Eastern Sierra Regional Airport

Eastern Sierra Regional Airport is a public-use airport located two nautical miles (4 km) east of the central business district of Bishop, in Inyo County, California, United States. It is owned by the City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works and operated by Inyo County.

Facilities and aircraft
Eastern Sierra Regional Airport covers an area of 830 acre at an elevation of 4124 ft above mean sea level. It has three asphalt paved runways: 7/25 is 5566 by; 12/30 is 7498 by; 16/34 is 5600 by. It also has two helipads: H1 is 40 by and H2 is 100 by.

For the 12-month period ending October 23, 2006, the airport had 26,000 aircraft operations, an average of 71 per day: 88% general aviation and 12% military. At that time there were 64 aircraft based at this airport: 81% single-engine, 13% multi-engine, 2% jet and 5% glider.

Military use
The airfield was opened in April 1940. The site consisted of 897.22 acres subleased from Inyo County, California. During World War II the airfield was known as Bishop Army Airfield and was used as a sub-base to Muroc Army Airfield in 1942 and 1943 by Fourth Air Force. The site was used for aircraft flight and ordnance delivery training. In 1943 it was re-assigned to Tonopah Army Airfield, Nevada. Aircraft maintenance was also accomplished at the site as well as ordnance storage.

After the end of World War II, Bishop AAF was turned over to Air Technical Service Command as a storage airfield. On 2 May 1949, Army cancelled its initial lease of 897.22 acres with Inyo County for Bishop Airport under the War Assets Administration's Peacetime Reduction Mission, and the base was declared excess to requirements and returned to civil control.

The USAF subleased from Inyo County runway use rights and a heliport area of 4.76 acres known as the Bishop Test Site from 15 November 1965 to 19 June 1971 and from 25 November 1980 to 30 September 1985. The Air Force used the heliport area and runway for performance testing of helicopters and other aircraft. The DoD facilities included runway expansion, fuel facilities, utilities, buildings, aircraft maintenance, hospital and barracks. Today, the airport is owned by the City of Los Angeles, California and leased to Inyo County.

Accidents and incidents

 * On March 13, 1974 a David L. Wolper Productions crew filming a National Geographic history of Australopithecus at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area was killed when the Convair 440 Sierra Pacific Airlines plane crashed shortly after take off from the airport killing all 35 on board including 31 Wolper crew members (but not Wolper himself). The filmed segment was recovered in the wreckage and was broadcast in the television show Primal Man.  The NTSB never determined the cause of the accident and the resort sold the airline.