RED HILLS, CA

A video tour of an isolated dry lake in the Mojave desert near Garlock, California, which was supposedly used shortly after Pearl Harbor as a hiding place for fighter aircraft based at Muroc Army Airfield (now Edwards AFB), and Naval Air Station China Lake. However, after a tour of the place, I have my doubts. Terrain clearance (or lack of it, I mean), the short length of the runway (about 3100 feet), two deep depressions in the runway, its unusability during the rainy season, lack of parking space, no means of revetting aircraft or storing fuel and munitions, all point to the fact that this area would have been rather undesirable as an airport. Even if that had been its intended use, placing aircraft here would have had to be an act of near desperation, to be done only in the event the Japanese army was encroaching on the military airfields in the area. In my opinion, pierced steel plating would not have worked in the rainy season here, due to the sheer depth and extremely low bearing strength of the wet silt of this lakebed. Even had the runway been paved, it would, in my opinion, have been under water and therefore unusable. However, the BLM naturalist at Jawbone Station was adamant that this area had, in fact, been used as a hiding place for fighter aircraft based in the area. I don't know what to think. If you have any information on this area, please feel free to post it here on YouTube or e-mail me at mojaveroads@live.com.