Joint civil-military airport in California
Moffett Federal Airfield (), also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, United States, between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale. On November 10, 2014, NASA announced that it would be leasing of the airfield property to Google for 60 years.
The airport is near the south end of San Francisco Bay, northwest of San Jose. Formerly a US Navy facility, the former naval air station is now owned and operated by the NASA Ames Research Center. Tenant military activities include the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard, operating the HC-130J Combat King II and HH-60G Pave Hawk aircraft, as well as the adjacent Headquarters for the 7th Psychological Operations Group of the US Army Reserve. Until July 28, 2010, the US Air Force's 21st Space Operations Squadron was also a tenant command at Moffett Field, occupying the former Onizuka Air Force Station. In addition to these military activities, NASA also operates several of its own aircraft from Moffett.
Hangars One, Two, and Three, and the adjacent Shenandoah Plaza are collectively designated as a National Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Hangar One is one of the world's largest freestanding structures, covering . The hangar was constructed in 1931. Hangar One is a Naval Historical Monument, Historic American Engineering Record CA-335, State of California Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. In May 2008, The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Hangar One on their list of America's Most Endangered Places.
Hangar Two is one of the world's largest freestanding wood structures, as was Hangar Three before it was demolished in 2024. The hangars were constructed when the US Navy established ten lighter-than-air bases across the United States during World War II as part of the coastal defense plan. Five of the original seventeen of these wooden hangars still exist: one at Moffett Field, one at Tustin, California, one at Tillamook, Oregon, and two at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
The adjacent NASA Ames Research Center is also home to several wind tunnels, including the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel (a National Historic Landmark), and the National Full-Scale Aerodynamic Complex.
History.
Sunnyvale operations.
In 1930, the city of Sunnyvale acquired a parcel of farmland bordering San Francisco Bay, paid for with nearly US$ raised by the citizens of Santa Clara County, then "sold" the parcel for $1 to the US government as a home base for the Navy airship USS "Macon". The location proved to be ideal for an airport, since the area is often clear while other parts of the San Francisco Bay are covered in fog. This is due to the Coast Range to the west, which blocks the cold oceanic air that is the cause of San Francisco fog.
Naval operations.
The naval air station (NAS) was authorized by an Act of Congress, signed by President Herbert Hoover on 12 February 1931. Construction of the original facilities was begun 8 July 1931. The base was originally named Airbase Sunnyvale CAL as it was thought that calling it Mountain View would cause officials to fear airships colliding with mountainsides. The original station was commissioned on 12 April 1933 and dedicated NAS Sunnyvale. After the death of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, who is credited with the creation of the airfield, in the loss of the USS "Akron" on 4 April 1933, the airfield at NAS Sunnyvale was renamed Moffett Field on 1 September 1933. In the tradition of the Navy, the installation is named for the surrounding city, while the airfield on the installation, including runways, can be named after an individual. Examples include Forrest Sherman Airfield at NAS Pensacola and Halsey Airfield at NAS North Island.
After the "Macon" crashed in the Pacific Ocean on 12 February 1935, the Navy considered closing NAS Sunnyvale and Moffett Field at due to its high cost of operations. Also, in San Diego, the Army and Navy were having jurisdictional issues over Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego harbor, which had both NAS San Diego as well as the Army's Rockwell Field dividing the island. The Navy wanted the Army out of North Island as it needed to expand NAS San Diego as a training airfield for its growing number of aircraft carrier pilots. The Army resisted strongly, as Rockwell Field was a major training airfield for flight cadets, and had been using the field for flight training since 1912. With the subtle assistance of President Franklin Roosevelt, a former assistant secretary of the Navy, a complex arrangement of facilities realignment was made by the War Department which transferred NAS Sunnyvale and Moffett Field to Army jurisdiction and Rockwell Field to the Navy in October 1935, becoming NAS North Island.
Upon taking jurisdiction of NAS Sunnyvale and Moffett Field, the base was renamed Army Air Corps Training Base Sunnyvale. The Army also took on the high cost of Hangar One's maintenance and wanted to inactivate the facility. However, President Roosevelt would not allow the closure of the facility, and the Army assigned Moffett to its Western Flying Training Command as headquarters for pilot and aircrew flight training west of the Rocky Mountains. Also in 1939, the former NAS Sunnyvale saw the establishment of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory.
As an aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy wanted to use Moffett Field and the large dirigible hangar for blimp operations along with Pacific Coast. However, the Army, still stinging about having to transfer Rockwell Field to the Navy, resisted strongly. Again the inter-service rivalry was overruled by the War Department, citing the Navy's need for coastal defense a priority and ordered the Army to move its training headquarters to Hamilton Field in Marin County, north of San Francisco.
On April 16, 1942, control of the facility was returned to the Navy and it was recommissioned as NAS Sunnyvale. Four days later it was again renamed Naval Air Station Moffett Field, thereby becoming one of the few Naval Air Stations named after an individual. The Navy then built Hangars 2 and 3 on the eastern side of the runways for additional blimp operations. Due to the priority of metal for use in building war materials such as airplanes, ships and tanks, these two hangars were built from wood and concrete. From the end of World War II until its closure, NAS Moffett Field saw the development and use of several generations of land-based anti-submarine warfare and maritime patrol aircraft, including the Lockheed P2V Neptune and Lockheed P-3 Orion. Until the demise of the USSR and for some time thereafter, daily anti-submarine, maritime reconnaissance, Fleet support, and various training sorties flew out from NAS Moffett Field to patrol along the Pacific coastline, while Moffett's other squadrons and aircraft periodically deployed to other Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf bases for periods of up to six months.
The onset of the Korean War brought a restructuring of the Navy's disposition of air forces, resulting in several squadrons being transferred to the Moffett Field as well as Naval Air Station Alameda. During the 1950s the Moffett served as the fighter base, with Alameda hosting attack aircraft. Naval aircraft home based in Moffett included the F9F Panther and FJ-3 Fury. On Feb. 1, 1957, a Navy Thunderjet plane piloted by Capt. Robert Mulvehill, 32, of Edenburg, PA, crashed at 3:25 p.m. in Mountain View while on approach to Moffett Field. The plane was travelling parallel to Castro Street when it crashed near the corner of California and Oak Streets, narrowly missing an elementary school, according to the Mountain View Register-Leader—the local paper of record at the time.
By the end of the 1950s the Navy was looking to consolidate assets as the majority of carrier based aircraft had transitioned to larger jet powered aircraft, needing longer runways. The majority of squadrons based at Moffett transferred to Naval Air Station Miramar when they transitioned to the F-8 Crusader; while attack aircraft from Alameda were relocated to the newly opened Naval Air Station Lemoore. By 1961, the last fighter aircraft had left Moffett Field.
In 1960, the nearby Air Force Satellite Test Center (STC), was created adjacent to (on the SE corner of) NAS Moffett Field. Often referred to as "the Blue Cube," it was operational until 2010 as Onizuka Air Force Station, part of the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN). The building was demolished in 2014.
In August 1986 during the "NAS Moffett Field Airshow", the Italian demonstration team, Frecce Tricolori, and the German Navy's F-104 flight demonstration team, the Vikings, performed in front of the crowd.
At its peak in the 1990s, NAS Moffett Field was the U.S. Navy's principal Pacific Fleet base for the P-3C operations. In addition to headquarters staffs for Commander, U.S. Patrol Wings Pacific Fleet (COMPATWINGSPAC); Commander, Patrol Wing 10 (COMPATWING 10); and Commander, Reserve Patrol Wing Pacific / Patrol Wing 4 (COMRESPATWINGPAC/COMPATWING 4), the air station also hosted Patrol Squadron THIRTY-ONE (VP-31)...the west coast P-3C Fleet Replacement Squadron, six additional active duty P-3C squadrons and a Naval Air Reserve P-3C squadron in addition to NASA and California Air National Guard aviation activities.
Ames Research Center operations.
Post-Cold War defense cutbacks and related Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) actions in the 1990s identified NAS Moffett Field for closure. The west coast Fleet Replacement Squadron, Patrol Squadron 31 (VP-31), was deactivated and its functions combined with its east coast counterpart, Patrol Squadron 30 (VP-30) at NAS Jacksonville, Florida. Several active duty P-3C squadrons, the Naval Air Reserve P-3C squadron and COMRESPATWINGPAC/COMPATWING 4 were also deactivated, while COMPATWINGSPAC and COMPATWING 10 (redesignated COMPATRECONWING 10) transferred to NAS Whidbey Island, Washington and the remaining patrol squadrons transferred to NAS Whidbey Island, Washington or NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii until the latter's BRAC-directed closure in 1999, at which time the Barbers Point squadrons moved to Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
On 1 July 1994, NAS Moffett Field was closed as a naval air station and turned over to the NASA Ames Research Center. NASA Ames now operates the facility as Moffett Federal Airfield. Since being decommissioned as a primary military installation, part of Moffett has been made accessible to the public, including a cordoned portion of the interior of the massive Hangar One. There were once balloon rides given on show days, and micro-weather still occurs in the cavernous space.
Moffett Federal Airfield has occasional air traffic, with an average of 5-10 flights landing per day. Moffett is regularly used by the California Air National Guard, NASA, Lockheed Martin Space Systems (commercial satellite manufacturer), the Google founders for their private planes, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department for their helicopter STAR 1, and Air Force One during presidential visits to the Bay Area.
In 2008, the Ames Research Center leased 42 acres around the field to Google. In 2013 Google began building a 1.1 million square foot office complex consisting of nine buildings overlooking San Francisco Bay dubbed "Bay View." The buildings are to be the new headquarters for Google and will be part of the nearby Googleplex.
Hangar One.
Moffett Field's "Hangar One" (built during the Depression era for the USS "Macon") and the row of World War II blimp hangars are still some of the largest unsupported structures in the country. The airship hangar is constructed on a network of steel girders sheathed with galvanized steel. It rests firmly upon a reinforced pad anchored to concrete pilings. The floor covers ) and can accommodate six (360 feet x 160 feet) football fields. The airship hangar itself, measures long and wide. The building has aerodynamic architecture. Its walls curve upward and inward, to form an elongated dome high. The clam-shell doors were designed to reduce turbulence when the "Macon" moved in and out on windy days. The "orange peel" doors, weighing 500 tons (511.88 tonnes) each, are moved by their own 150 horsepower motors operated via an electrical control panel.
The airship hangar's interior is so large that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling. A person unaccustomed to its vastness is susceptible to optical disorientation. Looking across its deck, planes and tractors look like toys. Along its length maintenance shops, inspection laboratories and offices help keep the hangar busy. Looking up, a network of catwalks for access to all parts of the structure can be seen. Two elevators meet near the top, allowing maintenance personnel to get to