It opened in April 1940 as
Palo Alto Airport or
King City Airport. It originally had a 4,570' NW/SE hard surfaced runway. It was used for most of World War II by the
United States Army Air Forces as a primary (level 1) contract pilot training airfield. It also had four local auxiliary airfields for emergency and overflow landings. The pilot training contractor was Palo Alto Airport, Inc. Flying training was performed with
Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer. It also had several
PT-17 Stearmans. Known sub-bases and auxiliaries were (no trace of these fields remain today): • Benard Auxiliary Field • Hanson Auxiliary Field • Sorenson Auxiliary Field • Trescony Auxiliary Field The construction of the flying school began in December 1940. The buildings, the barracks, administration, PX, mess hall, schoolrooms, aircraft hangars, runways, and aprons were built from scratch and were completed by May 1941. The first set of cadets arrived on March 15, and the first class of 50 started on March 21, 1941. Pilot training had ended by October 16, 1944. Military control of the airport was transferred to the
United States Navy in April 1945. It was known as
King City Naval Auxiliary Air Station (
NAAS). The Navy declared the airport surplus on 30 September 1945. Eventually it was discharged to the War Assets Administration (WAA) and became a civil airport. ==Facilities==