The facility was originally constructed in 1940 at the village of Michoud, Louisiana, by the Higgins-Tucker division of Higgins Industries under the direction of Andrew Jackson Higgins. Construction was done on behalf of the United States government for the war production during World War II of plywood C-76 cargo planes and landing craft. The project cost $180 million ($2.8 billion in 2018). Production of the C-76 never commenced and instead produced 2 Curtiss C-46 Commando in 1943 and remaining order cancelled in 1944. The facility was referred to as Michaud (Factory) Airfield in the 1940s and briefly as a National Guard field in 1949, but became inactive by 1952.