Southern California Logistics Airport


Southern California Logistics Airport, also known as Victorville Airport, is a public airport located in the city of Victorville in San Bernardino County, California, approximately north of San Bernardino. Prior to its civil usage, the facility was George Air Force Base, from 1941 to 1992 a United States Air Force flight training facility.
The airport is home to Southern California Aviation, a large transitional facility for commercial aircraft.
As a logistics airport, it is designed for business, military, and freight use. There are no commercial passenger services at this facility except for FBO and charter flights.

Facilities

Southern California Logistics Airport covers and has two runways:
Southern California Logistics Centre, immediately adjacent to SCLA, offers a wide variety of new warehouse and distribution facilities, ranging from to over.
The SCLA Military Operations in Urban Terrain facility offers urban warfare training, and has served over 15,000 U.S. military personnel during the past ten years.

History

The federal government is responsible for helping the Victor Valley recover from the closure of George Air Force Base in 1992. The conversion of the former George Air Force Base to SCLA was designed to provide major corporations with logistics needs, access to a global intermodal logistics gateway to the Western United States. Located near Interstate 15 in California's Victor Valley, the complete intermodal business complex is approximately north of downtown San Bernardino, and north of San Bernardino International Airport.
In July 2000, SCLA received foreign trade zone status from the United States Department of Commerce. The designation was intended to make it much easier for the Victor Valley Economic Development Authority to convince international carriers to use the airport as a base for shipping foreign products to Southern California. During that same period, the Department of Transportation approved a $4.9 million grant for the SCLA to extend its main runway from to to accommodate international jet transports. The airport authority required the extension to ensure that cargo planes could depart fully loaded in summer heat. The longer runway was also required for the efficient use of the facility as the main transportation hub for the 70,000 troops a year traveling to and from the Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin. At, SCLA's runway 17/35 is the second longest public-use runway in the United States, surpassed only by that of the Denver International Airport runway 16R/34L.
The Fiscal Year 2002 military spending bill earmarked to allow the U.S. Army to continue using the SCLA to transport troops en route to training exercises at Fort Irwin. The airport has proven to be one of the most efficient and safest locations for travel to and from the Army's National Training Center for the troops who rotate through each year. Company D of the 158th Aviation Regiment is a general support aviation company that moved in under a five-year contract the Army signed with SCLA and the city of Victorville. The unit is part of the 244th Aviation Brigade of Fort Sheridan, Illinois.
In late 2006, SCLA became home to Air Tanker 910, a heavily modified McDonnell Douglas DC-10, which is on contract to the California Department of Forestry. Tanker 910 uses SCLA as its re-loading base for fires occurring anywhere in California.
in storage at the airport.
The 2007 Autonomous Vehicle Competition took place on the former George Air Force Base. DARPA selected the location because its network of urban roads best simulated the type of terrain American forces operate in when deployed overseas.
N118UA, United Airlines's "Friend Ship" 747-400, arrived at the boneyard on November 9, 2017, and is currently stored. It was the final United 747 to carry passengers, flying its final revenue flight on November 7, 2017.
On November 2, 2018,
the Presidential Plane of Mexico named TP-01 of the Mexican Air Force arrived here to be sold off to its new owner by the order of New President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
On March 27, 2019, the first of two 747-8i flew from SCLA to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, for conversion into a presidential transport VC-25B. It was one of two built for the Russian airline Transaero, but the airline went bankrupt before taking delivery of the 747s. The cost of converting both aircraft is estimated to be $4.68B.
In 2019 Southwest Airlines used the airport to store its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX after the airplane was grounded by the FAA.
On 14 February 2020, the Guinness World Record for the longest-distance wheelie in an airplane was set in a Cessna 172 on the airport's runway 17. The pilot kept the plane's nose wheel from touching the asphalt surface for a distance of 14,319 feet.
In March 2020, in response to the sharp drop in air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, several airlines contracted with boneyard operator ComAv to store over 200 disused aircraft and to keep them clean and in working order while they are in storage. As of 30 March 2020, Southwest Airlines had parked 50 active Boeing 737-700 aircraft at Victorville.

Boneyard

SCLA is home to ComAv Technical Services, who operate the 'boneyard' storage facility at SCLA with a capacity of over 500 aircraft. The aircraft maintenance and storage company, operates a 240-acre facility with enough space to store more than 500 planes, plus hangars that can be used to maintain several more. Currently about 275 planes are in storage at SCLA. The dry desert environment at SCLA make it conducive to long-term preservation of aircraft.

Accidents and incidents

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