The 1963 San Diego Chargers season was the team's fourth in the American Football League. The team had gone 4–10 in 1962 but rebounded with an 11–3 record, winning the AFL West by one game over the Oakland Raiders, who were coached by former Chargers assistant Al Davis. San Diego scored the most points in the league and conceded the fewest. Their offense, led by veteran quarterback Tobin Rote, and featuring future Hall of Fame receiver Lance Alworth, gained more yards than any other team; Rote and Alworth were each named the league MVP, by the Associated Press and UPI, respectively.

On January 5, 1964, the team won their only AFL Championship with a 51–10 win over the Boston Patriots in Balboa Stadium. To date, this is the Chargers' only league championship season in the AFL or NFL. This is also the only world championship won by a major league sports team in the city and county of San Diego to date. In 2003, the team was inducted into the Chargers Ring of Honor. The emphatic title game victory led to some speculation on whether San Diego might be able to beat the NFL champion Chicago Bears.

The 1963 Chargers earned a degree of lasting notoriety due to their program of anabolic steroid usage, the first such in professional football. Head coach Sid Gillman and strength coach Alvin Roy made daily doses of Dianabol compulsory for a five-week period during training camp before players became aware of potential side effects, and the program was relaxed to a voluntary one.

Offseason

AFL draft

The 1963 AFL Draft took place on December 1, 1962, late in the previous season. The Chargers had 30 picks across 29 rounds.

With the second overall pick in the draft, San Diego selected Syracuse end Walt Sweeney. The Cleveland Browns also selected Sweeney in the rival NFL draft. Representatives of both teams approached the player with contracts in the moments after his final college game on December 8, looking to claim his signature. Sweeney chose the Chargers; he had actually met with head coach Sid Gillman and assistant Al Davis the previous day and signed a contract while still a college player. The team converted him to a guard, about which Sweeney was not initially enthusiastic, but he went on to excel at that position through an 11-year stay in San Diego, appearing in six AFL All-Star games and three NFL Pro Bowls, as well as being named to the AFL All-League Team twice.

The Chargers also signed their 2nd-round pick, seeing off competition from the Los Angeles Rams for All-American guard Rufus Guthrie. However, Guthrie was injured in the opening exhibition game of the season with torn knee ligaments. The injury persisted, and Guthrie never played a regular season game for the Chargers or any other pro team. 3rd-round selection Keith Kinderman, a defensive back who Gillman converted to running back, was also troubled by injuries. He played in 11 games over two seasons in San Diego, carrying the ball only 24 times. There was one future Hall of Fame player in the Chargers' draft class (linebacker Dave Robinson), but he signed for the Green Bay Packers, where he won two Super Bowls.

In the later rounds, San Diego picked up Bob Petrich, a defensive end who played in every game for the next four seasons, and Ernie Park, an occasional starter at guard. Only five of the draft class ever played a game for the Chargers (including Guthrie's exhibition appearance), while eleven went to NFL teams.

Departures and arrivals
San Diego lost a key staff member on January 19 when Davis signed with the Raiders in the dual role of head coach and general manager. He had served as the Chargers' offensive ends coach, but had also earned a reputation as a good recruiter of new talent, an important role in the ongoing bidding war with the NFL. Oakland had finished the previous season at a league-worst 1–13 but emerged as serious rivals to the Chargers in the AFL West during Davis's first season there.

Davis soon brought defensive back Claude "Hoot" Gibson to join him in Oakland, as part of an equalization draft aimed at helping the league's weakest teams. Gibson had intercepted 13 passes during two seasons in San Diego. Other players to exit included tackle Sherman Plunkett and defensive tackle Bill Hudson. The pair, who had featured in every game the previous year, were traded away for future draft picks. Ron Nery, who had accumulated  sacks during three seasons with the Chargers, was cut shortly before the regular season began.

After losing Jack Kemp to the Buffalo Bills the previous year, San Diego were looking for a veteran quarterback who could both lead the team and mentor second-year passer John Hadl. Running back Gerry McDougall, who joined the team from the CFL's Toronto Argonauts late in the 1962 season, informed Gillman that Tobin Rote, a 13-year veteran and former NFL champion (with the 1957 Lions) was contemplating retirement after three seasons with the Argonauts. The Bills had the territorial rights to sign Rote but had no need for another quarterback. Both the Chargers and the Denver Broncos expressed an interest in signing Rote; AFL Commissioner Joe Foss conducted a coin flip to decide which team would have the right to claim the player. San Diego won and gave Buffalo tackle Dick Hudson and two future draft picks in exchange for Rote's signing rights. The 35-year-old was soon signed, with Gillman describing him as "one of the finest quarterbacks in football." He started every game throughout the season.

San Diego also gained George Gross, a 16th-round pick in the 1962 draft who had stayed on at Auburn as a redshirt that year. In 1963, he started every game for the Chargers at defensive tackle. Another guard, Sam DeLuca, re-signed with the team after a one-year retirement; he played in every game while starting half of them. Dick Westmoreland, an undrafted defensive back from North Carolina A&T, was signed by Chargers scout Al LoCasale and made the team. He ended the 1963 season as the only rookie selected for the NEA All-AFL 1st team, and was a 2nd-team choice for the Associated Press, UPI and the New York Daily News.

Personnel

Staff

Roster

Training camp

Rough Acres Ranch

For the previous two seasons, the Chargers had trained at the University of San Diego. Gillman, seeking both to instil both toughness and a sense of unity in his team, opted to switch to Rough Acres Ranch, located in Boulevard, an isolated town  from San Diego. The ranch had only basic amenities and was overrun with insects and other wildlife, including bats, spiders and poisonous rattlesnakes. The players had to conduct two-a-days in temperatures close to , on sawdust that had been laid on the barren earth to approximate the consistency of grass. There was little to distract the players from their practice and little to do in the evenings but spend time together, either at the ranch itself or a small gas station  down the road.

Opinion among the players was divided as to the efficacy of using the ranch. Team captain Ron Mix believed that the 1963 Chargers were successful in spite of, not because of, the experience. Others were more positive. Ernie Ladd described Rough Acres as a great training facility, noting the isolated location as a positive, while Lance Alworth stated the team had "one of the greatest years as a result of it. I still don't understand why more teams don't do that and why we didn't do it more often after that." The Chargers did not have the option to return to Rough Acres, as the owners brought a lawsuit worth over a million dollars against them, alleging both property damage and non-payment of rental fees.

Steroid usage
Gillman hired a strength coach, Alvin Roy, to work with the team during training camp. Roy was a proponent of weightlifting, at a time when that form of exercise was not regarded as beneficial to a pro footballer. Roy also instructed the players to take pink pills each day at dinnertime, which would help their bodies assimilate protein. These pills were Dianabol, the commercial name of Metandienone, an anabolic steroid. The Chargers were the first professional football team to proscribe steroids to their players. The use of steroids was permitted in professional football at the time; they would eventually be banned in 1983 by then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle.

At first, taking the pills was compulsory. When Dick Harris openly refused to do so, he was fined his $60 pay for the Chargers' opening exhibition game by Gillman. Others who were suspicious of the pills disposed of them subtly, hiding them under the table at meal times, or keeping them in their mouths until they had exited the dining room. Many players did accept the Dianabol without question, however. Rookie defensive back Westmoreland took the pills and soon noticed that he, in his words, "got bigger and stronger but didn't lose speed."

After five weeks of the compulsory program, tight end Dave Kocourek began to feel ill and went to his personal physician. When the physician learned that his patient was taking Dianabol, he showed him a list of side effects, including "liver damage, muscle damage, bone damage and testicle shrinkage". Kocourek took the list to Mix, who raised the issue with Gillman. The pills became voluntary after that, and the majority of the team completely stopped taking them, while others reduced their intake.

Preseason

San Diego entered their 1963 preseason schedule having accumulated a perfect 12–0 record in exhibition games over the past three years. They suffered a setback in the opening minutes of their first match when their newly-acquired starting quarterback Rote was knocked out of the game with a chest injury. Backup Hadl played well in relief, throwing touchdowns to Jacque MacKinnon and Alworth. Earlier, Paul Lowe had scored the Chargers' first two touchdowns with runs of 3 and 65 yards; the running back was playing for the first time since the broken arm he had sustained during the 1962 preseason. The Chargers followed this with their 14th consecutive preseason win, beating the Patriots for the first of four times that season. Hadl started the game, completing 14 of 26 passes for 269 yards, with touchdowns to Alworth and Don Norton, while running for a score himself. Lowe again ran for two touchdowns, Charlie McNeil scored on a 44-yard interception return, and San Diego found the end zone seven times in total in a 50–17 win.

The Chargers' string of preseason victories came to an end a week later when they lost in Denver. The Broncos jumped out to a 28–3 lead in the 3rd quarter before the Chargers closed the gap with three touchdown passes: Hadl threw two, either side of one from halfback Keith Lincoln. Hadl also threw a two-point conversion pass to Kocourek; that pulled the Chargers back within six points in the final quarter, but they got no closer.

Two strong defensive performances followed. Against the Oilers, they had five interceptions, recovered a fumble and made a successful goal line stand as Houston mustered only three points despite gaining 27 first downs to the Chargers' 9. Hadl threw two touchdowns, and Lowe scored for the fifth time in the preseason. Rote returned for the preseason finale but struggled and threw four interceptions. Raider quarterbacks were also intercepted four times, and Bob Jackson scored the game's only touchdown as the Chargers beat Oakland for the tenth time in ten meetings (exhibition and regular season combined).

Regular season

Summary

Rote excelled at quarterback, winning the Associated Press AFL MVP award. His completion percentage of 59.4 was comfortably better than his nearest rival (Len Dawson with 54.0), while his passer rating of 86.7 was also an AFL best. He was also one of only three starting quarterbacks in the league to throw more touchdowns than interceptions (20 against 17). Gillman praised Rote's ability to call his own plays in the huddle, and Alworth later stated, "Tobin Rote's the reason why we won." Hadl also saw frequent action, as Gillman would frequently insert him into the game if Rote was struggling; Hadl threw at least one pass in 12 regular season games, complementing Rote's 2,510 yards with 502 of his own.

Alworth was the primary target for the two quarterbacks. The second-year flanker set new club receiving records for catches (61), yards (1,205) and touchdowns (11), ranking second in the league for the latter two categories; he also posted a pair of 200-yard games, the first in Charger history. Alworth was voted the league MVP by UPI. Of the other receivers, tight end Kocourek added 359 yards and five touchdowns. Norton, the club's leading receiver in 1962, was injured while lifting weights and missed the first seven games; he finished with 281 yards from limited action. Paul Lowe returned to the backfield after missing the entire 1962 season through injury. He formed a successful partnership with Lincoln, running behind a line anchored by unanimous 1st team All-AFL tackle Mix. Lowe rushed for 1,010 yards (2nd in the league), while Lincoln, who missed most of one game and all of another, finished with 826 yards (4th in the league). The pair combined for 18 touchdowns, contributing to San Diego's league-high tally of 399 points scored. The Chargers comfortably led the league in yards per pass and yards per rush (6.7 and 5.6 respectively - the Raiders were second in both categories with 5.3 and 4.5 respectively).

On defense, cornerback Harris led the team with eight interceptions (third most in the league), while linebacker Chuck Allen added five more. With All-Pro defensive end Earl Faison unofficially credited with a team-leading five sacks, the Charger defense was a balanced unit: they were the best in the league for touchdowns conceded against the pass (17) and joint-best against the run (10) while conceding the fewest points overall (255). George Blair did not repeat his excellent kicking performance from the previous season, but his stat line of 17 successes from 28 attempts still gave him the best percentage in the league. Paul Maguire averaged 38.6 yards per punt, the lowest of the league's eight punters.

Schedule

Game summaries

Week 1: vs. Buffalo Bills

San Diego opened the 1963 season with a victory, intercepting their former quarterback Jack Kemp three times. After an early Buffalo punt, Lincoln took a swing pass from Rote 32 yards down the right sideline, but Blair missed a short field goal soon afterwards. Bud Whitehead and Bob Mitinger intercepted Kemp on the next two Bills drives. After the second of these, Rote hit Kocourek for 31 yards over the middle, moving the ball to the Buffalo 1. Bobby Jackson scored the first Charger touchdown of the season on the next play, fighting through tacklers and narrowly crossing the goal line. Charger indiscipline aided Buffalo on their response, with three flags resulting from a single play: Ladd made a late hit on Kemp, Henry Schmidt was ejected for fighting, and Gillman was penalized for his protestations. These infractions moved the ball from San Diego's 44 to their 12, but the defense stiffened and restricted Buffalo to a field goal. Alworth's 27-yard reception opened the next drive, but Blair missed another field goal; after the Bills also missed a kick, it was 7–3 at halftime.

The Chargers were forced to punt at the start of the 3rd quarter, and Buffalo progressed to a 4th and 1 at the San Diego 40. The Bills went for the first down, but Ladd forced a fumble that McNeil recovered. Jerry Robinson wrestled a 41-yard pass from the grasp of a defender on the next play, but Jackson was eventually stuffed for no gain on 4th and 1 from the 2. Faison sacked Kemp to force a punt; six plays later, Paul Lowe cut upfield and wove through tacklers on his way to a 48-yard touchdown run. Paul Maguire's interception and 38-yard return gave the Chargers a chance to put the game away, starting only eight yards from the Buffalo end zone, but Rote was sacked and intercepted on consecutive plays. Buffalo then drove 90 yards in 11 plays, scoring with 6:33 left on the clock. The Bills declined a two-point conversion attempt, instead kicking an extra point to trail by four. Buffalo had two more possessions: the first ended in a punt after Petrich sacked Kemp; the second saw them reach their own 47 yard line before time expired.

Rote had a solid debut, going 18 of 29 for 260 yards, with one interception. Lowe, on his first game back after missing the entire 1962 season through injury, rushed 10 times for 96 yards and a touchdown.

Week 2: vs. Boston Patriots

This was the first night game played in San Diego. After a Patriots field goal opened the scoring, San Diego struck twice in the 2nd quarter. Lincoln's 47-yard punt return was immediately followed by Alworth's 43-yard touchdown reception; the Chargers then blocked a field goal, and fooled the Patriots defense when Lowe threw a 71-yard touchdown to Robinson. Boston pulled back seven points after a 13-play, 75-yard drive, and it was 14–10 at halftime.

Interceptions by McNeil and Maguire ended Patriot drives in the second half, and Alworth's 61-yard punt return gave the Chargers a chance to extend their lead, only for Blair to miss from 30 yards out early in the final quarter. Both kickers then had successful kicks, leaving the Chargers still up by four points entering the final minutes. Boston reached a 4th and 1 on the San Diego 40, but turned the ball over on downs after a botched handoff. Following a Charger punt, the Patriots had one final chance, but an incompletion on 4th and 4 from their own 48 let San Diego run the clock out.

The Chargers gained what would prove a season-low 240 yards on offense, nearly half the total coming on the two touchdown plays.

Week 4: vs. Kansas City Chiefs

Three early touchdown passes by Rote set the Chargers on their way to a comfortable win over the team who, while known as the Dallas Texans, had won the previous season's AFL Championship game. Faison's fumble recovery on the Kansas City 25 set up the first Rote touchdown, a 20-yard connection with Kocourek. In the 2nd quarter, McNeil intercepted Len Dawson, and the Chargers again capitalized, Kocourek jumping to gather in a Rote pass at the 10, and completing a 35-yard touchdown without breaking stride. The third touchdown drive was longer, covering 91 yards in 11 plays. Lowe broke off a 25-yard run, and Lincoln took a pass in the left flat before cutting inside to elude a tackler and complete a 15-yard touchdown. The Chiefs pulled three points back before the break, but Blair made one of two field goal attempts in the second half, and Kansas City didn't reach the end zone until the final two minutes of the match.

Rote finished 10 of 16 for 127 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. Lowe and Lincoln split the carries in the backfield, with Lowe rushing 17 times for 91 yards and Lincoln 14 times for 59 yards.

Week 5: at Denver Broncos

San Diego conceded 50 points in a game for the first time, as Denver scored three times in barely a minute in the final quarter. Lincoln's fumble set up Denver for the game's first points, a 37-yard field goal from Gene Mingo. Lincoln made amends only three plays later, taking a screen pass in for a 39-yard touchdown. McNeil's interception soon gave San Diego the ball back, and it was Lowe's turn to score, taking a Rote pass 31 yards on the next play. The Broncos responded with a 79-yard drive to a John McCormick touchdown pass, before Mingo missed kicks from 37 and 44 yards. Two plays after the second of these, Rote dropped back from his own 15 and found Alworth at midfield, the receiver completing an 85-yard touchdown. McCormick came back with another scoring throw, and Rote was intercepted shortly before halftime.

Denver's momentum continued into the 3rd quarter. After tying the scores at 20–20 with a Mingo field goal, they executed a surprise onside kick, and another Mingo success put them in front. Rote was intercepted and lost a fumble, with the latter turnover leading to a further field goal. Hadl came on for Rote in the 4th quarter, and threw a touchdown on his very first pass attempt, a 19-yarder to Lincoln. That put San Diego back on top, 27–26, but McCormick soon responded with his third touchdown pass of the game. Lincoln's eventful day was complete when he fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and Denver scored again. When Hadl threw an interception a few plays later, Goose Gonsoulin ran the ball back for another touchdown, and Denver had scored 21 points in the space of 63 seconds. Hadl threw a deflected 54-yard touchdown pass to MacKinnon, but Denver recovered Blair's onside kick attempt, and Mingo added his fifth field goal with 20 seconds to play.

Rote and Hadl threw for 317 yards and a new club-record five touchdowns between them. Alworth caught 4 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown, while Lincoln had 62 yards on the ground and 73 through the air, including two scores.

Week 6: vs. New York Jets

San Diego bounced back with a hard-fought win over the Jets. After Lowe lost a fumble, former Chargers QB Dick Wood produced a touchdown pass on the Jets' first play from scrimmage, covering 51 yards. Lowe was then intercepted on a halfback pass, but New York missed a field goal on the resulting drive. Lowe bounced back with a 40-yard gain on a sweep, and Blair was successful from 28 yards out. Rote was later picked off, leading to a Jets field goal and a 10–3 scoreline at halftime.

Hadl entered the game in the third quarter for his most substantial playing time of the season. He made an immediate impact with run of 9 and 33 yards, before rounding out an 87-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown to Kocourek, who leaped to make the catch with defenders on either side of him. The Chargers were in trouble at the start of their next drive, facing 3rd and 13 at their own 18 yard line, but Lincoln took a short pass and broke two tackles en route to a 37-yard gain. Five plays later, it was 2nd and 7 at the Jet 11, and San Diego again called a pass from an unexpected source. This time the trick play worked, fullback Gerry MacDougall lofting the ball to the back of the end zone where Alworth jumped to pull it in. Dick Christy returned the ensuing kickoff 71 yards to the Charger 18 before Westmoreland made a touchdown-saving tackle. That ultimately caused the Jets to settle for a field goal, as Hank Schmidt sacked Wood on third down. San Diego converted a 4th and 1 on the next drive, MacDougall's 26-yard catch moving the ball into field goal range, but the drive ended with a miss by Blair. New York then used a 54-yard pass interference penalty as the springboard for an 80-yard touchdown drive and a 20–17 lead as the 3rd quarter ended. Maguire pinned the Jets at their own 1 with a punt, and the defense forced a three-and-out, though an excellent punt in return set San Diego back on their own 39. Lowe accounted for most of the yardage on the next drive, with runs of 6 and 30 yards to start it off and a 7-yard touchdown up the middle to finish it with 9:06 to play. Wood led the Jets to the Charger 13, but his pass was deflected and incomplete on 4th and 8. New York's final chance ended on their own 40, when Frank Buncom knocked away another 4th down pass.

Rote was 10 of 13 for 78 yards and an interception, while Hadl was 8 of 12 for 134 yards and a touchdown. Lowe carried 16 times for 161 yards and one touchdown. San Diego's defense had zero takeaways. It was the first time in a regular season game that they failed to make at least one interception (they also had none in the 1960 AFL title game), ending a 46-game streak that remains an AFL/NFL record.

Week 7: at Kansas City Chiefs

Alworth had the most receiving yardage of any game in his Hall of Fame career, and the Chargers won on their first-ever trip to Kansas City. The first four San Diego possessions resulted in punts, before Allen intercepted Len Dawson, setting up Blair's field goal to open the scoring. However, Dawson found Abner Haynes with a deep pass over the middle only two plays after the kickoff; Haynes slipped McNeil's diving tackle and completed a 73-yard touchdown, and Kansas City led 7–3 at halftime.

Hadl had been in at quarterback on the final two Charger drives of the first half, but Rote returned after the break, and led his team to touchdowns on five of their first six second half possessions. Rote was 5 for 5 on the first drive, finishing with a 44-yard pass to Alworth, who had got open behind the safeties. Following a Chiefs field goal, Alworth's 28-yard catch was the biggest gain on an 11-play, 86-yard drive, which Lowe finished by cutting up the middle for a 7-yard touchdown on 3rd and 5. Blair then recovered a fumble, but missed a 40-yard field goal five plays later. After that, Dawson led his team from their own 20 to a 4th and 5 at the Charger 13. With only eight minutes remaining, Kansas City opted to go for it, but Dawson's pass was incomplete. Lincoln's 15-yard run on the next play was immediately followed by another Alworth touchdown. The flanker got a step behind cornerback Duane Wood, giving him position to outwrestle Wood for the ball at the Chief 35 and complete a 72-yard touchdown. Dawson threw a touchdown on 4th and goal from the 7 on the next drive, and Kansas City were back within 24–17 with 5:24 still on the clock. Lincoln put the game away on the next play from scrimmage. Taking a pitchout to the left, he cut upfield and worked his way back towards the right sideline to avoid tacklers, ultimately outracing the defense and going in untouched for a 76-yard touchdown. Blair then made a juggling interception of Dawson, and Lowe shrugged off a tackler at the line of scrimmage before completing the scoring with a 21-yard run.

Rote was 16 of 22 for 266 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Lincoln rushed 10 times for 127 yards and a touchdown. Alworth caught 9 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns; he had 183 receiving yards in the second half alone.

Week 8: vs. Oakland Raiders

Oakland pulled within one and a half games of San Diego, after an eventful game in which four quarterbacks combined for seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. Rote was intercepted on the game's first possession, and Tom Flores found Art Powell for the opening points. San Diego responded with a Blair field goal, before Alworth maintained his good form with a 32-yard touchdown catch. Rote threw interceptions to Fred Williamson on the next two Charger drives; after the first of these, Harris picked off Flores to win the ball straight back, but Flores took his second chance with a 30-yard drive and another touchdown pass. Hadl entered the game and hit MacKinnon for a 69-yard touchdown on only his second throw. Flores was then intercepted by McNeil, but Hadl was intercepted himself before the half ended with San Diego 17–14 up.

Rote returned for the 3rd quarter, while the Raiders went with backup Cotton Davidson, Flores having sustained a head injury. The latter switch seemed to have backfired when Davidson's first pass was intercepted and run back for a touchdown by Harris, but he came back with a touchdown pass two plays after Lincoln had fumbled while attempting a lateral. A 29-yard catch by MacKinnon got San Diego moving, and Blair put the Chargers ahead 26–21 after three quarters with a 36-yard kick. Davidson's second touchdown pass was also Powell's second touchdown catch - the 46-yard connection put Oakland ahead one play into the final quarter. San Diego responded through Lincoln, the running back going off tackle and breaking through for a 51-yard score. After a punt each, the Raiders went 63 yards for the winning score, another pass by Davidson. The Chargers managed to sack Davidson on the ensuing two-point attempt, leaving them needing only a field goal to win with 1:52 still remaining. Their final drive started from their own 27 and quickly went wrong. Rote threw incomplete before being sacked for an 18-yard loss; he then threw his fourth interception of the game, and Oakland ran out the clock.

Oakland's quarterbacks completed only eight passes between them, but five of those went for touchdowns. For the Chargers, Lincoln rushed 15 times for 130 yards and a touchdown, while MacKinnon caught 3 passes for 111 yards and a score.

Week 9: at New York Jets

The Chargers kicked off a three-game trip to the east coast by thrashing the Jets. On their second play from scrimmage, Alworth hauled in a deep pass and gained 62 yards, though a Lincoln fumble prevented San Diego from capitalising with any points. They made no mistake on their next possession, Lowe easily scoring on an 11-yard screen pass. Gross caused Dick Wood to fumble shortly afterwards, with Emil Karas recovering - five plays later, Kocourek scored from 14 yards out. Another turnover soon followed, Harris intercepting an underthrow by Wood. Alworth made a leaping grab on the next play, covering 49 yards; three plays later, Lowe swept right from the 11 behind strong blocking and went in untouched for a 21–0 lead, and Blair added a short field goal before halftime.

More points followed in the second half. Alworth again outjumped his marker on a 28-yard touchdown reception, Rote and MacDougall scored on short runs up the middle, and, after the Jets averted a shutout, Hadl threw an 8-yard touchdown to Robinson with no time on the clock. The Chargers faked a conversion kick after this final score, and Hadl hit Kocourek for two more points.

Rote completed 21 of 29 passes for a club-record 369 yards, with three touchdowns and no interceptions. His passer rating of 149.0 would be the best any Charger achieved in the AFL while making at least 20 attempts in a game. Alworth caught 5 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown. Harris had two interceptions and a fumble recovery, while Karas had two fumble recoveries. San Diego set club records for most points (this would be broken six games later), and margin of victory (still to be surpassed). The game featured three ejections, including two for the Chargers; Ladd and Joe Schmidt were both thrown out for their role in a fist fight.

Week 10: at Boston Patriots

Alworth and the defense lifted San Diego to a narrow victory in the rain and mud of Fenway Park. Alworth had catches of 6, 37 and 17 yards on three consecutive plays in the game's opening drive, but Blair missed a 12-yard chip shot field goal, and the Chargers came up empty-handed. Westmoreland's fumble recovery then stopped a dangerous Patriot drive, and San Diego worked their way to the Boston 18, from where Alworth caught Rote's pass in the end zone and appeared to have opened the scoring. A penalty wiped those points off the board, but Rote went straight back to Alworth with a screen, good for 23 yards and a touchdown. Boston looked the more threatening team throughout the 2nd quarter, but Gino Cappelletti missed a 38-yard kick and lost a fumble that Gary Glick recovered. Allen outwrestled the intended receiver for an interception of Babe Parilli, and it was still 7–0 at the break.

Cappelletti made a 36-yard field goal early in the second half. Rote converted a 4th and 1 with a quarterback sneak on the next possession, but the drive ended when Blair missed from 48 yards. Boston drove into field goal range once more, and when Cappelletti was good from 25 yards, the lead was cut to a single point. Following a Rote interception, Cappelletti had a chance to put his team ahead, but was short from 37 yards out. Allen continued to make significant plays as the final quarter wore on, stopping Patriot drives with an interception and a fumble recovery. Boston's last chance came after Lowe lost a fumble at his own 42. The Charger defense knocked the Patriots back six yards on three running plays, and Cappelletti's final kick fell well short from 55 yards. Alworth's 50-yard reception helped San Diego run the clock out.

Alworth had 13 of his team's 18 pass receptions and gained 210 of their 271 total yards on offense while scoring the game's only touchdown. His 13 receptions were a new club record and would remain his career high. San Diego's total of 7 points is still the fewest they have scored in a victory.

Week 11: at Buffalo Bills

San Diego completed a three-game east coast sweep with a hard-fought win in Buffalo. The Bills took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards for Cookie Gilchrist to score from a yard out. The Chargers responded quickly, Lowe's 23-yard gain on a draw being immediately followed by Lincoln's 54-yard scoring trap run through the middle. The next time San Diego had the ball, Lincoln opened the drive with a 24-yard reception, and Blair finished it with a 39-yard field goal. Jack Kemp led his offense inside the Charger 10 late in the first half, but Maguire's third down sack had the Bills settling for a field goal and a 10–10 tie at the intermission.

In the 3rd quarter, Sweeney blocked a punt by Daryle Lamonica, and San Diego took over at the Buffalo 20. Lincoln appeared to have scored on a 9-yard run a few plays later, but Mix was penalized for a push. The Chargers scored anyway, Alworth gathering Rote's pass under the posts. Buffalo almost tied the game on their next drive, but last defender Westmoreland pulled Elbert Dubenion down at the Charger 5 yard line after a gain of 34, and the defense held Buffalo to a field goal. Lowe's 27-yard run had the Chargers threatening on their next drive, but they were thwarted when Rote was intercepted. Harris intercepted Kemp on the next two Buffalo drives; after the second of these, Rote's 54-yard completion to Alworth set up a short Blair field goal. After forcing a punt, the Chargers drove from their own 20 to Buffalo's 34, and Blair hit the clinching kick from 41 yards out with 1:37 to play.

Harris added a third interception on the game's final play, his seventh in a four-game span. Lincoln rushed 10 times for 101 yards and a touchdown, while adding 31 yards on 3 receptions. With Oakland idle, the Chargers stretched their lead in the AFL West to two full games. The attendance figure set a new AFL record.

Week 12: vs. Houston Oilers

In a matchup of division leaders, San Diego shut out the Oilers. Houston had the game's first scoring chance, but Maguire blocked George Blanda's 48-yard field goal attempt. Lincoln opened the scoring only five plays later, taking a draw up the middle from 15 yards out. Houston fumbled away a red zone chance on their next drive, and the Chargers soon pulled away. A Lincoln run set up Blair's 42-yard field goal, and Maguire recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff. After three straight incompletions, San Diego faked a field goal, Rote passing to Kocourek in the left flat, from where the tight end fought his way for 14 yards and a first down. Four plays later, Kocourek drew pass interference on a 3rd and 13 play, and Lowe went in from the 2. A Karas interception and 30-yard return was then wasted as Rote, too, was intercepted. Late in the half, Houston failed on a fourth down conversion attempt, and San Diego had three big runs in a row (Lowe 14 yards, Lincoln 16 yards, Lincoln 13 yards), setting up Blair's second field goal.

Mitinger's interception two plays into the second half maintained the Chargers' dominance. They later put together an 11-play, 80 yard drive that bridged the 3rd and 4th quarters and ended with Alworth's 22-yard catch from Rote. Houston's threatened to avoid the shutout on their last two possessions, but backup quarterback Jacky Lee was sacked on 4th down, and later intercepted by Glick.

Westmoreland was credited with 15 solo tackles and 1 assist, plus 6 passes defensed. Lincoln (13 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown, 1 reception for 5 yards) and Lowe (21 carries for 80 yards and a touchdown, 3 receptions for 25 yards) provided two strong performances in the backfield.

Week 13: at Oakland Raiders

Up by two games over the Raiders with only three to play, the Chargers could end the AFL West race with a win, but a collapse in the 4th quarter cost them the chance to clinch their division.  They began the game with a successful opening drive. Lincoln had a 36-yard reception and, after the Chargers lost six yards on the next two plays, Rote threw a deep pass to Norton for a 32-yard touchdown. For Norton, who had missed seven games through a back injury, it was his only touchdown of the regular season.

After a Raider field goal, San Diego suffered a setback when Lincoln was knocked out of the game through injury, with Bobby Jackson taking his place in the backfield. The switch appeared not to have disrupted the offense during a 6-play, 89-yard drive that opened with Alworth's 54-yard reception and ended with Jackson going 14 yards off-tackle to the end zone. Oakland responded with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Tom Flores to Art Powell on 4th and 2, but failed to convert on 4th and 10 from the Charger 39 on their next drive. Norton then had 22- and 36-yard receptions, and MacKinnon's short catch made it 20–10 at halftime.

Cotton Davidson, who had played a major role in the Raiders' victory in San Diego earlier in the season, was brought on for the second half. The switch had no immediate impact, with the only score of the 3rd quarter going to the Chargers - Kocourek's 40-yard reception paving the way for Alworth's 15-yard touchdown. When the Raiders went three-and-out in response, San Diego took over on their own 20 early in the final quarter, 17 points ahead. Lowe appeared to have gained 38 yards on first down, but the run was nullified by penalty. Jackson took a screen pass to the Chargers 39 on the next play, but fumbled and Oakland recovered. Davidson's touchdown to Powell began the comeback four plays later. Next, Lowe lost a fumble and Oakland capitalized with a field goal. Following a Charger punt, Davidson led his team 57 yards and scored the game-tying touchdown himself with 7:54 to play.

San Diego were unable to respond, failing to pick up a first down and punting again. Three plays later, Powell was in the end zone once more, with a 41-yard touchdown. Lowe returned the ensuing kickoff 41 yards, and Hadl came out to try and spark the offense. He found Norton for an 18-yard gain to the Oakland 38, but followed that with three incompletions and an interception. The Raiders added a further touchdown in the final minutes, and pulled to within a game at the top of the division.

Rote was 17 of 25 for 284 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, while Norton caught six passes for 119 yards and a touchdown. Art Powell scored 5 touchdowns from only 9 catches over the two games with San Diego. It was only the third time in AFL/NFL history that a team was outscored by 30+ points in the 4th quarter.

Week 14: at Houston Oilers

The stakes were high for both teams - San Diego were looking to maintain their one-game lead over Oakland, while Houston would be eliminated from the AFL East race with a loss. San Diego had the first drive that crossed into opposition territory, but Lowe lost a fumble - Houston then drove into field goal range, but George Blanda was wide right. In the 2nd quarter, three interceptions by Charger linebackers led to points. Firstly, Karas intercepted a Jacky Lee pass; Lowe immediately broke off a 59-yard run, and Rote sneaked into the end zone two plays later. Next, Allen picked off a Blanda pass at the Houston 30, and Jackson scored from close range six plays later. Blanda came straight back with a touchdown pass to Willard Dewveall, and Rote's deep pass was intercepted on the next play. Maguire then took back the momentum with an interception of his own, at the Houston 24-yard line. Blair capitalized with a 22-yard field goal, and it was 17–7 at halftime.

Blair missed wide left from 43 yards in the 3rd quarter, but Allen's fumble recovery at the Oiler 30 soon gave him another chance, and he converted a chip shot 10-yarder. The Oilers' next drive saw them reach 4th and goal at the 9. They elected to go for the touchdown, but Allen and Glick combined to stop Dewveall one yard short. San Diego gained one first down before being forced to punt, and Blanda converted a 3rd and 28 with a 68-yard completion. The Oilers made no mistake this time, finding the end zone with 6:30 to play in the game. The next three drives were three-and-outs. Houston's final drive started on their own 21-yard line with under two minutes to play. Blanda managed to converted a 4th and 1, but found progress to be slow going. The game's final snap was from the Charger 44 - Houston gained only 9 yards, and time expired.

Houston had four turnovers on the day, each of which San Diego converted into points. With Lincoln missing due to injury, Gerry MacDougall rushed 15 times for 56 yards, a complement to Lowe's 19 carries for 96 yards. These gains, plus the four crucial turnovers, were enough to compensate for a weak pass attack that managed only 85 yards total. Oakland also won, leaving the Raiders still one game back and able to force a playoff for the division crown if San Diego lost in Week 15.

Week 15: vs. Denver Broncos

San Diego clinched their third AFL West title in four seasons while setting a club record for points that still stands. Gross gave his team an excellent start, recovering a Broncos fumble forced by Karas. Lowe ran in the opening touchdown two plays later. After Denver answered with a touchdown on the ensuing drive, Alworth drew a 39-yard pass interference penalty and Blair kicked a field goal to put San Diego back in front. On the next drive, Mitinger made a one-handed interception after twice bobbling the ball. Norton's 29-yard reception on the following play set up Jackson's 2-yard touchdown dive. Denver again responded to a Charger touchdown with one of their own, a Don Breaux pass reducing their deficit to 17–14. Lincoln was back in the starting line-up for San Diego - his tackle-breaking 11-yard run got the Chargers moving on their next possession. Rote finished the drive by hitting Kocourek for a 26-yard touchdown; the tight end caught the ball in stride at the nine, and outran his marker to the corner of the end zone. A Rote interception let Denver pull three points closer with 1:04 remaining in the 2nd quarter, but back-to-back runs of 22 yards by Lowe and 14 yards by Lincoln set up Blair to respond in kind before the half ended.

After both sides punted to start the 3rd quarter, Lowe swept to the right and went 66 yards untouched to make it 33–17. Denver responded with a field goal. With Oakland having achieved victory in their final game at about this time, San Diego still had work to do to reach the AFL title game. They responded with 25 unanswered points. Harris had an interception the next time Denver had the ball, and Blair knocked through his third field goal late in the 3rd quarter. On the first play of the final quarter, Ladd sacked Breaux, forcing a fumble that Faison recovered. Lincoln swept to the right on the next play, and scored without difficulty from 29 yards out. The defense registered the next score themselves, a fumble bouncing up for Allen to field and return 42 yards for a touchdown. Hadl came into the game and eventually threw the final touchdown to MacKinnon in the back of the end zone. San Diego added a two-point conversion on a trick play, with Faison's catch giving them their final points of the regular season.

Paul Lowe ran for 183 yards on 17 carries, with two touchdowns. As a team, San Diego had 270 rushing yards and outgained Denver 451–231 in total offense.

Standings

Playoffs

Game summary

AFL championship game: vs. Boston Patriots

Favored by six points heading into the game, San Diego thrashed the Patriots 51–10 to gain their only league title to date.

On the game's second play, Lincoln broke through a large hole in the middle of the line and gained 56 yards before being tackled at the Boston 4; two plays later, Rote ran the ball up the middle himself and scored a 2-yard touchdown. The Patriots went three-and-out, and Lincoln broke free again two plays later, this time taking a pitch to the left and racing along the sideline for an easy 67-yard touchdown. Boston was able to get on the scoreboard with a touchdown drive of their own, but San Diego scored again four plays into their response, with Lowe taking a pitch to the right, threading through would-be tacklers near the sideline and cutting back inside to complete a 58-yard touchdown run. Having run only ten offensive plays, San Diego had three rushes of 50-plus yards and a 21–7 lead. In the 2nd quarter, back-to-back sacks by Ladd and Faison forced a Patriots punt, Lincoln broke off a 44-yard run, and Blair extended the lead with a field goal. Boston managed a field goal of their own, but San Diego came back with another touchdown drive, Lincoln's receptions of 11 and 24 yards helping to set up Norton's 14-yard touchdown from a pass in the left flat. Mitinger intercepted Parilli a play later, and San Diego led 31–10 at halftime.

Lowe fumbled on the first Charger play of the second half, but the San Diego defense forced a punt. Lincoln had a 32-yard gain on a swing pass on the following drive, setting up an Alworth touchdown; the flanker leaped and outfought a defensive back to pull in a long pass from Rote before completing a 48-yard touchdown. Hadl replaced Rote later in the game and was involved in the final two Charger touchdowns, finding Lincoln wide open over the middle on a 25-yard pass on 4th and 2, then scoring himself on a 1-yard run.

Lincoln gained 329 yards from scrimmage, setting an AFL/NFL playoff record that still stands. He won the game's MVP award after receiving 38 of the 39 available votes. In total, San Diego gained 610 yards and scored seven touchdown against a defense that had been highly respected coming into the game. Gillman had drawn up an offensive game plan he dubbed 'Feast or Famine', using motion to confuse Boston's blitzers and spring his running backs for several large gains. Post-match, he described his team as having the greatest balance of any team he had coached.

Potential match with NFL champions

On December 29, 1963, Chicago were crowned NFL champions for the eighth time, their top-ranked defense pressuring Y. A. Tittle into five interceptions as they beat the New York Giants 14–10. San Diego's one-sided victory in the AFL title game a week later led to some speculation as to whether they might be a match for the Bears. Gillman declared that his team wouldn't disgrace themselves in such an encounter, though the Los Angeles Times noted that Chicago would represent a substantial step up in difficulty from the Patriots.

AFL commissioner Joe Foss had proposed a title game between the two leagues in a letter to his opposite number Pete Rozelle, published by Sports Illustrated in December 1963, while Gillman wrote to Bears head coach George Halas with a similar offer after the two title games had been played. Both proposals were politely declined. The first game between the two leagues, Super Bowl I, occurred three years later.

Team awards

On December 12, the Chargers held their annual awards banquet. The Most Inspirational Player award was conferred by teammates, while the others were decided by a fan vote.

Notes

References

Bibliography

American Football League championship seasons
San Diego Chargers
San Diego Chargers seasons
San Diego Chargers f


The history of the Swiss Air Force began in 1914 with the establishment of an ad hoc force consisting of a handful of men in outdated and largely civilian aircraft. It was only in the 1930s that an effective air force was established at great cost, capable of inflicting several embarrassing defeats on the Nazi Luftwaffe in the course of an initially vigorous defence of neutral Swiss airspace. The Swiss Air Force as an autonomous military service was created in October 1936. After World War II it was renamed the Swiss Air Force and Anti-Aircraft Command (Schweizerische Flugwaffe Kommando der Flieger und Fliegerabwehrtruppen) and in 1996 became a separate service independent from the Army, under its present name Schweizer Luftwaffe.

The mission of the Swiss Air Force historically has been to support ground troops (erdkampf) in repelling invasions of neutral Swiss territory, with a secondary mission of defending the sovereignty of Swiss airspace. During World War II this doctrine was severely tested when Switzerland was literally caught in the middle of an air war and subjected to both attacks and intrusions by aircraft of all combatants. Its inability to prevent such violations of its neutrality led for a period to a complete cessation of air intercepts, followed by a practice of coercing small numbers of intruders to submit to internment.

At the end of the 1950s, reflecting both the threat of possible invasion by the Soviet Union and the realities of nuclear warfare, Swiss military doctrine changed to that of a dynamic (mobile) defense that included missions for the Swiss Air Force outside of its territory, in order to defeat standoff attacks and nuclear threats, including the possibility of defensive employment of air-delivered nuclear weapons. However the inability to field an air force of sufficient capability to carry out such missions led to a return of traditional doctrine.

In 1995 the Swiss abandoned traditional doctrine and implemented a defensive plan that made control of Swiss airspace its highest and main priority. Modernization of the Swiss Air Force to achieve this mission was subject to popular referendums challenging its cost and practice.

Swiss balloon forces

Swiss military aviation began in 1900 with the creation of an observation balloon force. Swiss balloonists were first engaged in combat on 7 October 1918, near the end of World War I, when a German airplane accidentally attacked a Swiss observation balloon stationed close to the German border and killed the observer, Lieutenant Werner Flury. The balloon force was eventually disestablished in 1938 when developments in aviation made it obsolete.

Heavier-than-air aviation in World War I

Military trials with civilian airplanes were first conducted in 1911, resulting in many crashes that failed to persuade Swiss authorities of the military utility of the airplane. From September 4 to 6, 1911, Failloubaz participated as pilot (his friend Gustave Lecoultre as observer) to an exercise with the 1st Swiss Army Corps and demonstrated the military possibilities of aircraft with his Dufaux 5; the beginning of the military aviation in Switzerland. Only after the Swiss Officers' Society collected approximately 1,723,000 Swiss francs in 1912– a very large sum for the time – in a national fund drive to the create an air force, did the Swiss Federal Council order the establishment of a Fliegerabteilung on 3 August 1914. The government also decreed that only bachelors could become military pilots, to avoid the payment of expensive widow's pensions in the event of casualties.

The outbreak of World War I, in which neutral Switzerland did not take part, and an indifference to air power of the part of the Swiss military establishment prevented the purchase of modern airplanes required to build an effective air force. By the end of 1914, the force consisted of only eight men flying privately owned airplanes, and by July 1916, four pilots had been killed in crashes. Swiss aircraft were armed only with carbines and flechettes, ineffective pointed iron spikes that were to be dropped on ground targets. The nominal commander of the Swiss air arm, cavalry captain Theodor Real, resigned his post in November 1916 when the army refrained from using its rudimentary air force to defend Swiss airspace against frequent German intrusions, even after Porrentruy was accidentally bombed by German aircraft on 11 October 1916.

The first purpose-built military aircraft in the Swiss air force was a Fokker D.II seized after a German pilot made a forced landing in foul weather near Bettlach on 13 October 1916. In June 1917, five Nieuport 23 C.1 fighter planes were acquired from France. Swiss industry manufactured more than 100 Häfeli DH-3 observation aircraft, but efforts to build a Swiss fighter (the Häfeli DH-4) were halted in 1918 because of the prototypes' poor performance. By the end of the war, the Swiss air force had only 62 pilots and 68 aircraft of nine different makes, almost all of which were suitable only for observation missions. Its wartime budget of CHF 15 million amounted to 1.25% of Swiss military expenditures.

Interwar years

With continuing budgetary restraints, the air force remained in an overall state of neglect during the 1920s. 27 Fokker D.VII, 16 Hanriot HD.1, and 15 Nieuport 28 war surplus airplanes were acquired in 1920 (as were 20 Zeppelin C.II reconnaissance biplanes obtained on the postwar black market) but were soon obsolete, and further efforts to develop indigenous aircraft (MA-6, MA-7, and MA-8) were unsuccessful. Seven pilots were killed in 1925 and 1926 before all Swiss military aircraft were equipped with parachutes. By 1929, only 17 of its 213 airplanes were considered fit for service. The air force consisted of 18 aviation companies (Flieger-Kompagnien), three aerial photography platoons and one airfield company. In the decade following World War I, 162 pilots and 165 observers were trained, and the full complement of the air force was 196 officers, 499 NCOs and 2241 enlisted men. The only aircraft purchased in any quantity were the Potez XXV, and the Swiss-built Häfeli DH-5.

The difficulty of maintaining an air force with little funding during a time of rapid technological development was compounded by the Swiss militia system: all but a handful of military personnel were citizen soldiers who served only a few weeks each year following their initial recruitment phase. Military pilot candidates underwent the same recruit training, NCO school and officer candidate school as other Swiss army officers, followed by a pilot school of 173 days, then re-entered civilian life. During his first two years of service, a pilot's training continued with ten logged flight hours per month, and thereafter he was required to fly fifty hours per year at his convenience.

However, in 1930 the military and civilian leadership decided to establish an effective air force. On 13 December 1929, in what was in retrospect referred to as the "bill to create an air force", the Federal Council asked the Swiss Federal Assembly to approve the spending of 20 million francs for the purchase of 65 French Dewoitine D.27 fighters and the manufacture of 40 Dutch (Fokker C.V-E) reconnaissance planes under licence. Although the opposition Social Democratic Party collected 42,000 signatures in a petition opposing the bill, Parliament passed it handily and declined to allow a referendum on the issue, optional at that time for spending bills.

This was the start of a massive armament programme that would consume more than a billion francs over the next ten years, but after Hitler's rise to power in Nazi Germany, the Social Democrats added their support to the efforts. They also supported Gottlieb Duttweiler's 1938 popular initiative calling for the purchase of a thousand aircraft and the training of three thousand pilots. After 92,000 citizens signed in support, nearly twice the number necessary for a national popular vote, the federal government offered a referendum proposal in 1939 that was nearly as extensive, which was accepted by a 69 percent majority.

In large part, the money was used to acquire modern aircraft. In 1937 and 1938, Swiss defense officials, including the Commander of the Swiss Air Force and at least two Swiss military pilots, evaluated the Heinkel He 112 and Messerschmitt Bf 109 D/E (Germany), Morane-Saulnier M.S.405/406 (France), Fiat G.50 (Italy),  Supermarine Spitfire I (Great Britain) and the Curtiss Hawk 75A-1/P-36 (USA). Consequently, the Swiss government attempted to purchase Spitfires, along with a licence to build them in Switzerland, but this transaction did not materialize.   Instead, 90 state-of-the-art Messerschmitt Bf 109D and E fighters were acquired from Germany in 1938 for 36.6 million francs, the last of which were delivered in April 1940, eight months after the outbreak of World War II. However, the need to expand the size of the pilot corps resulted in the acquisition of 146 trainers from Germany, the Bücker Bü 131 basic and Bücker Bü 133 advanced trainers.

In addition, Swiss factories licence-built 82 Morane-Saulnier D-3800 and 207 D-3801 fighters between 1939 and 1945, and manufactured 152 domestically designed C-36 fighter-bombers between 1942 and 1948. Both of these types remained in service well into the 1950s as trainers.

On 19 October 1936, the air arm was reorganised, and renamed the Schweizerische Flugwaffe (Department of Aviation and Anti-Aircraft Defense), becoming an autonomous service under the Swiss Federal Military Department, analogous to the organizational autonomy of the United States Army Air Forces within the U.S. Army.
The Bambini-Code was developed from the need to communicate via radio links in bad quality in noisy environments, of the aircraft who were used from the Swiss Air Force before the start of the second world war.

World War II

The Swiss Air Force mobilized on 28 August 1939, three days before Germany attacked Poland and initiated World War II, with 96 fighter and 121 observation aircraft; by some accounts the country possessed only eight antiaircraft searchlights. Of the 21 units of the Swiss Air Force, only three were judged combat-ready and five were not yet equipped with aircraft. The Air Force relied on 40 single-seat interceptors for first-line air defense.

This deficiency was addressed by procuring further German Bf 109 and French Morane D-3800 fighters. In 1942, the Swiss-built F+W C-36 multipurpose aircraft was introduced into service, and in 1943, Switzerland opened its own aircraft factory, Flugzeugwerk Emmen. Caverns were built in which to shelter aircraft and maintenance personnel from air attack, for example in Alpnach, Meiringen and Turtmann. In 1942–43, an air gunnery range at Ebenfluh-Axalp was opened for training. The Surveillance Squadron (Überwachungsgeschwader) was formed in 1941 and made combat-ready in 1943. A night fighter squadron was formed for evaluation purposes in 1944 and disbanded in 1950.

The role of the Swiss Air Force during World War II went through four distinct phases:
September 1939 to May 1940: Air patrol, in an attempt to enforce a comprehensive no-fly ban issued by the Swiss government to the combatants, made largely ineffective by a 5–kilometer buffer along the border which Swiss fighters were forbidden to enter.
May to June 1940: Air combat between Switzerland and Germany in which the Luftwaffe pilots tested Swiss air defenses, and were defeated.
July 1940 to October 1943: A total ban on air operations, and a release of interned German aircraft and pilots, resulting from the encirclement of Swiss territory by the Axis, the implementation of the Réduit strategy, and recognition that the Air Force would be overwhelmed by the Germans in a sustained campaign.
October 1943 to May 1945: Resumption of air patrols, a largely passive response, measured by the numbers of intercepts versus the numbers of violations.

Defense of Swiss airspace
During the first months of the war, airmen and anti-aircraft soldiers saw only sporadic combat; it was on 10 May 1940, when Germany commenced the drive into the west, that the Swiss army as a whole was mobilized a second time. At the onset of the campaign, German military aircraft first violated Swiss airspace.

The first serious combat involving the Swiss Air Force began in June 1940. In six days of aerial battles, eleven German aircraft were downed, with a loss of two Swiss aircraft and three airmen killed. Following these incidents, on 6 June, the chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, protested the attacks, claiming that most of the German planes had been in French airspace and that the Luftwaffe had entered Swiss airspace only by mistake. Germany demanded financial compensation and an apology by the Swiss government. In a second, more pointed demand on 19 June, Germany stated that they viewed the air battles as a flagrant act of aggression, and if these interceptions continued, Switzerland would face sanctions and retaliation. The next day, General Henri Guisan ordered all Swiss units to stop engaging foreign aircraft, and on 1 July 1940, the Federal Council apologized for possible border violations by Swiss pilots, without admitting any had occurred. On 16 July, the German government declared that the events were settled. Engaging aircraft of the combatant nations was prohibited until October 1943, when strategic bombing of Bavaria and Austria by the Allies became an increasing likelihood.

In September 1944, the last Swiss airman died in combat, shot down by an American P-51 Mustang while escorting a crippled U.S. B-17 Flying Fortress to the Dübendorf airfield. During the entire war, 6,501 Allied and Axis aircraft violated Swiss airspace, 198 of which aircraft landed on Swiss soil and were interned, and 56 of which crashed.

Swiss aircraft also intercepted U.S. aircraft who were off-course, or whose crews preferred asylum in Swiss internment camps over German or Italian POW camps; they were then forced to land on Swiss airstrips. When the bombers did not cooperate or even fired at the Swiss (who were using Axis-type interceptors), they were shot down.

Night fighter incident
In 1944 a Luftwaffe Bf 110G-4 night fighter pursued a British Lancaster heavy bomber into Swiss airspace on the night of April 28–29. Engine trouble forced the German pilot, Wilhelm Johnen, to land at Dübendorf airfield where the pilot was interned. By international law, the Swiss had a right to put the fighter into service, and the Germans were concerned that Allied intelligence would examine its FuG 220 Lichtenstein radar and "Schräge Musik" gun installation.

The Nazi government quickly negotiated a deal in which the Swiss burned the Bf 110 under the supervision of German observers in return for a sale to the Swiss of 12 new Bf 109G-6 Gustav to replace combat losses. The new fighters were delivered in batches of six on 20 and 22 May. The new planes had serious manufacturing defects from the poor workmanship and production disruptions caused by Allied bombings, and after complaints the Germans refunded half of the six million Swiss franc purchase price. In 1947, the Swiss Air Force tried to purchase new replacement Daimler-Benz DB 605 engines from Sweden, licence built by Svenska Flygmotor AB (Swedish Aero Engines, Ltd.), but this was ruled out due to the prohibitive quoted price of 191,000 Swiss francs per engine. Such a purchase would have amounted to a total cost of over 2 million francs to re-power all 11 surviving postwar Swiss Gustav aircraft, plus the costs of spare engines, spare parts and any other repairs needed to bring them to an acceptable level of serviceability.

Attacks on Swiss cities

Swiss cities and railway lines were repeatedly bombed by Allied aircraft during the war, beginning with minor attacks by the Royal Air Force on Geneva, Basel, and Zürich in 1940. Possibly the most egregious occurred 1 April 1944 when 50 B-24 Liberators of the U.S. 14th Combat Bombardment Wing bombed Schaffhausen, killing and injuring more than 100, and damaging a large portion of the city. In reaction to comments by Swiss Foreign Minister Marcel Pilet-Golaz that the incident "apparently was a deliberate attack", American apologies were undermined by ill-advised statements made by Air Force commanders in London which blamed weather and minimized the size and accuracy of the attack. Although an in-depth investigation showed that weather in France, particularly winds that nearly doubled the ground speed of the U.S. bombers, did in fact cause the wing to mistake Schaffhausen for its target at Ludwigshafen am Rhein, the Swiss were not mollified. Incidents escalated, resulting in 13 separate attacks on Swiss territory on 22 February 1945—the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special assistant, Lauchlin Currie, went to Schaffhausen to lay a wreath on the graves of those killed a year earlier—and simultaneous attacks 4 March that dropped 29 tons of high explosives and 17 tons of incendiaries on Basel and Zürich.

Swiss air defenses were incapable of counteracting large formations of aircraft, but did intercept and, on occasion attack, small groups. Since these were often aircraft crippled by battle damage and seeking asylum, resentment among Allied aircrew was considerable. The causes of the misdirected bombing attacks were bad weather, faulty equipment, incompetence, or excess pilot zeal, rather than malice or purposeful planning, but the lack of intent did not allay the sufferings and suspicions of the Swiss, and the embarrassment to the United States was considerable. A pattern of violation, diplomatic apology, reparation, and new violation ensued through much of the war, and grew in scope as Allied tactical forces neared Germany. It is still a matter of debate if these bombings occurred by accident, since U.S. strategic air forces had a standing order requiring visual identification before bombing any target within  of the Swiss frontier, or if some members of the Allies wanted to punish Switzerland for their economic and industrial cooperation with Nazi Germany. In particular, Switzerland permitted train transportation through its territory carrying matériel between Germany and Italy, which was readily visible from the air by Allied pilots.

The incidents drew to a close only after a USAAF delegation appointed by U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall met with the Swiss in Geneva on 9 March 1945. The Swiss enumerated every violation since Schaffhausen and demanded full indemnity. The Americans advised that the area requiring positive target identification was henceforth expanded to  from Swiss borders, that no targets within  would be attacked even in clear weather except by personal authorization from American commander General Carl Spaatz, and then only by hand-picked crews, and that tactical air was forbidden to attack any target within  of the Swiss border. Even though these restrictions provided the Germans significant protection from air attack over a large part of southern Germany for the final two months of the war, they were effective in ending the violations and did not seriously hamper Allied prosecution of the war.

Cold War

During World War II, Switzerland struggled with buying and building modern combat aircraft. The fourteen  Bf 109G Gustavs acquired from the Germans (including two interned) proved increasingly difficult to maintain, and were removed from service in 1947, although the "Emil" variants purchased earlier continued on until 1949. The Swiss also acquired nearly 200 aircraft interned after violating its sovereignty, but most were unsuitable for Swiss operations.

However, in 1948 the Swiss were able to purchase 130 surplus P-51 Mustangs from the United States. Several other aircraft types followed, including the 220 de Havilland Vampires purchased in 1949 and 1953, 250 de Havilland Venoms acquired 1954–56, and 100 Hawker Hunters from 1958. The P-51s replaced the Messerschmitt Bf 109s and remained operational for a decade. Both the Venoms and Vampires showed remarkable longevity, with the Venoms in service until 1983 and the Vampires until 1990, more than 40 years. Remarkably the Swiss Air Force after these acquisitions was the first air force in the world to operate only jet aircraft in their front-line squadrons.

N-20 and P-16

The Swiss government experimented in development and production of its own jet fighters, the FFA P-16 and the N-20 Aiguillon, but was not satisfied with them, desiring relatively simple aircraft that did not require extensive training and thus could be flown by militia pilots. These aircraft were developed in accordance with the doctrine of the Swiss Air Force that close air support of ground operations was its main task. The National Defense Commission (LVK), however, based on the experiences of World War II, also desired an aircraft capable of both "neutrality protection and raid-type operations", and the result was projects with inherent self-contradictions.

Hoping that competition would lead to the development of effective but simple ground-attack aircraft, the government asked the Flugzeugwerk Altenrhein (FFA, or "Aircraft Factory Altenrhein") and the Federal Aircraft Factory Emmen to develop jet-propelled fighters. Although the Federal Institute of Technology had a world-renowned aerodynamics laboratory, both projects ended in fiasco, as a result of which the Hunter was purchased instead and introduced into service in 1958.

Both models were plagued from the onset by inefficient engines, but were capable of the short-distance takeoffs required by the Swiss ( for the P–16,  for the N-20). After wind tunnel and engine tests, but before the N–20 could make its maiden flight, Federal Councillor Karl Kobelt cancelled the N-20 project in 1953, leading to much resentment of the government by Emmen engineers when the FFA project was continued. Eventually, neither of the aircraft came into production, although the wings of the P-16 were later used in the development of the successful Learjet.

The Eidgenössische Flugzeugwerke Emmen N-20 was a semi-tailless swept wing jet similar to the U.S. Navy's Vought F7U Cutlass with four engines mounted internally in the wings, fold-out canards to improve its aerodynamics at slow speeds, and a maximum designed airspeed of , a remarkable velocity for an aircraft of the early 1950s. The FFA P-16 was a single-engine straight-wing aircraft for which a contract for production of 100 aircraft was awarded in 1958, but after the second crash of a pre-production model, the order was canceled. The aircraft had met all Swiss Air Force requirements for an STOL attack fighter capable of carrying heavy loads, and the crash was widely considered a pretext for the Swiss parliament to reverse itself. In addition, by the middle of 1958, influenced by NATO concepts, the LVK had redefined the Swiss doctrine of air power from close air support to counter-air operations. Further, the strategic concepts governing Swiss defense doctrine had shifted to a dynamic (mobile) defense that included execution of air missions beyond the Swiss border and the possibility of carrying nuclear weapons, for neither of which the P–16 was suitable.
In this time, the Swiss Air Force also tested a few from the Swiss industry-developed Ground to Air Defence Systems but didn't introduce any of them into service (see: 35 mm anti aircraft tank B22L, RSD 58 and RSE Kriens (Missile)). Also a Mobile Ground to Air Defence System based on the Swiss wheeled APC Mowag Shark equipped with the French Crotale (missile) was not bought for the Swiss Air Force.

Mirage affair

The acquisition of the Hunter had solved part of the Swiss dilemma of needing to support both its ground forces and to deploy an air-to-air capability, but while the Hunter could provide some counter-air defense over a battlefield and escort ground-support fighters it was not supersonic nor was it capable of defending Swiss airspace. In 1961, the Swiss Parliament voted to procure 100 French Dassault Mirage IIICs for this purpose and 67 BL-64 Bloodhound surface-to-air missiles from the British.

The Swiss acquired a single Mirage for testing, as a preface to production under license of 100 Dassault Mirage IIIS interceptors, with strengthened wings, airframe, and undercarriage. Avionics would differ as well, with the Thomson-CSF Cyrano II radar replaced by the Hughes Electronics TARAN-18 system, to provide the Mirage IIIS compatibility with the AIM-4 Falcon air-to-air missile. The Mirage IIIS was intended to be operated as an interceptor, ground attack, and reconnaissance aircraft, using wing pods for the photographic mission.

Production of the Mirage IIIS developed into a scandal. Although the Air Force staff wanted to acquire the best available aircraft on the market, neither it nor the Federal Council had issued performance specifications. The concept of mobile defense had replaced static defense, such as the Réduit strategy of World War II, as the doctrine of the Swiss Armed Forces. The new doctrine required greater numbers of long-range aircraft and tanks in order to combat Soviet troops before they arrived near the Swiss border. The committee on aircraft procurement, which consisted of two military officers and an engineer who was employed by the army, originally proposed "at least 100 Mirages" to be employed in a multi-role capacity.

The parliament first authorized approximately 871 million Swiss francs to build 100 Mirage IIIS under license. But this procurement was soon crushed under massive budget overruns and the government asked for an additional CHF 576 million. The cost overruns were the result of fitting U.S. electronics to the French platform, installing hardpoints for moving the aircraft inside of the caverns by cranes, structural reinforcements for jet-assisted takeoffs, and other extras to improve the off-the-shelf Mirage IIIC.<ref>Lombardi, The Swiss Airpower", note 81, p. 51.</ref> The wish to procure the Mirage IIIS was also boosted by the possibility that the Swiss could acquire aircraft-delivered nuclear weapons, either from France or by producing them themselves.

However, another major reason for rising costs was the need to develop a separate variant for the photo-reconnaissance mission when the underwing pods caused too great a performance penalty. The differences between the IIIS and the IIIRS (as the reconnaissance version was designated) resulted in only 36 Mirage IIIS fighters and 18 IIIRS reconnaissance aircraft actually built by the Federal Aircraft Factory at Emmen. Twelve were allocated to a reconnaissance squadron, three to a training group and the rest to two fighter squadrons. It was found that such a small number was insufficient to provide the multi-role capacity deemed essential for the new doctrine. The Mirage IIIS went into service in 1967, and the IIIRS in 1969.

The lack of financial oversight and the apparent ease with which Federal Councillor Paul Chaudet and Chief of the General Staff Jakob Annasohn chose the Mirage (at the time, the world's fastest jet fighter) led, for the first time in Swiss history, to the formation of a parliamentary fact-finding commission.François Modoux, « Du Mirage au Gripen : l'épreuve du carcan financier », Le Temps, Thursday 15 May 2014, p. 9. As a result, parliamentary oversight on military procurements was improved and the military was given the organizational and professional structures to avoid such budget overruns. One Air Force officer had to retire, and Annasohn himself retired voluntarily in the end of 1964, followed by Chaudet who stepped down in 1966.

 Later Cold War history

In 1972, with the option of nuclear weapons discarded and the likelihood of operations beyond the Swiss border severely restricted, the Federal Military Department (EMD) decided that the next generation of aircraft acquired by the Swiss Air Force would be for close air support. While resurrection of the P-16 was discussed in the Swiss press (FFA had continued theoretical development the aircraft at its own expense, with its final variant, the AR-7, to be equipped with a Rolls-Royce RB168-25 engine), the choice narrowed to the Milan (a joint Swiss-French prototype variant of the Mirage III) and the American A-7G Corsair II, each of which had strong advocates within the Swiss Air Force.

Still reeling from the "Mirage affair", when the Milan project failed from lack of orders and the recommendation for purchase of the A-7 was cancelled, the Air Force instead purchased 30 additional, surplus Hawker Hunters in 1973 to improve its ground attack capability (the small number of Mirages were reserved for reconnaissance and interceptor roles).
At this time the Swiss aviation industry and the ETH Zurich made a last attempt for a Swiss made fighter jet, the  ALR Piranha but they had no success. And it remained an unfinished project.

The end of the 1970s saw the introduction of the Northrop F-5 Tiger II. The F-5 won the competition against the F-4 Phantom II, Dassault Mirage F1 and Saab 37 Viggen, after the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the Fiat G.91Y and the A-4N Skyhawk passed out the contest before the flight evaluation. In 1976 the Federal Council ordered 72 aircraft, all of which were delivered by 1979. A follow-up order for 38 in 1981 brought the totals to 98 single-seat F-5E and 12 two-seat F-5F, which were deployed in five squadrons headquartered at Dübendorf. Initially the Tigers were responsible for air sovereignty below , but some also took on a ground attack mission as the Hawker Hunters were phased out.

In 1985 the Mirage IIIS fleet, nearing 20 years of operational service, began a major upgrade program to improve the capabilities of the aircraft. The interceptors were retro-fitted with canards manufactured by Israeli Aircraft Industries on the air intakes to improve maneuverability and stability at landing speeds, new avionics and countermeasures, and redesignated the Mirage IIIS C.70.

Meanwhile, the lengthy nature of the Swiss aircraft procurement process, reinforced by the embarrassments of the Mirage Affair, resulted in the simultaneous acquisition of a new fighter to eventually replace the Mirage. The Swiss considered the Dassault Rafale, Dassault Mirage 2000, the IAI Lavi, the Northrop F-20 Tigershark, and the BAE Systems/Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighters before choosing the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon for a fly-off evaluation held in May 1988.Some sources state that the MiG-29, rather than the Rafale, was considered. From that competition, the Federal Council chose the Hornet in October 1988. The Hornets were to be virtually "off-the-shelf" models, nearly identical to those operated by the U.S. Navy but with stronger titanium alloy frames for an anticipated 30-year service life.

However the competition was reopened in 1990 to allow for a reconsideration of a European fighter, the Mirage 2000-5. In June 1991 the choice of the Hornet was reconfirmed, and the political struggle to have its purchase approved by referendum began. In the meantime, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and with its dissolution the Cold War ended.

Overseas training
A small contingent of Hawker Hunters deployed to Sweden in 1965 for training in air-to-ground delivery of ordnance, and intermittently thereafter, but annual training abroad for the Swiss Air Force did not begin until 1985. The use of Swiss air space for combat training became increasingly impractical as the performance of supersonic jets increased and created environmental restrictions. The Swiss modified their traditional stance of neutrality to seek other facilities, particularly among NATO European members, to meet their training needs.

The first annual training exercise was acronymed SAKA (SArdinien KAmpagne), first begun 3 January 1985. It was conducted at the Air Weapons Training Installation (AWTI) at Decimomannu Air Base on Sardinia, at the time the only such facility outside of the United States. Up to 18 Swiss Mirages and Tigers per year conducted air combat maneuvering training on its instrumentation range. Following its fifth SAKA exercise in 1989, however, demands by NATO air forces for the facility resulted in permission for Swiss Air Force usage to be withdrawn.

When its SAKA exercise set for June 1990 had to be cancelled, the Swiss Air Force began a new training program at RAF Waddington in the United Kingdom, which it called NORKA (NORdsee KAmpagne). A newly built Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) range operated by British Aerospace provided it with a facility with which to conduct realistic combat training against other aircraft, and it began the first of twelve annual exercises on 16 November 1990.

Post-Cold War developments

Changes in doctrine
With the end of the Cold War, the probability of a ground invasion of Switzerland ended, substantially changing Swiss military doctrine and resulting in reduction of both the budget and the size of the Swiss Armed Forces. In Armed Forces Reform 95, and its supporting program Defense Guidelines 95, the Air Force retained its basic structure and organization, but became a totally independent service, now called the Swiss Air Force, on 1 January 1996. For the first time since its inception, subordination of the counter-air role to the ground support mission ended, and defense of domestic airspace was made its highest priority and primary task.

In addition, the Air Force was tasked with gathering intelligence, air reconnaissance, and air transport. Support of ground troops, both doctrinally and as a practical matter, became marginal. These missions were strongly influenced by a shrinking capability, since its combat aircraft could operate by daylight only, its anti-aircraft artillery was obsolete, and the FLORIDA radar system had reached the limits of operational effectiveness. The retirement of the Hawker Hunters in 1994 ended its ground support capability, and a cut of one-third from the defence budget meant that plans for a second purchase of F/A-18s and supporting air-to-ground weapons (the reason the multi-capable Hornet was selected) had to be canceled, leaving both it and the F-5s in a strictly air-to-air role.

Almost immediately the Air Force was reduced from 290 to 190 fixed-wing aircraft and had five of its twelve bases closed. In 2002, the Armée XXI reforms continued the pattern of reduction, with bases at Mollis, Turtmann, and Interlaken closed, jets relocated out of Dübendorf (later planned for closing), and the helicopter base at Alpnach placed on the closure list. These closures left Payerne, Sion, and Meiringen as the only combat bases, Emmen as the main helicopter base, and Locarno as a training base. Buochs was maintained for war-time reactivation, and the theoretical plan for using highways near Payerne, Sion, and Lodrino as emergency runways was retained, although no pilots have been trained in their use since the mid-1980s.

New jets and political struggles

In 1993, a popular initiative that sought to stop the procurement of the 34 F/A-18 Hornets (chosen by the Federal Council in 1988) to replace the Mirages was defeated by a majority of 57%. Two versions, a two-seat D-model and a single-seat C, were built in the United States and flight-tested in 1996, delivered in December 1996 and 1998 respectively. Thirty-two production kits were shipped to Switzerland for assembly, with the first in service in January 1997 and the final aircraft delivered in December 1999. One crashed during workups, leaving 28 C's and 5 Ds assigned to three squadrons. Seven instructor pilots were trained at NAS Cecil Field, Florida, and the United States Navy also provided two instructors on exchange to train Hornet pilots.

In 1990, the Swiss Air Force acquired 20 British Aerospace Hawk Mk.66s to provide an interim solution to its jet training requirements, but these were retired in 2003 and sold to Finland. The Mirages ended their service in the second half of the 1990s, with the last Mirage fighter retired in 1999 and the final Mirage reconnaissance jet in December 2003.

Since 1993 the Swiss Air Force has faced continuing challenges from left-wing and environmental lobbies regarding its existence, policy, and operations. On 24 February 2008, an initiative to ban the training flights of jet aircraft over tourist areas of Switzerland (virtually the entire nation) to reduce the impact of noise pollution, which had been publicly debated since the delivery of the F/A-18 (which referendum initiator Franz Weber termed "oversized, ineffective, and ruinous"), was defeated by a vote of 68.1%.

When the Hunters were retired in 1994, the air force made an effort to provide some F-5 Tigers with an air-to-ground capability but this proved prohibitively expensive, and plans to replace the fleet after 2010 with a fourth-generation jet fighter were begun. A dozen F-5s were leased in 2004 to Austria for four years (while it awaited the delivery of new Eurofighters), and the Swiss maintenance of its fleet was such that they were considered "low-hours" by the U.S. Navy, which purchased 36 in 2006–2008 to replace its aging Aggressor aircraft. This effectively reduced the F-5 inventory by half, and proposals to replace the Tigers with JAS-39 Gripens, Rafales, EADS Eurofighter Typhoons, or the advanced Super Hornet variant of the FA-18 came under consideration. In the end the JAS-39 Gripen was chosen because it was the cheapest candidate. The purchase was rejected by 53.4% of Swiss voters in a national referendum on 18 May 2014.

Overseas training continued with the annual NORKA exercises through 2001, when NORKA was discontinued in favor of NOMAD (North Sea Operations for Mutual Air Defence), a multi-nation ACMI training exercise held annually at RAF Waddington, which Swiss contingents began attending in 2000. Training in night operations, called NIGHTWAY, began in 1998 at Ørland MAS, Norway, and continued annually except for 1999 and 2005. Training abroad with NATO nations reflected the changing realities of neutrality, also reflected in 1997 by the discontinuation of the Swiss  "Bambini Code" in favor of the NATO Brevity Code. The first female Swiss fighter pilot, 1st Lt. Fanny Cholet, was cleared to fly the F/A-18 in February 2019.

Aircraft formerly in service with the Swiss Air Force

 Previous aircraft

 Closed Air Force bases
 Ambri (LSPM)
 Ems GR
 Frutigen
 Flugplatz Interlaken (LSMI)
 Flugplatz Kägiswil (LSPG)
 Littau
 Mollis
 Münster VS
 Raron (LSTA)
 Reichenbach im Kandertal
 Saanen  (LSGK)
 San Vittore GR
 Sankt Stephan BE  (LSTS)
 Turtmann  (LSMJ)
 Ulrichen
 Zweisimmen  (LSTZ)

See also
 Military history of Switzerland

 Notes and references

Bibliography
Roman Schürmann: Helvetische Jäger. Dramen und Skandale am Militärhimmel. Rotpunktverlag, Zürich 2009,
Lombardi, Fiona. (2007). The Swiss Air Power: Wherefrom? Whereto?''. Vdf Hochschulverslag Language. .

External links

History on the official website of the Swiss Air Force
Swiss Air Force - All-time aircraft listing

Swiss Air Force
Military history of Switzerland
Switzerland
Air Force
Aviation history of Switzerland


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Grand Canyon Caverns Airport
Grand Canyon National Park Airport
Grand Canyon West Airport
Grand Canyon Bar 10 Airport