CALIFORNIA CITY SEEKS GRANT\FAA money could upgrade airport to military jet standards.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer California City officials are planning to apply for a $20 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), component of the U.S. Department of Transportation that sets standards for the air-worthiness of all civilian aircraft, inspects and licenses them, and regulates civilian and military air traffic through its air traffic control for improvements that would allow the municipal airport to handle military aircraft. An improved airport would allow the city to enter into joint-use agreements with neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. and open up opportunities for commercial operations, Mayor Richard Hall said. "It would open up the possibilities for us considerably," Hall said. To accommodate military aircraft, the airport runway must be widened to 150 feet. The runway is now 55 feet wide, but will be expanded this spring to 60 feet. The runway also would have to be lengthened length·en tr. & intr.v. length·ened, length·en·ing, length·ens To make or become longer. length  en·er n. from 6,000 feet now to 8,000 feet.
Other requirements include installing a control tower and providing firefighting 1. firefighting - What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems. An opposite of hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a power glitch hosed the network and I spent the whole afternoon fighting fires." 2. equipment capable of handling military aircraft. The idea for the airport improvements came from a recent meeting between city officials and Edwards commander Gen. Richard Engel Richard Engel is NBC News' Middle East correspondent and Beirut Bureau chief. Prior to joining NBC News in May 2003, he covered the start of the 2003 war in Iraq from Baghdad for ABC News as a freelance journalist. . "The general made the comment that it was too bad our runway couldn't support his aircraft because we could get into a joint-use agreement," Hall said. The idea has a long way to go before becoming a reality. It will be up to city officials to put together the grant package. The Air Force's involvement is limited to providing technical information. If the improvements are made, a decision to use the airport as an auxiliary runway would require approval by the Pentagon. The maximum number of takeoffs and landings on any given day would not exceed 40. The operations would primarily be fighter jets performing "touch-and-goes," where an aircraft approaches a landing, touching or coming close to touching the runway then taking off. "It's still in the looking process," base spokesman John Haire said. California City already has an FAA grant of $600,000 to widen wid·en tr. & intr.v. wid·ened, wid·en·ing, wid·ens To make or become wide or wider. wid en·er n. the
runway from 55 feet to 60 feet in order to meet FAA standards. That work
is expected to begin in April and take approximately 30 days.
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