Naval Air Station North Island orNAS North Island (IATA:NZY,ICAO:KNZY,FAALID:NZY), at the north end of theCoronado peninsula onSan Diego Bay inSan Diego, California, is part of the largestaerospace-industrial complex in theUnited States Navy –Naval Base Coronado (NBC), and the home port of severalaircraft carriers of the United States Navy.

Naval Air Station North Island
Halsey Field
Part ofNaval Base Coronado
San Diego,California in theUnited States
Three US NavyNimitz-class aircraft carriers,USSCarl Vinson (CVN-70),USSRonald Reagan (CVN-76), andUSSJohn C. Stennis(CVN-74) pierside at NAS North Island during June 2015
Site information
Type	Naval Air Station/Naval Base
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Navy
Controlled by	Navy Region Southwest
Condition	Operational
Website	Official website
Location
NAS North Island Location in the United States
Coordinates	32°41′57″N117°12′55″W / 32.69917°N 117.21528°W /32.69917; -117.21528
Site history
Built	1917 (1917) (as NAS San Diego)
In use	1917 – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Captain John DePree
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: NZY,ICAO: KNZY,FAA LID: NZY,WMO: 722906
Elevation	7.8 metres (26 ft)AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 18/36 2,438.4 metres (8,000 ft) Porous European Mix 11/29 2,286 metres (7,500 ft) Porous European Mix
Other airfield facilities	13x helipads
Source:Federal Aviation Administration[1]
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Official name	Naval Air Station, San Diego, Historic District
Criteria	Event; Architecture/engineering
Designated	21 May 1991
Reference no.	91000590[2]
Architects	Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue; Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks
Architecture	Mission andSpanish Revival
Areas of significance	Military; architecture

The commanding officer of NAS North Island (NASNI) is also the Commanding Officer, Naval Base Coronado (NBC). As such, they command or administer NASNI and seven other naval facilities:Naval Amphibious Base Coronado (NABC);Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach;Silver Strand Training Complex; Remote Training Site, Warner Springs;Mountain Warfare Training Camp Michael Monsoor;Camp Morena; andNaval Auxiliary Landing Field San Clemente Island.

NBC, with only its commands in the metropolitan San Diego area, brackets the city of Coronado from the entrance to San Diego Bay to theMexican border. NAS North Island itself is host to 23 aviationsquadrons and 80 additional tenant commands and activities—one of which, the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest, is San Diego's largest aerospace employer.

NAS North Island also operates two other airfields in the Southern California region. One isNaval Auxiliary Landing Facility (NALF) San Clemente Island, located approximately 70 miles (110 km) northwest ofSan Diego in theChannel Islands. The other isNaval Outlying Landing Field (NOLF) Imperial Beach. Formerly an independent naval air station, NOLF Imperial Beach is located in the city ofImperial Beach, on the U.S.-Mexico border, 10 miles (16 km) south of NAS North Island. The air station was known as Ream Field in the 1950s and 1960s.

NAS North Island resembles a small city in its facility content and its operations. It has its own police and fire departments, as well as advanced military security stations. It has large factory-type buildings which comprise the Naval Aviation Depot, employing 3,300 civilians, and its own commissary,Navy Exchange, and housing units. Recreation facilities include officer, chief petty officer and enlisted clubs, movie theater, golf course, tennis courts, bowling alley, parks and beaches.

Its airfield has over 230 stationed aircraft, and its quay wall ishomeport to three aircraft carriers:USS Abraham Lincoln,USS Carl Vinson, andUSS Theodore Roosevelt. Additionally, the base was home to the Navy's onlyDeep Submergence Rescue Vehicles,Mystic (DSRV-1) andAvalon (DSRV-2). The DSRV motor vessel support ships are also homeported here.^{[citation needed]}

North Island is headquarters for four major military flag staffs including:^{[citation needed]}

• Commander, Naval Air Forces (COMNAVAIRFOR or CNAF), responsible for maintenance and training of all naval aircraft and aircraft carriers in the Atlantic Fleet, Pacific Fleet, the Naval Air Reserve, and the Naval Air Training Command
• Commander, Naval Air Force,U.S. Pacific Fleet (COMNAVAIRPAC or CNAP), responsible for maintenance and training of all naval aircraft and aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet. This is a dual-hatted post in that it is concurrently held by the Commander, Naval Air Forces
• Commander,Carrier Strike Group One and Commander,Carrier Strike Group Seven

With all the ships in port, the population of the station is nearly 35,000 active duty military, selected reserve military, and civilian personnel.Department of Defense (DoD) contractors perform transportation flights from the air station to NALF San Clemente Island. Contractors also provide tactical training warfare for the DoD in joint efforts with the U.S. Navy andU.S. Marine Corps. These aircraft includeC-26 Metroliner,Learjet,Gulfstream, andTwin Otter aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

North Island was commissioned aNaval Air Station in 1917, calledNaval Air Station San Diego until 1955. On August 15, 1963, the station was granted official recognition as the "Birthplace of Naval Aviation" by resolution of theHouse Armed Services Committee.^[3]

The U.S. Navy's first aviator, LieutenantTheodore Ellyson, and many of his colleagues were trained at North Island starting as early as 1911. This was just eight years afterOrville and Wilbur Wright flew thefirst manned aircraft atKitty Hawk, North Carolina. At that time, North Island was an uninhabited sand flat. It had been used in the late 19th century for horseback riding and hunting by guests ofJ. D. Spreckels's resort hotel, theHotel del Coronado.

North Island derived its name from the original geography. In the nineteenth century it was referred to as North Coronado Island, because it was separated from South Coronado (now the city of Coronado) by a shallow bay known as the Spanish Bight, which was later filled in 1945 duringWorld War II.^[4] In 1886, North Coronado Island and South Coronado were purchased by a developer to become a residential resort. South Coronado, which is not an island but the terminus of a peninsula known as theSilver Strand, became the city ofCoronado.^{[citation needed][5]}

However, North Coronado was never developed. Instead,Glenn Curtiss opened a flying school and held a lease to the property until the beginning ofWorld War I. Curtiss invited both theU.S. Army and U.S. Navy to use the site for aviation training, with the Navy being the first to open a station in 1912. However the Navy abandoned its camp and did not return for five years, while the Army established an aviation school in 1913 at the southern end of the island. In 1917, Congress appropriated the land, and two airfields were commissioned on its sandy flats. The Navy started with a tent city known as "Camp Trouble". As its name suggests, things did not always go well in the early days. The Navy shared North Island with the Army'sSignal Corps,Air Service, and Air Corp'sRockwell Field until 1937, when the Army left and the Navy expanded its operations to cover the whole of North Island.^{[citation needed]}

In 1914, then-unknown aircraft builderGlenn Martin took off and demonstrated hispusher aircraft over the island with a flight that included the firstparachute jump in the San Diego area. The jump was made by a ninety-pound civilian woman namedTiny Broadwick. Other aviation milestones originating at North Island included the firstseaplane flight in 1911, the firstmid-air refueling, and the first non-stoptranscontinental flight, both in 1923. One of history's most famous aviation feats was the flight ofCharles A. Lindbergh fromNew York toParis in May 1927. That flight originated at Rockwell Field on North Island on May 10, 1927, when Lindbergh began the first leg of his journey.^[6] Forefathers of today's "Blue Angels", the three-plane "Sea Hawks" fromVF-6B, the "Felix the Cat" squadron, were thrilling audiences with flight demonstrations as early as 1928. They demonstrated the training skills of Navyfighter andbomber pilots and on many occasions, flew their aircraft in formation with the wings tethered together.

The list of American military pilots trained at North Island reads like the Who's Who of aviation; however, the U.S. was not the only country interested in aviation early in the twentieth century. Six years before the Naval Air Station was commissioned, Glenn Curtiss trained the first group of Japanese aviators at his flying school on North Island. Among them were a LieutenantYamada, later the head of theImperial Japanese Navy'sNaval Aviation arm in World War II andChikuhei Nakajima, founder ofNakajima Aircraft Company.^[7]

Even the base's first commanding officer, Lieutenant CommanderEarl Winfield Spencer Jr., USN, added a degree of celebrity to North Island. His wife wasWallis Warfield, a prominent socialite who was to remarry twice and finally become Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson Windsor, better known as theDuchess of Windsor, for whom KingEdward VIII abdicated his throne in 1936.^{[citation needed]}

During World War II, North Island was the major continental U.S. base supporting the operating forces in thePacific. Those forces included over a dozenaircraft carriers, theCoast Guard,Army,Marines, andSeabees. The city of Coronado became home to most of the aircraft factory workers and dependents of the mammoth base which was operating around the clock. MajorUSO entertainment shows and bond drives were held weekly at the Ship's Service auditorium, which was later replaced by the 2,100 seat Lowry Theater. Famous people stationed here or on ships home ported here during the war years includedDouglas Fairbanks Jr.,^{[citation needed]}Guy Madison, future television cowboy star of the 1950s and 1960s asWild Bill Hickok, was at that time Seaman Bob Mosely, a lifeguard at the NAS crews' pool. Stars like theMarx Brothers andBob Hope appeared regularly at USO shows at the auditorium.^{[citation needed]}

• USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70)
• USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71)
• USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)
• USS Miguel Keith (ESB-5)

• Commander, Naval Air Forces
• Commander, Naval Air Forces, Pacific Fleet (COMNAVAIRPAC)
• Commander, Helicopter Maritime Strike WING Pacific (CHSMWP)
• Commander, Helicopter Sea Combat WING Pacific (CHSCWP)
• Commander, Carrier Strike Group One (CCSG-1)
• Commander, Carrier Strike Group Three (CCSG-3)
• Commander, Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7)
• Commander, Carrier Strike Group Eleven (CCSG-11)
• Commander, Cruiser Destroyer Group One (COMCARDESGRU 1)
• Commander Destroyer Group Seven (COMDESRON 7)
• Commander, Destroyer Squadron Twenty-One (COMDESRON 21)
• Commander, Tactical Air Control Group One (COMTACGRU 1)
• Construction Battalion Unit 405 (CBU 405)
• Deep Submergence Unit (DSU)
• Defense Enterprise Computing Center Det San Diego
• DSU Det Mystic (DSRV 1)
• DSU Diving System Support Detachment
• DSU Unmanned Vehicle Detachment
• Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group Pacific
• Fleet Imaging Command Pacific
• Fleet Logistics Multi-Mission Wing (VRMW)
• Fleet Readiness Center Southwest
• Fleet Weather Center - San Diego
• HSC Weapons School, Pacific
• HSM Weapons School, Pacific
• Naval Air Technical Data and Engineering Service Center (NATEC)
• Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station
• Naval Leader Training Unit, Coronado
• Naval Pacific Meteorology and Oceanography Center
• Naval Public Affairs Support Element, West
• Naval Special Clearance Team One
• Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit (CNATTU)
• Naval Information Warfare Training Group, San Diego (formerly NIOC San Diego)
• Navy Reserve Center North Island (formerly Navy Operational Support Center North Island, formerly Naval Air Reserve San Diego)
• Maritime Expeditionary Security Squadron(MSS-3)

NAS North Island features some of the warmest winter temperatures anywhere on the west coast of the continental United States. Under theKöppen climate classification system, it is classified as a semi-arid climate (BSh or warm steppe).

The housing on-post is in theCoronado Unified School District, and the zones for Village Elementary School, Coronado Middle School, andCoronado High School.^[8]

• Naval Air Station
• List of airports in California
• List of United States Navy airfields

  This article incorporatespublic domain material fromNaval Air Station North Island.United States Navy. RetrievedMay 10, 2019.

• Official website (Naval Base Coronado)
• Navy Lodge North Island - Beach Front Location
• Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, a National Park ServiceDiscover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective April 17, 2025
• Resources for this U.S. military airport:
  • FAAairport information for NZY
  • AirNavairport information for KNZY
  • ASNaccident history for NZY
  • NOAA/NWSlatest weather observations
  • SkyVectoraeronautical chart for KNZY