Moffett Federal Airfield

NUQ Originated in 1930 with the acquisition of a 1000-acre parcel of land bordering San Francisco Bay (at the cost of $480,000). The land was then sold to the U.S. government as a home base for the Navy airship USS Macon. It was soon determined the location would be ideal for an airport, as it is generally clear of the fog that often inflicts other parts of San Francisco Bay. Construction began on July 8th, 1931, and the base was originally named Air Base Sunnyvale CAL. On April 12th, 1933, the station was commissioned and dedicated as NAS Sunnyvale. After the death of Rear Admiral William A. Moffett in the loss of the USS Akron on April 4th, 1933, the airfield was renamed Nas Moffett Field on September 1st, 1933. On February 12th, 1935, the Macon crash in the Pacific Ocean led the Navy to consider closing NUQ.
Furthermore, they were jurisdictional issues concerning Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego Harbor between the Army and the Navy (the Army had Rockwell Field on the same island as the Naval Base). As such, NUQ was transferred to the Army, whereas Rockwell Field in San Diego was transferred to the Navy. The high cost of maintaining Moffett Field led the Army to want to inactivate the facility. However, President Roosevelt would not allow for the closure. As such, Moffitt was assigned as headquarters of the Army's Western Flying Training Command.
Furthermore, in 1939 the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory was established at Moffitt. In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy began using the airship hangars at Moffett for blimp operations along the Pacific coast, causing the Army to move its training headquarters to Hamilton Field, north of San Francisco. As such, on April 16th, 1942, the facility returned to Naval command and was recommissioned as NAS Sunnyvale. Four days later, the facility was once again renamed Naval Air Station Moffett Field. Following the end of WW II, Moffett Field was used for the development and use of land-based anti-submarine and maritime patrol aircraft.
Furthermore, daily anti-submarine, fleet support, maritime reconnaissance, and various training sorties flew out from Moffett to patrol along the Pacific coastline. In the 1950s, the Korean War brought about the need for several naval squadrons to be transferred to Moffett Field. However, by 1961 the last fighter aircraft had left Moffett Field as they had been transferred to Naval Air Station Miramar, which had longer runways that were more suitable to the newer jet-powered aircraft. NAS Moffett Field peaked in the 1990s, as it was the U.S. Navy's principal Pacific Fleet base for P-3C operations. Following the end of the Cold War, Moffett Field was identified for closure as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Actions. As such, the west coast Fleet Replacement Squadron, Patrol Squadron 31, was deactivated and its functions combined with its east coast counterpart. Moffett Field was closed as a naval air station on July 1st, 1994, with the base, turned over to the NASA Ames Research Center. NASA now operates the facility as a Moffett Federal Airfield, which has occasional air traffic with an average of five to ten flight landings per day. NASA regularly uses the airfield, the California Air National Guard, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the Google Founders and their private planes, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, and Air Force One during presidential visits to the Bay Area. Furthermore, in 2008 Google leased 42 acres of land from the Ames Research Center, and in 2013 Google began building a 1.1 million-square-foot office complex that will serve as the new Google headquarters.

The airport is located between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale, near the south end of San Francisco Bay (northwest of San Jose). 

• Despite its closure as a naval base, NUQ still has many active facilities and residents, including active military families still living in the Moffett Community Housing, as well as students associated with the Ames Research Center. Furthermore, several university branch campuses at Moffett (San Jose State University's (SJSU) Metropolitan Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, UC Santa Cruz, and Singularity University) support academic and research partnerships between the universities and NASA. 
• NUQ has three hangars (One, Two, and Three) that are designated as a National Historic District. Hangar One (constructed in 1931 for the USS Macon) is one of the world's largest freestanding structures (covering eight acres), while Hangars Two and Three (constructed during WWII for anti-submarine patrols) are some of the world's most significant freestanding wood structures. 
• The NASA Ames Research Center is home to several wind tunnels, including the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, a National Historic Landmark.