W. R. Byron Airport is a privately owned, private use airport in Riverside County, California, United States. It is located four nautical miles (5 mi, 7 km) northwest of the central business district of Blythe, California, within the city limits.FacilitiesW. R. Byron Airport has one runway designated 18/36 with an asphalt surface measuring 2,640 by 660 feet (805 x 201 m).HistoryThe airfield opened on June 29, 1942. Known as Blythe Field and Gary Field, it began training United States Army Air Forces flying cadets under contract to Morton Air Academy. Assigned to United States Army Air Forces West Coast Training Center (later Western Flying Training Command) as a primary (level 1) pilot training airfield. It had three 2,100' active hard-surfaced runways and three local axillary airfields for emergency and overflow landings. Flying training was performed with Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer; it also had several PT-17 Stearmans assigned. Known sub-bases and auxiliaries assigned to the field were: Ripley Auxiliary Field #1 Ripley Auxiliary Field #2 It was inactivated on August 4, 1944 with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program, then declared surplus and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on September 30, 1945. Eventually discharged to the War Assets Administration (WAA), and the facilities of the former airport were reused by Palo Verde Community College. The college opened at the site on September 15, 1947 and it was at this point that any aviation use of the airfield presumably ended.
