General William J. Fox Airfield is a county-owned, public

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

, five miles northwest of

Lancaster, California Lancaster is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the popul ...

, United States. Locally known as Fox Field, the airport serves the

Antelope Valley The Antelope Valley is a valley primarily located in northern Los Angeles County, California, United States and the southeast portion of Kern County, California, Kern County, and constitutes the western tip of the Mojave Desert. It is situated ...

. The airport is named after Brigadier General William J. Fox, "a Marine war hero, a movie stunt man, the first Los Angeles County engineer and, for 20 years after his retirement, a cowboy." The

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

for 2011–2015 categorized it as a

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

facility. The airport has limited scheduled cargo operations. The

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...

has a fixed wing

airtanker Aerial firefighting, also known as waterbombing, is the use of aircraft and other aerial resources to combat wildfires. The types of aircraft used include fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Smokejumpers and rappellers are also classified as ...

and helicopter base on the airfield which becomes one of the main hubs in the region for aerial firefighting suppression efforts during fire season.

Historical airline service

Fox Field had scheduled passenger air service as early as the late 1950s operated by Southwest Airways with

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

aircraft primarily to the

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...

( LAX). Southwest Airways then changed its name to Pacific Air Lines which in 1959 was operating new

Fairchild F-27 The Fairchild F-27 and Fairchild Hiller FH-227 are versions of the Fokker F27 Friendship twin-engined, turboprop, passenger aircraft formerly manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller in the United States. The Fairchild F-27 was similar to ...

turboprops from the airport nonstop to Las Vegas and also to Burbank Airport (BUR, now

Hollywood Burbank Airport Hollywood Burbank Airport is a public airport northwest of downtown Burbank, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.. Federal Aviation Administration. effective November 9, 2017 The airport serves Burbank, Hollywood, and the norther ...

) on a daily basis as well as operating Martin 4-0-4 and DC-3 prop aircraft on flights to LAX. By 1960, Pacific was operating daily F-27 propjet flights to San Francisco (SFO) from Fox Field via a stop in Bakersfield and also nonstop to LAX. In 1968, Pacific Air Lines merged with Bonanza Air Lines and West Coast Airlines to form Air West which in turn continued to serve the airport with F-27 flights to LAX. Also in 1968, Cable Commuter Airlines was operating

de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada in the mid-1960s and still in production today. Built by De Havilland Canada from 1965 to 1988, Viking ...

service to LAX. Air West then changed its name to Hughes Airwest which continued to operate scheduled passenger service with the Fairchild F-27 turboprop primarily to Los Angeles International Airport during the early 1970s with several nonstop flights a day. By 1983, Mojave Airlines was operating flights to LAX, San Diego, Ontario and

Mammoth Yosemite Airport Mammoth Yosemite Airport is a town-owned public airport east of Mammoth Lakes, in Mono County, California, United States. Also known as Mammoth Lakes Airport or Mammoth–June Lake Airport, it is mainly used for general aviation, but has sche ...

with Beechcraft C99 turboprops. In 1985, commuter air carrier Desert Sun Airlines was operating up to five flights a day nonstop to LAX with Beechcraft 99 turboprops. Fox Field currently does not have any scheduled passenger flights, with the nearest airline service being available at the

in Burbank.

Facilities

General William J. Fox Airfield covers 1,217

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (493 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of 2,351 feet (717 m) above sea level. Its one

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

, 6/24, is 7,201 by 150 feet (2,195 x 46 m) asphalt. In the year ending December 31, 2021, the airport had 48,184 aircraft operations, average 132 per day: 97%

, 3% military, and 1%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

. 60 aircraft were then based at this airport: 56 single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

, 2 multi-engine, and 2 glider.

Airlines and destinations

Cargo

Accidents and incidents

*On October 17, 1978, a

Learjet 24 The Learjet 24 is an American six-to-eight-seat (two crew and four to six passengers) twin-engine, high-speed business jet, which was manufactured by Learjet as the successor to the Learjet 23. History The Learjet 24 was designed as an improve ...

owned by Martin Aviation cartwheeled during takeoff which was part of a touch and go. Out of two occupants on board, one died.

References

External links

Aerial image
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the eff ...

'' * * {{County of Los Angeles Airports in Los Angeles County, California Transportation in Lancaster, California