Shafter Airport , also known as Minter Field and formerly known as Air Corps Basic Flying School, is a 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 surfa ...

located east of the central business district of Shafter and 14 miles northwest of Bakersfield, a city in

Kern County, California Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county s ...

, United States. Originally a

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 opposing ...

primary training facility for pilots, it is currently a public airport owned by the Minter Field Airport District. This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''

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 ...

'' facility.

History

Lerdo Field, as the airport was initially known during

, was first opened in June 1941 when the

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 ...

(USAAC) dispatched a small garrison of airmen to open an airfield at Shafter. The name was derived from close proximity to the highway of the same name. The airfield commander utilized

Bakersfield College Bakersfield College (BC) is a public community college in Bakersfield, California. BC serves about 22,000 students each semester or 31,000 annually, and offers Associate degrees, certificate programs, and is one of fifteen California Community C ...

as his headquarters, while airmen were quartered in temporary facilities from Bakersfield to

Wasco Wasco is the name of four places in the United States: Places United States * Wasco, California, a city in California ** Wasco State Prison, located in Wasco, California * Wasco, Illinois, a former hamlet (unincorporated town) in Illinois, now pa ...

while barracks and other structures were being built. As construction proceeded through the rest of the year, the Minter Sub-Depot was established as a branch of the

Sacramento Air Depot Sacramento Air Logistics Center is a former United States Air Force unit based at McClellan Air Force Base from 1935 until its closure as part of the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. History Construction of the Pacific Air Depot began ...

. In August, the first operational training units (OTUs) began arriving at Lerdo Field, the airfields mission being advanced pilot training of USAAC bomber, attack, transport and pursuit pilots. In April 1942, contracts for the construction of more than 65 on-base buildings were let, while the constantly increasing numbers of cadets were housed in a large tent city erected as temporary shelter. With the relative completion of construction in July 1942, the airfield was renamed Minter Field Army Airfield after a member of the locally prominent Minter family, First Lieutenant Hugh C. Minter. Lieutenant Minter, a

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

veteran, was killed in a mid-air collision over

March Field March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of Ma ...

on July 8, 1932. The airfield was placed under the overall command of 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 ...

West Coast Training Center. Known sub-bases and auxiliaries of Minter Field were: * Wasco Auxiliary Airfield (No.1) – now Wasco-Kern County Airport * Pond Auxiliary Field (No. 2) – – abandoned * Famoso Auxiliary Airfield (No.3) – – abandoned *

Dunlap Auxiliary Airfield Minter Army Airfield auxiliary fields were a number of airfields used during World War II to support the Minter Army Airfield (now the Shafter Airport) near Shafter, California. Minter Army Airfield was also called Lerdo Field, after the nearb ...

(No.4) (AKA Jasmin Landing Field) – – abandoned * Semi-tropic Auxiliary Airfield (No.5) – – abandoned *

Poso Auxiliary Airfield Poso Airport , also known as Poso-Kern County Airport, is a county-owned public-use airport located four nautical miles (7 km) east of the central business district of Famoso, in Kern County, California, United States. It is mostly used for ...

(No.6) – now Poso Airport * Lost Hills Auxiliary Airfield (No.7) – now Lost Hills Airport * Coalinga Municipal Airport (Old) (closed) – The primary aircraft flown at Minter Field was the

Vultee 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 ...

, which was used for f flight training. Other training aircraft included the Cessna UC-78 Bobcat,

AT-6 Texan The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engined advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and other air forces ...

advanced trainer,

North American B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...

twin-engine medium bomber, and Lockheed P-38 Lightning, as well as other widely used fighter, bomber and observation craft. With the end of the war in 1945, the airfield was determined to be excess by the military and turned over to the local government for civil use in March 1948. The Gossamer Condor piloted by Bryan Allen won the first

Kremer prize The Kremer prizes are a series of monetary awards, established in 1959 by the industrialist Henry Kremer. Royal Aeronautical Society Human Powered Flight Group The Royal Aeronautical Society's "Man Powered Aircraft Group" was formed in 1959 b ...

on August 23, 1977, by completing a figure 8 course specified by the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows, ...

Minter Field Minter may refer to: Places in the United States *Minter, Alabama, an unincorporated community *Minter Village, California, an unincorporated community *Minter City, Mississippi Minter City is an unincorporated community in Leflore County and ...

. California Historic Landmark #923 is located at the field to commemorate this event.

Facilities and aircraft

Shafter-Minter Field 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 § Ver ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has two

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: 12/30 is with an

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 ...

surface; 17/35 is 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 wid ...

surface. For the 12-month period ending November 1, 2011, the airport had 45,000

aircraft operations, an average of 123 per day. At that time there were 114 aircraft based at this airport: 77% single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

, 8%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, 7%

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

, 4% jet, and 4% multi-engine.

References

Other sources

* * 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

Shafter Airport/Minter Field
official site
Minter Field Air Museum

Aerial image as of September 1994
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 pro ...

'' *
{{USAAF Training Bases World War II Airports in Kern County, California San Joaquin Valley Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California Airports established in 1941 1941 establishments in California USAAF Western Flying Training Command American Theater of World War II

History

Facilities and aircraft

See also

References

Other sources

External links