General Ulpiano Paez Airport is a public/military joint-use airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 located near Salinas

Salinas, Ecuador

Salinas is a coastal city located in the Province of Santa Elena, Ecuador. It is the seat of the canton that bears its name. The westernmost city on mainland Ecuador, Salinas is an important tourist center. Recently, Salinas was the center of controversy during the contentious "more fun, less sun,"...

, a city in the province

Provinces of Ecuador

Ecuador is divided into 24 provinces . The provinces of Ecuador and their capitals are:1 Population as per the census carried out on 2001-11-25In addition, there are three areas within Ecuador that are non-delimited...

 of Santa Elena in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

.

History

During World War II the airport was used by the United States Army Air Force Sixth Air Force defending the South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

n coastline and the Panama Canal

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...

 against Japanese submarines. Flying units assigned to the airfield were:

• 25th Bombardment Squadron (Panama Canal Department), 21 January 1942-22 May 1943, (B-24 Liberator)
• 3d Bombardment Squadron
  3d Bombardment Squadron
  The 3d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 111th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, based at Travis Air Force Base, California. It was inactivated on 1 January 1953.-World War II:...
  
   (6th Bombardment Group), 23 May-11 June 1943, (B-17 Flying Fortress)
• 51st Fighter Squadron
  51st Fighter Squadron
  The 51st Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 6th Fighter Wing, based at Howard Field, Canal Zone...
  
   (32d Fighter Group) December 1942-March 1943 (P-40 Warhawk)

Facilities

The airport resides at an elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 of 18 feet (5 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 paved runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

s: 13/31 measuring 7995 by 98 ft (2,436.9 by 29.9 ) and 08/26 measuring 3641 by 131 ft (1,109.8 by 39.9 ).