Atlanta Speedway Airport (formerly 4A7), is a public-use airport located three

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (6 km) west of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

, a city in

Henry County, Georgia Henry County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. Per the 2020 census, the population of Henry County is 240,712, up from 203,922 in 2010. The county seat is McDonough. The county was named for Patrick Henry. He ...

, United States. It was known as Clayton County Airport – Tara Field, which was the name still used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the

Georgia Department of Transportation The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is the organization in charge of developing and maintaining all state and federal roadways in the U.S. state of Georgia. In addition to highways, the department also has a limited role in developin ...

(GDOT) until 2011. The airport was renamed Atlanta South Regional Airport, which was approved by the airport board of commissioners in December 2011, and was approved by the GDOT and the FAA before it went into effect. It was also known as Henry County Airport from 2013 to 2017. Although the airport is located in Henry County, it was owned and operated by

Clayton County Clayton County is the name of two counties in the United States: * Clayton County, Georgia in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area * Clayton County, Iowa It was also the former name of Clay County, Arkansas Clay County is a county located in the U.S. ...

to the north from 1992 until 2011. It is not near most of that county, except for its very small southern tip. The north end of Clayton County has part of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, thus Tara Field served

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

, especially for the

Atlanta Motor Speedway Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series ...

immediately next to it. At its July 12, 2011, meeting, the Clayton County Board of Commissioners voted to sell the airport to Henry County in a deal worth $17.7 million. The Henry County Board of Commissioners agreed to the purchase at a meeting on July 13, 2011, and the sale was completed in August 2011. Henry County paid just $2.7 million toward the purchase price, with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Georgia Department of Transportation funding the balance of $15 million. The Henry County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday, December 4, 2012, to move forward with the runway expansion project, which extended the runway to 5,500 feet and widened it by 25 feet. The project was complete in time for the Labor Day race at

in Hampton. This airport is included in the

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a ''

'' facility. There is no

weather station A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

flight info reported for this airport. On April 15, 2013, the airport runway was closed for 2 months to allow for construction on widening of the runway. Phase I of the Airport Expansion began in February 2013 and was completed for the 2013 NASCAR weekend at the nearby Speedway. Expansion consisted of adding 1,000 feet to the 24 end and widening the existing runway 25 feet. At the completion of Phase I, the new runway will be 5,503 feet long by 100 feet wide.

History

The airport was originally named Bear Creek Airport and was built in the late 60's and operated by a Mr. Morris. In July 2005, the airport and the adjacent speedway were hit by an F2

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

on the evening of July 6. Millions of dollars in damage was done to the airport, in addition to the tens of millions at the speedway. Four

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...

s were flipped over,

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s were torn apart, and

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

insulation Insulation may refer to: Thermal * Thermal insulation, use of materials to reduce rates of heat transfer ** List of insulation materials ** Building insulation, thermal insulation added to buildings for comfort and energy efficiency *** Insulated ...

and

sheet metal Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...

were plastered into

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length. ...

s, along with another plane. The storm was a result of Hurricane Cindy, after it had already been downgraded to a

tropical depression A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

after

landfall Landfall is the event of a storm moving over land after being over water. More broadly, and in relation to human travel, it refers to 'the first land that is reached or seen at the end of a journey across the sea or through the air, or the fact ...

. Another

severe thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

struck in 2014, causing a

downburst In meteorology, a downburst is a strong downward and outward gushing wind system that emanates from a point source above and blows radially, that is, in straight lines in all directions from the area of impact at surface level. Capable of pro ...

with winds at minimal hurricane strength on the evening of September 7th. Planes were again flipped over, destroying six of them and damaging another 15, in addition to relatively minor damage to some hangar doors and other airport facilities. The FAA has changed the airport ID from 4A7 to KHMP. In 2013, the county changed the facility’s name from Atlanta South Regional Airport to Henry County Airport, and again in 2017 to Atlanta Speedway Airport, due to its location across the street from

, where Turns 1 and 2 overlook the runway. Speedway Motorsports officials have indicated that they will allow the county to use the new name which identifies the airport more closely with the race track facility (aircraft used by teams will fly into the airport), and it will also help increase visibility around the United States for economic development purposes.

Facilities and aircraft

The airport covers an area of 160

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s (65 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 874 feet (266 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 6/24 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

surface measuring 5,500 by 75 feet (1,676 x 23 m). For the 12-month period ending June 9, 2011, the airport had 42,000 aircraft operations, an average of 115 per day: 96%

and 4%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) an ...

. At that time there were 93 aircraft based at this airport: 63% single-

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...

, 15% multi-engine, 4% jet, 14%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

, and 3%

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

References

External links

Atlanta Speedway Airport official site

Aerial image as of April 2002
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clayton County Airport - Tara Field Airports in Georgia (U.S. state) Buildings and structures in Henry County, Georgia Transportation in Henry County, Georgia