History
The airport was originally constructed by the United States Navy during World War II for the purpose of testing defogging systems for aircraft. In December 1947 a Southwest Airways DC-3 flying into the airport made the world's first blind landing on a scheduled commercial airliner using Ground-Controlled Approach (GCA) radar, Instrument Landing System (ILS) devices and Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) oil-burning units adjacent to the runway. By the following year the airline had made 1,200 routine instrument landings at the often fog-shrouded airport.
Specialties
Arcata/Eureka Airport (ACV), also known as Arcata Airport, is an airport located 15 miles (24 km) north of Eureka in the unincorporated town of McKinleyville, California. This regional airport serves Humboldt County, including the two primary regional cities that compose its name: Arcata and Eureka. The airport is a federally designated port of entry for civil aircraft arriving in the United States. It is the largest airport (with the longest runway 6,000 ft) on the Pacific Coast between the San Francisco Bay Area and Portland, Oregon.