The Sierra Sky Park neighborhood was established in 1946 on along the San Joaquin River. On October 23 of that year, William and Doris Smilie filed a
subdivision plan with Fresno County creating a central runway surrounded by residential lots, each with permanent
easements guaranteeing access to the runway. At the time, the site was several miles outside Fresno, surrounded by fig orchards and fields of cotton and alfalfa. The first home was built in 1952, and the Smilie's themselves moved in. Their concept was distinctive: residents could land, taxi along streets, and park aircraft in driveways or hangars attached to their homes. The community included several unique design features such as low street signs, tip-over mailboxes to minimize damage from wing strikes, and setbacks to accommodate aircraft wings. Streets were named for aviation figures such as
Carl Spaatz,
James Doolittle and
David McCampbell. Because the concept was unprecedented, new state legislation was required. In 1963, the
California legislature amended the
vehicle code to allow aircraft to taxi on residential streets within registered airparks. Sierra Sky Park was widely reported in the press and became a model for similar developments. More than 500 residential airparks worldwide trace their origins to the concept, and the Smilie's were later consulted on airpark projects in the United States and abroad. In 1996, the 50th anniversary of the community, a monument was dedicated to the Smilie's. == Facilities and aircraft ==