McClellan Airfield

Not to be confused with McClellan-Palomar Airport.

Coordinates: 38°40′04″N 121°24′02″W / 38.66778°N 121.40056°W / 38.66778; -121.40056

Sacramento Airport McClellan Airfield
IATA: MCC – ICAO: KMCC – FAA LID: MCC
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Sacramento County
Serves Sacramento, California
Elevation AMSL 77 ft / 23 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
16/34 10,599 3,231 Concrete
Helipads
Number Length Surface
ft m
H1 57 17 Concrete
H2 57 17 Concrete
H3 57 17 Concrete
H4 57 17 Concrete
Statistics (2004)
Aircraft operations 10,000
Based aircraft 84
For the United States Air Force use of this faciity before 2001, see McClellan Air Force Base

McClellan Airfield (IATA: MCC, ICAO: KMCC, FAA LID: MCC), known officially as McClellan Airport, is a county-owned public-use airport located six miles (10 km) northeast of the central business district of Sacramento, a city in Sacramento County, California, United States.[1]

The airport is on the former site of McClellan Air Force Base, which existed as a military base from 1939 to 2000. It was transferred to Sacramento County in 2000, as part of its conversion into McClellan Business Park. The airport is a public-use facility which operates as an uncontrolled airfield in what the FAA designates as Class "E" Airspace. Current airport tenants include Calstar, the California Department of Forestry, United States Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento and the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.

History

The air force base was established in 1935. It was named after Major Hezekiah McClellan on 1 December 1939, a pioneer in arctic aeronautical tests. Born in 1894, he died on 25 May 1936 when his Consolidated P-30 which he was flight testing, crashed near Centerville, Ohio.

Construction of the Pacific Air Depot began in 1935, and the main structures, including administrative buildings, barracks, warehouses and a hospital were completed on 18 April 1938. In 1938 the base was renamed Sacramento Air Depot and underwent a major expansion as a repair and overhaul facility for P-38 and P-39 fighter planes.

In December 1941, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, P-40s as well as Martin B-26 Marauder and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers began arriving at the field to be armed and prepared for immediate shipment overseas. In March 1942 Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's B-25s arrived at McClellan for arming in preparation for their famous Tokyo raid.

The base was renamed McClellan Air Force Base in 1948 and its repair and overhaul mission continued throughout the Cold War as an installation of the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and later the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), with the overhaul facility being known as the Sacramento Air Logistics Center.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, McClellan functioned as the main depot for overhauling the Air Force's F-111, FB-111 and EF-111 aircraft, as well as the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. A small contingent of F-111D and F-111F aircraft of the 431st Test and Evaluation Squadron, 57th Fighter Weapons Wing, Nellis AFB, Nevada was also detached to McClellan.

Facilities and aircraft

McClellan Airfield has one concrete paved runway (16/34) measuring 10,599 x 150 ft. (3,231 x 46 m). It also has four concrete helipads, all measuring 57 x 57 ft. (17 x 17 m). For the 12-month period ending April 10, 2004, the airport had 10,000 aircraft operations, an average of 27 per day: 40% military, 40% air taxi and 20% general aviation. There are 84 aircraft based at this airport: 4% single-engine, 64% multi-engine, 23% jet and 5% helicopter and 5% military.[1]

The Aerospace Museum of California occupies a site at the north of the airfield.

References

  1. 1 2 3 FAA Airport Master Record for MCC (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25

External links

Bell P-39 Repair Line.
To step up its delivery of Speedy Bell P-39 "Airacobra" fighter airplanes to American pilots in the South Pacific, the Army Air Forces Air Service Command put American production line methods to work in its repair docks at McClellan Field, California. Two and one-half million dollars worth of airplanes were overhauled by civilian Air Service Command workers at Sacramento, California prior to being sent against the enemy.


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