Brown Field Municipal Airport (IATA: SDM, ICAO: KSDM, FAA LID: SDM) is in the Otay Mesa neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States, 13 miles (21 km) southeast of downtown San Diego and named in honor of Commander Melville S. Brown, USN, who was killed in an airplane crash in 1936.
Major East completed flight training at the Army Signal Corps Station, Rockwell Field on North Island before flying over the front lines in France during World War I.
The county ended up renting portions of the former base for use as a chicken farm and Chula Vista High School was established on the airport property in 1946.
Aircraft that operated at NAAS Brown Field included the F6F Hellcat, F9F Cougar, SNB, R4D Skytrain, JD-1 Invader, P2V Neptune, and FJ Fury.
A precision approach is not possible to either runway end due to rising terrain (elevation 3,600 feet) less than six miles (10 km) east of the airport.
The area around Brown Field Municipal Airport has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb) with warm summers and cool winters.
On March 16, 1991, seven members of Reba McEntire's band and her road manager were among 10 people who died in the crash of a plane that departed from Brown Field.
On August 16, 2015, five people were killed when a twin-engine North American Sabreliner jet and a single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk collided midair about two miles northeast of Brown Field.
Pieces of the fiery wreckage fell about a quarter-mile from each other and sparked fires in the remote, brushy area, east of state Route 125.