NRC
NASA Crows Landing Airport
VFR
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Name
NASA Crows Landing Airport
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ICAO
NRC
- Type
- Region
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Timezone
8:14 pm (PST)
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Municipality
Crows Landing
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Coordinates
37° 24′ 28″ N 121° 6′ 32″ E
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Elevation
166 ft (51 m MSL)
About NASA Crows Landing Airport
NASA Crows Landing Airport (IATA: NRC, ICAO: KNRC, FAA LID: NRC) is a private use airport owned by the NASA Ames Research Center, 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) northwest of the central business district of Crows Landing, in Stanislaus County, California, United States. The airfield was formerly named Naval Auxiliary Landing Field Crows Landing or NALF Crows Landing when operated by the U.S. Navy. In January 2011, Airport-data.com reported the airport status as closed permanently. In March 2022, Stanislaus County announced the former airfield would be redeveloped into a business park.
In late 1942, the Crows Landing airfield was operated as an auxiliary air station to Naval Air Station, Alameda, and was used to train Navy fighter pilots. Pilots of F4F Wildcats, TBF and TBM Avengers trained here first in Link and Panoramic trainers, then eventually in actual planes. Later, pilots in R4D Skytrains and R5D Skymasters (Navy versions of the Army's C-47 and C-54) trained here. After the war the station was placed in caretaker status.
By the year 2000, the Navy had completed an EPA cleanup project and transferred most of the facilities to Stanislaus County with plans to convert it into a business park. As of 2013, the County (with NASA partners) had cleared all of the abandoned and decaying building structures save for the historic control tower.