Eric Marcus Municipal Airport

Eric Marcus Municipal Airport , formerly Ajo Municipal Airport, is a county-owned, public-use airport located in Pima County, Arizona, United States, five miles (8 km) north of the central business district of Ajo and about southwest of Phoenix. The airport was renamed on February 11th, 2006.

Facilities and aircraft

Eric Marcus Municipal Airport covers an area of 1,375 acres (556 ha) and has one runway designated 12/30 with a 3,800 x 60 ft (1,158 x 18 m) asphalt surface. For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2006, the airport had 300 general aviation aircraft operations, an average of 25 per month.

The Ajo Country Club is on the southeast part of the former Army Airfield containment area.

History

The airport was opened about 1943 as Ajo Army Airfield and was used by the United States Army Air Forces as a training base and gunnery range during World War II. It was under the command of the 472d (Reduced) Army Air Force Base Unit, AAF West Coast Training Center as a sub-post of Luke Field.

Ajo AAF also had three auxiliary landing fields, located out on the (now) Barry Goldwater bombing range, #1 at ; #2 at , and #3 at . Although abandoned since the war, all of these fields are easily visible from the air.

At the end of the war the airfield was determined to be excess by the military and turned over to the local government for civil use. Of the three original runways, only one is serviceable and still in use. Most of the buildings on the airfield were sold off, removed or broken up. Abandoned streets and taxiways are being eroded away by sands, tumbleweeds and time.

See also

• Arizona World War II Army Airfields

References

External links

• Eric Marcus Municipal Airport (P01) at Arizona DOT Aeronautics Division
• Eric Marcus Municipal Airport Dedication