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Chino Airport (IATA: CNO, ICAO: KCNO, FAA LID: CNO) is a county-owned airport about three miles southeast of Chino, in San Bernardino County, California, United States.[1] The Federal Aviation Administration's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2007–2011 classified it as a reliever airport,[2] due to its proximity to the Ontario International Airport and the John Wayne Airport (in Orange County).[3]

Chino Airport
IATA: CNO ICAO: KCNO FAA LID: CNO
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	County of San Bernardino
Location	Chino, California
Elevation AMSL	650 ft / 198 m
Coordinates	33°58′29″N 117°38′12″W
Website	cms.sbcounty.gov
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 3/21 4,919 1,499 Asphalt 8L/26R 4,858 1,481 Asphalt 8R/26L 7,000 2,134 Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 168,393 Based aircraft 947
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

History

Cal-Aero Academy was an independent flying school at Chino Airport when World War II started. The U.S. Army Air Forces contracted with the school to provide basic and primary flight training for Army Air Cadets.[4] During the war, Cal-Aero operated the training base with Stearmans and BT-13s. The name "Cal-Aero" is preserved at the airport and it can be seen on several buildings.

Starting in early 1945, training aircraft surplused by the cessation of pilot training programs, and post-war, hundreds of combat aircraft were flown into Chino for disposal. This agricultural area was employed as a vast parking lot for warplanes. Soon, the entire area was filled with everything from T-6s to B-24 Liberators. Most planes met an undignified end in portable smelters which were brought there to melt down the warplanes into aluminum ingots.

During the mid-1960s, the field was used as the location setting for the TV series 12 O'Clock High, as the fictitious Archbury Army Air Field, which was home base to the (equally fictitious) 918th Bomb Group. The airfield itself and a number of World War II-era buildings were used for exterior shots.

Chino Airport is the home of two aircraft museums, the Planes of Fame and the Yanks Air Museum, and the airport is one of the centers of aircraft restoration and preservation with several different companies that do this work at the airport.

Accidents and incidents

On 13 June 2013, a private jet crashed into an empty office building near a hangar. Maintenance workers were testing the jet engines when the plane jumped over the chocks and the workers lost control. Since the building was empty, no one was seriously hurt, but the jet was destroyed.[5]

Facilities

Chino Airport covers 1,097 acres (444 ha) and has three asphalt runways:[1]

• 3/21: 4,919 x 150 ft (1,499 x 46 m)
• 8L/26R: 4,858 x 150 ft (1,481 x 46 m)
• 8R/26L: 7,000 x 150 ft (2,134 x 46 m)

General aviation

In the year ending March 27, 2009 the airport had 173,193 aircraft operations, average 461 per day: 99% general aviation and <1% military. 947 aircraft are based at the airport: 77 percent single-engine, 18 percent multi-engine, four percent jet, and one percent helicopter.[1]

FBOs:

• Encore Jet Center[6]
• Threshold Aviation Group[7]

Airport businesses

• M.I. AIR Aviation Education[8] – flight school
• Dubois Flight School[9]
• AIA Flight School[10]
• Mach One Air Charters[11] – jet charter provider with multiple FAA violations for unsafe operations[12][13]

See also

• List of airports in California
• California World War II Army Airfields

References

Notes

Bibliography

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

External links

• San Bernardino County Department of Airports
• The History of Cal Aero Field
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective May 19, 2022

• Resources for this airport:
  • FAA airport information for CNO
  • AirNav airport information for KCNO
  • ASN accident history for CNO
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart, Terminal Procedures

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