Camarillo Airport marks 50 years under Ventura County ownership, from Cold War air base to general aviation hub

Fifty years have passed since the County of Ventura acquired what is now Camarillo Airport. The facility's history dates to 1942, when the California State Highway Department built an auxiliary landing field there with a 5,000-foot runway.

The Army Corps of Engineers extended the runway to 8,000 feet in 1951, as the United States responded to the emerging Cold War and a possible need for stronger coastal air defense. Construction on what was then called Oxnard Air Force Base neared completion in 1957.

The base was equipped with Northrop F-89 Scorpion aircraft as part of the Los Angeles area Air Defense Command.

Camarillo follows a route that a number of former military fields have taken: runway and ramp capacity built for air defense passes into civil hands, and the 8,000-foot runway built in 1951 is the kind of asset that general aviation airports depend on. Public ownership, here by the county since the acquisition 50 years ago, is what keeps that infrastructure available to civil users.

For the general aviation segment, long runways at airports like this one matter because they support a wider range of aircraft than the shorter fields a state highway department auxiliary strip would normally serve. The anniversary is a reminder that such capacity is rarely built for civil purposes and is easy to lose once converted to other uses.