Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Santa Rosa facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
NALF Santa Rosa, California
Santa Rosa Air Center
|
|
|---|---|
| Summary | |
| Location | Santa Rosa, California |
| Coordinates | 38°24′58″N 122°45′45″W / 38.41611°N 122.76250°W |
Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (NALF) Santa Rosa, California was a military airport near Santa Rosa, California. It was also known as the Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Santa Rosa. This important base was located in Sonoma County, California, USA.
A Look Back: Its History
NALF Santa Rosa first opened in 1943. It was a special "outlying landing field" for Naval Air Station Alameda. Think of it as a smaller, helper airport for a bigger one.
The base had two large concrete runways, each about 7,000 feet long. That's longer than 20 football fields! Each runway also had a special path next to it called a taxiway. There was also a big concrete area where planes could park.
During World War II, NALF Santa Rosa was very busy. It helped train 21 squadrons of pilots. These pilots learned to fly fighter planes, dive bombers, and torpedo planes. Two other smaller fields, Naval Outlying Landing Field Cotati and Naval Outlying Landing Field Little River, helped with this training.
The United States Navy stopped using the Santa Rosa airfield between 1946 and 1948. But it was reopened in 1951 for the Korean War. The Navy then left it again between 1952 and 1954.
Later, from 1966 to 1967, it reopened as a civilian airport called the Santa Rosa Air Center. However, it closed permanently in 1991.
Famous Film Location
This old airport became a movie set for some well-known films!
- Die Hard 2 (1990): Some exciting scenes from this action movie were filmed at the Santa Rosa Air Center.
- Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot! (1992): This movie was filmed at the Santa Rosa Air Center for about four weeks.
