Sierra Sky Park Airport is a privately 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 ...

northwest 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 ...

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, a city in

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

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 ...

. Other area airports are

Fresno Chandler Executive Airport Fresno Chandler Executive Airport is a public use airport west of the central business district of Fresno, California, United States. It is owned by the City of Fresno and managed by the city’s Airports Division. Chandler Airport opened in N ...

and

Fresno Yosemite International Airport Fresno Yosemite International Airport is a joint military/public airport in Fresno, California, United States. It is the primary commercial airport for the San Joaquin Valley and three national parks: Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon. It o ...

History

Sierra Sky Park was created in 1946 on 130

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (52 ha) on the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

, and was the first residential aviation community in the world. William and Doris Smilie are credited for creating this airport/neighborhood hybrid and in 1953 built the first of the 110 homes in the project. Residents can land, taxi down extra-wide avenues, and pull up and park in the driveway at home.

Facilities and aircraft

Sierra Sky Park Airport covers an area of which contains 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 12/30 with a 2,473 x 50 ft (890 x 15 m)

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 a ...

pavement. For the 12-month period ending March 29, 2007, the airport had 12,500

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 ...

aircraft operations, an average of 34 per day. At that time there were 40 aircraft based at this airport: 98 percent single-engine and 2 percent multi-engine.

Accidents and incidents

On December 26, 2016, an Express S-90 crashed onto the shore of a lake, 250 meters off runway 12. Both people on board were killed. On May 2, 2020, the engine of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk failed after takeoff, and on return landing, the plane overran the end of the runway. The pilot walked away with bumps and scratches, and no one on the ground was injured.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Airports in Fresno County, California Residential airparks