Redding Municipal Airport

R edding Municipal Airport is a general aviation and commercial airport located six miles southeast of the City of Redding in Shasta County, California. It is one of two airports operating under the jurisdiction of the city’s Department of Public Works Airports Division, the other being Benton Airpark, situated on 158 acres on Redding’s west side. Benton Airpark was the town’s first airport, purchased in 1920 for the purpose of developing an aerial landing space. The Municipal Airport was originally the site of the Redding Army Air Field, acquired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1942 for the Army Air Corps. Its mission was advanced fighter training of new airmen, prior to their deployment overseas into the combat zones of the Pacific, China, Mediterranean, or European Theaters. “The Airport came into existence right toward the end of the war,” explains Airports Manager, Bryant W. Garrett. “It came on line in December 1944, and it was fully staffed, and up and running, in the summer of ’45. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war came to a conclusion, quickly. And by 1949, it was handed off to the City of Redding.” According to Garrett, the Airport didn’t “take off” until the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, with mostly general aviation activities. Over the