Twentynine Palms Airport

Twentynine Palms Airport (IATA: TNP, ICAO: KTNP, FAA LID: TNP) is a public use airport located six nautical miles (11 km) east of the central business district of Twentynine Palms, a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. It is owned by the County of San Bernardino.[1]

Twentynine Palms Airport
USGS aerial image, 3 October 1995
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerCounty of San Bernardino
ServesTwentynine Palms, California
Elevation AMSL1,888 ft / 575 m
Coordinates34°07′54″N 115°56′45″W
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
8/26 5,531 1,686 Asphalt
17/35 3,797 1,157 Asphalt
Statistics (2022)
Aircraft operations (year ending 2/28/2022)18,000
Based aircraft14

History
Twenty Nine Palms Air Academy with a Waco CG-4A in 1942
Army Air Force glider pilots at Twentynine Palms AirAcademy in July 1941
Twentynine Palms AirAcademy TG-1A glider a training glider a Frankfort Cinema with the Army designation TG-1

It was activated on 1 January 1942 by the United States Army Air Forces. It started as USAAF contract glider training, and was called Twenty-Nine Palms Air Academy until 16 February 1943. It had four axillary airfields in local area, including Condor Field. Flying training was performed with Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer. It also had several PT-17 Stearmans and a few P-40 Warhawks assigned. It conducted basic flying training from March 1943 until being transferred to United States Navy April 1944. General Henry H. Arnold, Chief of the Army Air Forces, ordered the training for 150 glider pilots for World War II. By the end of WW2 over 6,000 glider pilots had been trained. In all 1,654 of the glider pilots were trained at the Twentynine Palms Air Academy. It was under USN control and became an auxiliary airfield to NAS San Diego.[2]

Facilities and aircraft

Twentynine Palms Airport covers an area of 480 acres (190 ha) at an elevation of 1,888 feet (575 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 8/26 is 5,531 by 75 feet (1,686 x 23 m) and 17/35 is 3,797 by 50 feet (1,157 x 15 m).[1]

For the 12-month period ending February 28, 2022, the airport had 18,000 aircraft operations, an average of 49 per day: 97% general aviation and 3% military. At that time there were 14 aircraft based at this airport: 10 single-engine, 1 multi-engine and 3 glider.[1]

See also

References
  1. FAA Airport Form 5010 for TNP PDF. Federal Aviation Administration. Effective September 7, 2023.
  2. 29palms.marines.mil, Twentynine Palms 29th, page A7
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Twenty Nine Palms Army Airfield.

Other sources
  • Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
  • Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas OCLC 71006954, 29991467
  • Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC. OCLC 57007862, 1050653629


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