Moffett Federal Airfield Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field , is a joint civil - military airport located between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale , California , USA . The airport is near the south end of San Francisco Bay , northwest of San Jose . Formerly a United States Navy facility , the former naval air station is now owned and operated by the NASA Ames Research Center . Tenant military activities include the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard , operating the MC - 130P Combat Shadow and HH - 60 G Pave Hawk aircraft , as well as the adjacent Headquarters for the 7th Psychological Operations Group of the U . S . Army Reserve . Until 28 July 2010 , the U . S . Air Force ' s 21st Space Operations Squadron was also a tenant command at Moffett Field , occupying the former Onizuka Air Force Station . In addition to these military activities , NASA also operates several of its own aircraft from Moffett . By far the most famous and visible sites are Hangars # 1 , # 2 , and # 3 , which dwarf the surrounding buildings . The Hangars # 1 , # 2 , and # 3 , and the adjacent Shenandoah Plaza are collectively designated as a National Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Hangar One is one of the world ' s largest freestanding structures , covering . The hangar was constructed in 1931 . Hangar One is a Naval Historical Monument , Historic American Engineering Record CA - 335 , State of California Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks . In May 2008 , The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Hangar One on their list of America ' s Most Endangered Places . Hangars # 2 and # 3 are some of the world ' s largest freestanding wood structures . The hangars were constructed when the US Navy established ten " lighter - than - air " ( LTA ) bases across the United States during World War II as part of the coastal defense plan . Seven of the original seventeen of these wooden hangars still exist : two at Moffett Field , two at Tustin , California , one at Tillamook , Oregon , and two at Lakehurst , New Jersey . The adjacent NASA Ames Research Center is also home to several wind tunnels , including the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel ( a National Historic Landmark ) , and the National Full - Scale Aerodynamic Complex ( NFAC ) . History . Sunnyvale operations . In 1931 , the city of Sunnyvale acquired a parcel of farmland bordering San Francisco Bay , paid for with nearly $ 480 , 000 raised by the citizens of Santa Clara County , then " sold " the parcel for $ 1 to the US government as a home base for the Navy airship USS " Macon " . The location proved to be ideal for an airport , since the area is often clear while other parts of the San Francisco Bay are covered in fog . This is due to the Coast Range to the west which blocks the cold oceanic air which is the cause of San Francisco fog . Naval air operations . The naval air station was authorized by an Act of Congress , signed by President Herbert Hoover on 12 February 1931 . Construction of the original facilities was begun 8 July 1931 . The base was originally named Airbase Sunnyvale CAL as it was thought that calling it Mountain View would cause officials to fear airships colliding with mountainsides . The original station was commissioned on 12 April 1933 and dedicated NAS Sunnyvale . After the death of Rear Admiral William A . Moffett , who is credited with the creation of the airfield , in the loss of the USS " Akron " on 4 April 1933 , the airfield at Naval Air Station Sunnyvale was named Moffett Field on 1 September 1933 . After the ditching of the " Macon " on 12 February 1935 , the Navy wanted to close Moffett Field due to its high cost of operations . Also , in San Diego , the Army and Navy were having jurisdictional issues over North Island in San Diego harbor , which had both NAS San Diego as well as the Army ' s Rockwell Field dividing the island . The Navy wanted the Army out of North Island in San Diego harbor as it needed to expand NAS San Diego as a training airfield for its growing number of aircraft carrier pilots . The Army resisted strongly , as Rockwell Field was a major training airfield for flight cadets , and had been using the field for flight training since 1912 . With the subtle assistance of President Franklin Roosevelt , a former assistant secretary of the Navy , a complex arrangement of facilities realignment was made by the War Department which transferred Moffett to Army jurisdiction and Rockwell Field was transferred to the Navy in October 1935 , becoming NAS North Island . Upon taking jurisdiction of Moffett Field , the Army took on the high cost of Hangar One ' s maintenance and wanted to inactivate the facility . However , President Roosevelt would not allow the closure of the facility , and the Army assigned Moffett to its Western Flying Training Command as headquarters for pilot and aircrew flight training west of the Rocky Mountains . Also in 1939 , Moffett saw the establishment of the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory . As an aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , the Navy wanted to use the airship hangars at Moffett for blimp operations along with Pacific Coast . However , the Army , still stinging about having to transfer Rockwell Field to the Navy , resisted strongly . Again the inter - service rivalry was overruled by the War Department , citing the Navy ' s need for coastal defense a priority and ordered the Army to move its training headquarters to Hamilton Field in Marin County , north of San Fransisco . On April 16 , 1942 , control of the facility was returned to the Navy and it was re - commissioned as Naval Air Station Sunnyvale . Four days later it was renamed NAS Moffett Field . From the end of World War II until its closure , NAS Moffett Field saw the development and use of several generations of land - based anti - submarine warfare and maritime patrol aircraft , including the Lockheed P2V Neptune and Lockheed P - 3 Orion . Until the demise of the USSR and for some time thereafter , daily anti - submarine , maritime reconnaissance , Fleet support , and various training sorties flew out from NAS Moffett Field to patrol along the Pacific coastline , while Moffett ' s other squadrons and aircraft periodically deployed to other Pacific , Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf bases for periods of up to six months . In 1960 , the nearby Air Force Satellite Test Center ( STC ) , was created adjacent to ( on the SW corner of ) NAS Moffett Field . Often referred to as " the Blue Cube , " it was operational until 2010 as Onizuka Air Force Station , now part of the Air Force Satellite Control Network ( AFSCN ) . In August 1986 during the " NAS Moffett Field Airshow " , the Italian demonstration team , Frecce Tricolori , and the German Navy ' s F - 104 flight demonstration team , the Vikings , performed in front of the crowd . At its peak in the 1990s , NAS Moffett Field was the U . S . Navy ' s principal Pacific Fleet base for the P - 3C operations . In addition to headquarters staffs for Commander , U . S . Patrol Wings Pacific Fleet ( COMPATWINGSPAC ) ; Commader , Patrol Wing TEN ( COMPATWING 10 ) ; and Commander , Reserve Patrol Wing Pacific / Patrol Wing FOUR ( COMRESPATWINGPAC / COMPATWING 4 ) , the air station also hosted Patrol Squadron THIRTY - ONE ( VP - 31 ) . . . the west coast P - 3C Fleet Replacement Squadron , six additional active duty P - 3C squadrons and a Naval Air Reserve P - 3C squadron in addition to NASA and California Air National Guard aviation activities . Ames Research Center operations . Post - Cold War defense cutbacks and related Base Realignment and Closure ( BRAC ) actions in the 1990s identified NAS Moffett Field for closure . The west coast Fleet Replacement Squadron , Patrol Squadron 31 ( VP - 31 ) , was deactivated and its functions combined with its east coast counterpart , Patrol Squadron 30 ( VP - 30 ) at NAS Jacksonville , Florida . Several active duty P - 3C squadrons , the Naval Air Reserve P - 3C squadron and COMRESPATWINGPAC / COMPATWING 4 were also deactivated , while COMPATWINGSPAC and COMPATWING 10 ( redesignated COMPATRECONWING 10 ) transferred to NAS Whidbey Island , Washington while the remaining patrol squadrons transferred to NAS Whidbey Island , Washington or NAS Barbers Point , Hawaii ( until its closure in 1999 ) , at which time the Barbers Point squadrons moved to Marine Corps Air Facility Kaneohe Bay , Hawaii . On 1 July 1994 , NAS Moffett Field was closed as a naval air station and turned over to the NASA Ames Research Center . NASA Ames now operates the facility as Moffett Federal Airfield . Since being decommissioned as a primary military installation , part of Moffett has been made accessible to the public , including a cordoned portion of the interior of the massive Hangar One . There were once balloon rides given on show days , and incidents of weather inside . Moffett Federal Airfield has occasional air traffic , with an average of 5 - 10 flights landing per day . Moffett is regularly used by the California Air National Guard , NASA , Lockheed Martin Space Systems ( commercial satellite manufacturer ) , the Google founders for their private planes , the Santa Clara County Sheriff ' s Department for their helicopter STAR 1 , Air Force One during presidential visits to the Bay Area as well as several other organizations . In 2008 , the Ames Research Center leased 42 acres around the field to Google . In 2013 Google began building a 1 . 1 million square foot office complex consisting of nine buildings overlooking San Francisco Bay dubbed " Bay View . " The buildings are to be the new headquarters for Google and will be part of the nearby Googleplex . Hangar One . Moffett Field ' s " Hangar One " ( built during the Depression era for the USS " Macon " ) and the row of World War II blimp hangars are still some of the largest unsupported structures in the country . The airship hangar is constructed on a network of steel girder s sheathed with galvanized steel . It rests firmly upon a reinforced pad anchored to concrete piling s . The floor covers eight acres ( 32 , 000 m² ) and can accommodate Six ( 6 ) ( 360 feet x 160 feet ) football fields . The airship hangar itself , measures 1 , 133 feet ( 343 m ) long and 308 feet ( 93 m ) wide . The building has aerodynamic architecture . Its walls curve upward and inward , to form an elongated dome 198 feet ( 60 m ) high . The clam - shell doors were designed to reduce turbulence when the " Macon " moved in and out on windy days . The " orange peel " doors , weighing 500 tons ( 511 . 88 tonnes ) each , are moved by their own 150 horsepower motors operated via an electrical control panel . The airship hangar ' s interior is so large that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling . A person unaccustomed to its vastness is susceptible to optical disorientation . Looking across its deck , planes and tractors look like toys . Along its length maintenance shops , inspection laboratories and offices help keep the hangar busy . Looking up , a network of catwalks for access to all parts of the structure can be seen . Two elevators meet near the top , allowing maintenance personnel to get to the top quickly and easily . Narrow gauge tracks run through the length of the hangar . During the period of lighter - than - air dirigibles and non - rigid aircraft , the rails extended across the apron and into the fields at each end of the hangar . This tramway facilitated the transportation of an airship on the mooring mast to the airship hangar interior or to the flight position . During the brief period that the " Macon " was based at Moffett , Hangar One accommodated not only the giant airship but several smaller non - rigid lighter - than - air craft simultaneously . A spirited debate is underway over the future of Hangar One . Plans to convert it to a space and science center have been put on hold with the discovery in 2003 that the structure is leaking toxic chemicals into the sediment in wetlands bordering San Francisco Bay . The chemicals originate in the lead paint and toxic materials , including polychlorinated biphenyl s ( PCBs ) , used to coat the hangar . Options under debate include tearing down the hangar and reusing the land , and cleaning the toxic waste from the site and refurbishing the hangar for future preservation . The US Navy is evaluating options for remediating the PCBs , lead and asbestos , and NASA is evaluating options for reuse of the hangar . Some historic and nonprofit groups would like the hangar preserved as a historic landmark , as the hangar is a major Bay Area landmark and historic site . In 2006 , an offer to clean the hangar and coat its outsides with solar panels to recoup the costs of cleaning was floated by a private company , but the plan never saw fruition because it was too costly . In August 2008 , the Navy proposed simply stripping the toxic coating from the hangar and leaving the skeleton after spraying it with a preservative . The Navy claimed that to reclad the structure would cost another $ 15 million and that this is NASA ' s responsibility . This was regarded as a partial victory by campaigners . In September 2008 , NASA indicated that it was still urging the Navy to restore the hangar , but that it is willing to help save the structure ; in particular , NASA is in favor of re - covering the structure at the same time as it is stripped . An episode of the Discovery Channel TV show " MythBusters " used one of the smaller hangars to disprove the myth that it is not possible to fold a sheet of paper in half more than seven times . The sheet of paper covered nearly the full width of the airship hangar . Other episodes of Mythbusters have utilized the hangar to test myths such as " Inflating a football with helium allows longer kick distances " and " Airworthy aircraft can be constructed of concrete . " Facilities . Despite its closure as an active military base , Moffett Field still has many active facilities and residents . Active military families still live on Moffett Community Housing , and the former base has several lodges which primarily house academics and students associated with the Ames Research Center . Moffett Field ' s facilities available to residents include a pool , post office , golf course , and tennis courts . Status of former military buildings . Many of the buildings at Moffett Field which once supported its active military presence have been abandoned and left standing due to asbestos contamination within the structures . Airfield . Moffett Field is an active airfield , and has two active runways : University facilities . Moffett Field also hosts four university branch campuses : Singularity University , San Jose State University ' s ( SJSU ) Metropolitan Technology Center , Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley , and UC Santa Cruz . These are within the base primarily to support the academic and research collaboration between these institutions and NASA Ames . Private aircraft . Moffett Airfield is home to H211 , LLC , owned by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin . Through the LLC they pay $ 1 . 3 million a year to NASA to park their Boeing 767 - 200 and other Gulfstream V jets . In addition , the airplanes have also had scientific equipment installed by NASA to allow for experiments to be run in flight . Lockheed Martin and Jon Stark , a helicopter operator , also have use of the airfield . In October 2008 the first Zeppelin airship to offer private flights in the United States since 1937 ' s Hindenburg disaster became available for tours of the Bay Area and beyond . The craft , operated by Airship Ventures , was housed in Hangar Two , was built in Germany and was the fourth modern airship constructed and the third to be put in public service . It was dedicated and given the name " Eureka " at the celebration of Moffett Field ' s 75th anniversary . Strong community opposition to the use of the airfield by FedEx Express and UPS Airlines blocked the transition of the airfield to public use in the 1990s . Hangar One restoration . On April 21 , 2011 , crews began stripping the PCB - laced exterior panels of Hangar One .