Today, the Addison Midday Rotary Club toured the Addison Airport. According to Wikipedia, it opened in 1954 and was purchased by the Town of Addison in 1976. It covers 368 acres and has one runway. In 2015 it had 96,476 aircraft operations, averaging 264 per day. 621 aircraft were then based at the airport — 323 single-engine, 111 multi-engine, 176 jets and 11 helicopters. The former city manager, who is a member of Addison Midday Rotary, said it is the busiest general aviation airport in Texas. We toured the recently built office building and U.S. Customs and Border Protection building. What is a general aviation airport? Let’s find out.
According to the May 2012 report “General Aviation Airports: A National Asset” from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, General aviation airports in the United States are diverse and their aeronautical functions have evolved over time. Many airports, for instance, were opened as private landing strips or military airfields in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Some evolved into primary airports we use today; one of these is Salt Lake City International or SLC. It began as a simple landing strip in 1911, became an airmail airport known as Woodward Field in 1920 and, ultimately, was developed into the large hub primary airport it is today.
Other airports, such as Gauthier’s Flying Field just north of the heart of Chicago, evolved from a modest grass strip in the 1920s into a thriving general aviation airport with hundreds of based aircraft and some 90,000 takeoffs and landings annually. That airport is now named Chicago Executive Airport, serves the general and business aviation sectors of the Chicago Metropolitan Area and accepts traffic that would otherwise be destined for Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
Still other airports, heliports, and seaplane bases were established and continue to operate as small general aviation airports accessing remote community areas, and some large military airfields have been converted to general aviation use. General aviation airports have evolved differently over the past century to meet the specific needs of the communities they serve and the national aviation system. As a result, the United States has the largest and most diverse system of general aviation airports in the world. Having a well-developed system of general aviation airports throughout the country supports commerce while also providing a safety net of airports to support emergency aircraft diversions when necessary due to mechanical problems, medical emergencies, deteriorating weather conditions or other unforeseen circumstances.
According to Wikipedia, general aviation or GA is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other purposes. However, for statistical purposes ICAO uses a definition of general aviation which includes aerial work.
General aviation thus represents the "private transport" and recreational components of aviation.
Definition
The International Civil Aviation Organization or ICAO defines civil aviation aircraft operations in three categories: General Aviation or GA, Aerial Work or AW and Commercial Air Transport or CAT. Aerial work operations are separated from general aviation by ICAO by this definition. Aerial work is when an aircraft is used for specialized services such as agriculture, construction, photography, surveying, observation and patrol, search and rescue and aerial advertisement. However for statistical purposes, ICAO includes aerial work within general aviation and has proposed officially extending the definition of general aviation to include aerial work to reflect common usage. The proposed ICAO classification includes instructional flying as part of general aviation — non-aerial-work.
The International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations or IAOPA refers to the category as General Aviation/Aerial Work or GA/AW to avoid ambiguity. Their definition of General Aviation includes:
Corporate Aviation: Company own-
use flight operations.
Fractional Ownership Operations: Aircraft operated by a specialized company on behalf
of two or more co-owners.
Business Aviation or Travel: Self-flown for business purposes.
Personal/Private Travel: Travel for personal reasons/personal transport.
Air Tourism: Self-flown incoming/outgoing tourism.
Recreational Flying: Powered/powerless leisure flying activities.
Air Sports: Aerobatics, air races, competitions, rallies etc.
General aviation thus includes both commercial and non-commercial activities.
IAOPA's definition of Aerial Work includes but is not limited to:
Agricultural flights, including crop
dusting.
Banner-towing.
Aerial firefighting.
Medical evacuation.
Pilot training.
Search and rescue.
Sightseeing flights.
Skydiving flights.
Organ transplant transport flights.
Commercial Air Transport includes:
Scheduled air services.
Non-scheduled air transport.
Air cargo services.
Air taxi operations.
However, in some countries air taxi is regarded as being part of GA/AW.
Private flights are made in a wide variety of aircraft: light and ultra-light aircraft, sport aircraft, homebuilt aircraft, business aircraft like private jets, gliders and helicopters. Flights can be carried out under both visual flight or VFR and instrument flight or IFR rules and can use controlled airspace with permission.
The majority of the world's air traffic falls into the category of general aviation, and most of the world's airports serve GA exclusively. Flying clubs are considered a part of general aviation.
Geography
Europe
In 2003 the European Aviation Safety Agency or EASA was established as the central EU regulator, taking over responsibility for legislating airworthiness and environmental regulation from the national authorities.
United Kingdom
Of the 21,000 civil aircraft registered in the UK, 96% are engaged in GA operations, and annually, the GA fleet accounts for between 1.25 and 1.35 million hours flown. There are 28,000 private pilot license holders and 10,000 certified glider pilots. Some of the 19,000 pilots who hold professional licenses are also engaged in GA activities. GA operates from more than 1,800 airports and landing sites or aerodromes, ranging in size from large regional airports to farm strips.
GA is regulated by the Civil Aviation Authority or CAA. The main focus is on standards of airworthiness and pilot licensing, and the objective is to promote high standards of safety.
North America
General aviation is particularly popular in North America, with over 6,300 airports available for public use by pilots of general aviation aircraft — around 5,200 airports in the U.S. and over 1,000 in Canada. In comparison, scheduled flights operate from around 560 airports in the U.S. According to the U.S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association or AOPA, general aviation provides more than 1% of the United States' gross domestic product or GDP, accounting for 1.3 million jobs in professional services and manufacturing.
According to the General Aviation News Staff’s Feb. 3, 2020 article “Top 10 busiest general aviation airports” in General Aviation News, using FAA data of local general aviation traffic and itinerant general aviation operations for fiscal year 2017, the 10 busiest general aviation airports are listed below.
1. Van Nuys (California) Airport or VNY
Located in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Airport ranks as one of the world's busiest general aviation airports. Dedicated to noncommercial air travel, it averages over 232,000 takeoffs and landings annually. VNY has two parallel runways — one with full instrument landing system — and an FAA tower. The main runway is 8,000 feet in length, and the training runway is 4,000 feet long. VNY has a rich history in aviation, hosting record breakers and celebrities over its 90 years in service.
In its early years, VNY served as the base for many record-breaking flights, including:
- A men’s solo endurance record of 37 hours, by Herbert Fahy, in 1929.
- A women’s endurance record of 42 hours, by Elinor Smith and Bobbi Trout, in 1929.
- A women’s speed record of 196 mph, by Florence “Pancho” Barnes, in 1930.
Hollywood stars discovered the airport too, with Gene Autry, Cecil B. DeMille and Howard Hughes among the celebrities who flew there. Although the Great Depression put an end to the corporation that established the airport, Hollywood film production — which like the stars themselves had found a home at the airport — helped save it. Filmmakers used the site for scenes from famous movies such as “Casablanca,” “Hell’s Angels,” “Lost Horizon,” “Men with Wings” and “Storm Over the Andes.” To this day, producers of movies, TV shows, videos and commercials frequently turn to VNY to help meet their filming needs. Just a few of the modern-day scenes shot at VNY include “Shark Tank,” “Glee,” “The Office,” “Red 2” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
2. Phoenix Deer Valley Airport or DVT
Deer Valley Airport serves to relieve air traffic from Phoenix Sky Harbor. It offers a complete range of services including fueling, avionics repair, maintenance, parts, flight training, new and used aircraft sales and aircraft rentals. The airport is home to nearly 1,100 aircraft. It encompasses approximately 914 acres of property and is located 15 miles north of downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
Deer Valley Municipal Airport was built in 1960 as a private airfield with a single runway. This simple facility had no control tower and very limited amenities. In 1971, the City of Phoenix purchased the 482-acre site. Operations began with a temporary air traffic control tower sitting atop a four-foot mound of dirt. Locals joked that the mobile unit looked more like a hot dog stand. They were not too far off; the aging piece of equipment was being used as a hothouse for growing tomatoes before being called back into service for the airport.
In 1975, a new terminal was constructed, and the FAA began directing air traffic. Moving into a modern control tower, the FAA replaced Deer Valley's four hard-working radio operators with 26 air traffic controllers. The airport also became home to the Phoenix Police Department who utilize a 12,000-square-foot hangar for their citywide helicopter operations.
The Phoenix City Council adopted a Master Plan for the airport in 1986. The plan called for improvements enabling Deer Valley to accommodate a wider range of aircraft. Lengthening the south runway was its first focus and allowed the airfield to support over 90% of the nation's general aviation fleet. In total, $17 million turned the modest airfield into a modern, full-service airport. Since then, an additional 469 T-hangars have been constructed on the airport's north side, and the main runway has been reconstructed. In 2007, the FAA completed construction of a state-of-the-art air traffic control tower on the north side of the airport.
3. Centennial Airport near Denver,
Colorado
According to Ellis Arnold’s May 1, 2018, article “Centennial Airport: from open prairie to economic driver” in the Centennial Citizen, an economic hub, the airport generates an annual economic impact of $1.39 billion, and the airport and associated businesses pay an estimated $33 million in taxes each year to local municipal and county partners.
In the early 1960s, George Mackenzie Wallace found a large scratch on his shiny, black car parked in downtown Denver and moved his office to a location with more space for parking, setting out to buy two acres in in the southeastern part of the Denver metro area, but a reluctant seller wouldn't break up a 40-acre parcel. He carried out his vision for a working environment that would eventually become the Denver Tech Center, one of the first suburban office parks of its kind in the nation.
It wasn't long before Wallace saw the need for a general-aviation airport to serve the growing area; he helped push for a solution in what would become the Arapahoe County Airport. It officially opened May 12, 1968. Local newspapers report more than 20,000 in attendance. Aerobatic pilot Dick Rutt cut the first ceremonial ribbon with the wing tip of his plane. At the time, there are 98 aircraft based at the airport.
The airport officially changes its name in 1984 to Centennial Airport, a name adopted by the Airport Authority to reflect growth, and as a hat tip to Colorado's nickname, the Centennial state.
Total aircraft operations in 2017 are about 340,000, and based aircraft total about 1,000. Centennial Airport marked its 50th birthday in 2018 debt-free.
4. Prescott (Arizona) Regional Airport
According to Wikipedia, Prescott Regional Airport or Ernest A. Love Field (PRC) is a general aviation airport eight miles north of Prescott, Arizona. Most traffic at PRC is training flights from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University but includes training flights from operations including Guidance Aviation and North-Aire.
The airport is named for Ernest A. Love (1895–1918), First Lieutenant, United States Army Air Service. Love was born in New Mexico and raised in Prescott. He was a graduate of Prescott High School and studied mechanical engineering at Stanford. He served in World War I and was shot down near Verdun, France, on September 16, 1918, and he died of his wounds as a prisoner of war a few days later. Lieutenant Love is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The hamlet of Love, Arizona, is also named for him.
Ernest A. Love Field covers 760 acres at an elevation of 5,045 feet. It has three asphalt runways. In 2019, the City of Prescott received a $10 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration for construction of a new terminal building. The building was funded with $1 million from the state of Arizona and $3.5 million of local funds. The new passenger terminal opened to the public in March 2021.
According to Fain Signature Group, in 1928, Granville “Dan” Fain of the Fain family donated a prime section of ranchland to the City of Prescott during a time of great difficulty as this was during the years of the Great Depression. During this time period, the Fains lost well over half of their ranchlands. Despite the challenges, philanthropy ran strong in the Fain family, and they proceeded to donate this section of land to the city. That land is now known today as the Prescott Regional Airport.
5. Long Beach (California) Airport
According to Wikipedia, Long Beach Airport is three miles northeast of downtown Long Beach in Los Angeles county, California. It is also called Daugherty Field, named after local aviator Earl Daugherty.
The first transcontinental flight, a biplane flown by Calbraith Perry Rodgers, landed in 1911 on Long Beach's sandy beach. From 1911 until the airport was created, planes used the beach as a runway.
Barnstormer Earl S. Daugherty had leased the area that later became the airport for air shows, stunt flying, wing-walking and passenger rides. He started the world's first flight school in 1919 at the same location. In 1923 Daugherty convinced the city council to use the site to create the first municipal airport.
Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan used to fly regularly out of Daugherty Field. Before his infamous flight from Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland in 1938, he had flown from Long Beach to New York. After authorities refused his request to continue on to Ireland, he was supposed to return to Daugherty Field, but a claimed navigational error routed him to Ireland. He never publicly acknowledged having flown there intentionally.
To attract the United States Navy, the City of Long Beach built a hangar and an administrative building and then offered to lease it to the Navy for $1 a year for the establishment of a Naval Reserve air base. On May 10, 1928, the U.S. Navy commissioned the field as a Naval Reserve air base or NRAB Long Beach. Two years later the city built a hangar and administrative building for the United States Army Air Corps as well. Significant developments to the little city airport began only after the city built hangars and administrative facilities for the Army and Navy in 1928–30.
The main terminal building was designed by architects William Horace Austin and Kenneth Smith Wing and was constructed in 1941.
The murals and mosaics were created by artist Grace Clements and completed in 1941, with the support of the Works Progress Administration. They depict aviation, navigation and constellations.
6. Hillsboro Airport near Portland, Oregon
According to Wikipedia, Hillsboro Airport, also known as Portland–Hillsboro Airport, is a corporate, general aviation and flight-training airport serving the city of Hillsboro, in Washington County, Oregon. It is one of three airports in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area owned and operated by the Port of Portland. Established in 1928, it is Oregon's second busiest airport in terms of total aircraft operations at over 200,000 operations annually.
Located in the north-central area of Hillsboro and west of Portland, it hosts the annual Oregon International Air Show. The airport includes a Federal Aviation Administration control tower, three paved runways, hangars, fueling facilities and a small passenger terminal. Hillsboro Airport is also a port of entry with a single-person U.S. Customs and Border Protection office.
Hillsboro airport goes back to 1928. Dr. Elmer H. Smith purchased 100 acres of land near the town to use as an airport, as he owned the first airplane in town. In the early 1930s, after Smith died, the city purchased the airport for $7,500 and received a federal grant to improve the facilities. They built two runways, one 3,000 feet long and the other 2,800 feet.
In July 1936, Richard Evelyn Byrd's "Stars And Stripes" Fairchild FC-2 aircraft used to explore the South Pole was displayed at the airport.
During and after flooding along the Columbia River in 1948, the Hillsboro facility was used by some commercial operators due to the closure of then Portland-Columbia Airport — now Portland International — which lies along the river. This was the flooding that wiped out the city of Vanport, and due to that disaster, relief supplies were flown into the Portland area by the United States Air Force using the Hillsboro Airport.
7. Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport
Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport — formerly Williams Gateway Airport (1994–2008) and Williams Air Force Base (1948–1993) — is an international airport in the southeastern area of Mesa, Arizona, 20 miles southeast of Phoenix in Maricopa County.
The airport was built in 1941 as Higley Field. It was renamed Williams Field on February 24, 1942, in honor of Arizona native First Lieutenant Charles Linton Williams (1898–1927), who was killed while serving with the 19th Pursuit Squadron at Wheeler Field, Oahu, when he had to ditch his Boeing PW-9A, 26-353, in the Pacific Ocean about a mile off of Fort DeRussy in Waikiki, Hawaii. In 1948, Williams Field was acquired by the U.S. military and renamed Williams Air Base. It was a flight-training field during World War II.
In 1948, Williams became the first jet training base. In 1966, it was the first site of the Undergraduate Pilot Training program. The base was closed in 1993. As the base was being shut down, growing traffic at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix was figured to warrant an alternative airport. The runway was expanded to accommodate airliners, and the facility opened in 1994 as Williams Gateway Airport. The airport covers 3,020 acres and has three parallel paved runways. In the year ending October 31, 2021, the airport had 273,672 aircraft operations averaging 749 per day, with 130 aircraft were based at the airport.
8. Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona
Falcon Field is in an airport located in Maricopa County, Arizona. It was originally built 6 miles northeast of Mesa, which owns it. However, it is now within city limits.
The Boeing Company operates a heliport and factory adjacent to Falcon Field, known as the Boeing Mesa Facility. Boeing uses the facility to manufacture and maintain the AH-64 Apache military
Falcon Field got its start before World War II when Hollywood producer Leland Hayward and pilot John H. "Jack" Connelly founded Southwest Airways with funding from friends including Henry Fonda, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, James Stewart and Hoagy Carmichael. Southwest Airways operated two other airfields in Arizona — Thunderbird Field No. 1 (now the site of Thunderbird School of Global Management) and Thunderbird Field No. 2 (now the site of Scottsdale Airport) — to train pilots from China, Russia and 24 other Allied nations. Falcon was to be Thunderbird Field III and would train British pilots.
However, the British said they would like the field to be named after one of their birds, and thus Falcon Field opened as the No. 4 British Flying Training School or BFTS. There were six BFTS airfields in the U.S. — in Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, California and Arizona.
In September 1941 the first cadets of the Royal Air Force arrived. They trained in Stearman PT-17s and North American Aviation AT-6s. The good weather, wide-open desert terrain and lack of enemy airpower provided safer and more efficient training than was possible in England. Even so, 23 British cadets, one American cadet and four instructors were killed and are now buried in the Mesa City Cemetery, along with several colleagues who have since died of natural causes. Several thousand pilots were trained there until the RAF installation was closed at the end of the war. The City of Mesa purchased the field from the U.S. government for $1.
From 1945 to 1965 the field was leased out to industrial interests. Eventually it became a civil airfield and is now owned and operated by the city of Mesa.
Falcon Field is the home of CAE Oxford Aviation Academy, the largest flight school in the world. Student pilots from Japan, Belgium, The Netherlands, the UK, Italy, Turkey, Mexico and Vietnam fly out of Falcon Field.
Since 1976 Falcon Field has been the home of Airbase Arizona, one of the largest units in the Commemorative Air Force which operates a flying B-17G "Sentimental Journey" and a B-25J "Maid in the Shade" among other aircraft. On May 19, 2016, the Falcon Field World War II Aviation Hangars were listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
9. Grand Forks International Airport in
North Dakota
Grand Forks International Airport is a public airport five miles northwest of Grand Forks, in Grand Forks County, North Dakota. GFK has no scheduled passenger flights out of the country but has an "international" title like many other airports because it has customs service for arrivals from Canada and other countries.
The airport — sometimes called Mark Andrews International Airport after Mark Andrews, a former U.S. House Representative and U.S. Senator from North Dakota — is owned by the Grand Forks Regional Airport Authority. About 90% of all operations at GFK are flights operated by the University of North Dakota's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences, which is based on the field.
Grand Forks’ first airport and municipal landing field was started in. For years the runway was nothing more than a well-drained and leveled landing strip in a field. Large yellow letters “GRAND FORKS” and an arrow pointing toward the airport with the words “TWO MILES” were painted atop the elevator section of the mill and elevator to guide visiting aviators to the city’s airport.
The 1963-64 airport project cost almost $3 million including the terminal, two runways, taxiways and drainage facilities. In present day value that would equate to $26 million. In early 1964 the Grand Forks airport was moved from the west edge of Grand Forks to its current location five miles west. Back then the airport combined with tenants employed just 20 people and had only a handful of hangars and a terminal.
Now with over 30 buildings, 20 service providers and four runways, GFK is the 20th busiest airport in the country and employs over 800 people combined. In 2014 it boarded close to 150,000 passengers compared to just 21,000 passengers in 1964.
10. Gillespie Field near San Diego,
California
Gillespie Field is a county-owned public towered airport 11.5 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, in El Cajon, San Diego County, California.
In 1942 the United States Marine Corps chose a site with 688 acres east of San Diego for parachute training for the newly forming parachute battalions. In September 1942 Camp Gillespie was completed and named in honor of Lieutenant Archibald H. Gillespie, a Marine officer who played a prominent role in the effort to separate California from Mexico in the 1840s. Three 256-feet-high towers were built from which the paratroopers practiced their jumps.
In February 1944, the camp was commissioned as Marine Corps Auxiliary Airfield Gillespie under the command of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. MCAAF Gillespie soon became responsible for Camp Pendleton Outlying Air Field. Among the units that transited and trained at MCAAF Gillespie were VMSB-141, Air Warning Squadron 10 and the Navy's TBM-3 Avenger torpedo squadron VT-37.
In 1946 the airfield was turned over to San Diego County and became a general aviation facility.
In 1952 the County was granted ownership of the facility by the federal government.
In 1955, the county granted a 50-year lease for 180 acres of land adjacent to the south of the airport, which became the Cajon Speedway by 1961. The last race was run in 2004, and the county started expansion of the airport onto 70 acres of this land in 2005.
In 1971 the County Sheriff stationed ASTREA, a helicopter law enforcement base at the airport, and in 1993 the San Diego Aerospace Museum located its restoration operations and an exhibit at the field. It is open to the public and has on display many vintage and modern aircraft. It has an Atlas ICBM rocket as its gate guard, a recently restored F-102A Delta Dagger with drop tanks and AIM-4A Falcon missiles and a Grumman F-14A Tomcat used in the “Top Gun” movie sequel.
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