Bradley Zeve here. Not only does the Sept. 4 cover story demonstrate the exciting and steady march toward the future of aviation now taking place locally at the Marina Municipal Airport, it also hints at the story of the remarkable transformation of Fritzsche Army Airfield (and Fort Ord for that matter). We are here to witness a true swords-to-plowshares moment, life imagined and created in the aftermath of that immense military base’s closure. It’s happening, nearly in full bloom as you’ll read, sprouting at the Marina Municipal Airport.
The conversion of Fritzsche Airfield to a critical hub of manufacturing for Joby’s aviation innovation—electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs—is truly in the Wow! department, something worth celebrating. I was a kid who rarely was given permission to watch The Jetsons TV program, but when I did it was so fun—a fantasy world of the Jetson family zipping around in their private flying cars. Who knew that would or could come close to reality in our lifetime, but here we are—almost lifting off. Read Erik Chalhoub’s story and you’ll understand my excitement.
Back in Fort Ord’s days, Fritzsche was an Army-only airport, a closed military space. How things have changed. There were no private citizens learning to skydive then, no general aviators doing practice flights including “touch and goes” as is the case today, no one building state-of-the-art flying machines. There were thousands upon thousands of soldiers doing real-life war games and basic training at Fort Ord, activity that took place every day and night and included many active helicopters—Cobras and Black Hawks flying from Fritzsche to Fort Hunter Liggett.
If you flew into Monterey Peninsula Airport at night you’d often be diverted around the Fort Ord airspace but might see night flares and tracer bullets shooting from the helicopters in training, shooting at their sites on the ground. Fort Ord was preparing young soldiers for dangerous work and it didn’t always go successfully, including the night in 1989 when two helicopters from Fritzsche crashed, leading to one fatality and multiple injuries. And whenever the 7th Infantry Division was ordered into service, the Fritzsche Army Airfield got super busy with helicopter transports, particularly when the C130s were landing at Monterey Regional Airport to pick up and transport troops to battle, for example, when the troops participated in the Panama invasion (1989) or Desert Storm in Kuwait (1991).
General aviation pilots could not land on the military-only base, but pilots studying for instrument ratings did, with special permission, work with the Airfield’s tower operators to practice partial panel “no-gyro” approaches, learning to fly without key instruments under the direction of these highly trained controllers. Even if it wasn’t technically a public space, the public was fully aware of the airport—and could definitely hear it most of the time.
The airport was reopened for public use in 1995, shortly after Fort Ord’s closure. That it has since become a center of innovation for the future of the aviation industry is quite surprising and a tad thrilling for those of us who remember the Fort Ord days. What a gift to witness this change.
You can read more about the evolution of Joby and the company’s next steps in its exciting journey toward commercializing electric flying in last week’s cover story.