States Army Air Corps, and later US Army Air Forces. A subsequent variant of the B ...

. Known sub-bases and auxiliaries were: * Liberty (Lancaster) Auxiliary Field (No. 1) * Victory Field Auxiliary Field (No. 2) In 1944, the flight school changed its name to Mira Loma Flight Academy. The airfield inactivated on 1 October 1945, and was declared surplus in 1946. Responsibility for it was given to the War Assets Administration.

Current use

The land was bought by

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

. The airfield was converted to a detention facility, and it continues to be used for that purpose. Many wartime buildings, including two still intact hangars, are still in use. On the roof of one of the hangars, the name "War Eagle" is still faintly perceptible. Flight operations continue at the airfield with a helicopter pad, used by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

Liberty Auxiliary Field

Liberty Auxiliary Field had a two 3,900' hard-surface runways. One runway ran east/west and the other northeast/southwest. The runways were just north to of the city of Lancaster at an elevation of 2300 feet. In 1947 the airfield closed.

United States Rubber Company The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemi ...

built a 3,500 feet diameter circular automotive testing track around the two airfields is 1950. Tires from their Los Angeles factory were tested on the track, which later became

Uniroyal The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemi ...

. In the 1960s

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

purchased the test track from Uniroyal and operated it for 10 years. A faint trace of the runways and track can still be seen from the air, just east of

California State Route 14 State Route 14 (SR 14) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects Los Angeles to the northern Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway. The route connects In ...

and just south of West Ave B. A water treatment plant was built on the south runway in 2010.

Victory Field Auxiliary

Victory Field Auxiliary had a four wide 3,900' hard-surface runways. The four runways were laid out in an unusual configuration, with two unconnected pairs of east/west and northeast/southwest strips. The runways could support bomber training. The runways were closed in 1945. A faint trace of the four runways can still be seen from the air, north of W Ave D and east of 80th Street W. Homes have been built on the far west of the four runways.Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields, Victory Field Auxiliary
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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.
www.airfieldsdatabase.com

External links

from

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 ...