Aurora State Airport is a public

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located one mile (2 km) northwest 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 ...

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

, a city in Marion County,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is owned by the

Oregon Department of Aviation The Oregon Department of Aviation is an agency of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon chiefly responsible for matters relating to the continuing development of aviation as part of the state's transportation system, and the safety of its airw ...

. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for the

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 ...

and

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

, Aurora State Airport is assigned UAO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA. Primarily a

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 ...

airport, Aurora has significant business aviation based at the field. In addition the airport serves as the home to two major aviation companies Van's Aircraft and

Columbia Helicopters Columbia Helicopters, Incorporated (CHI) is an aircraft manufacturing and operator company based in Aurora, Oregon, United States. It is known for operating tandem rotor helicopters; in present times, exclusively the Boeing Vertol 107 and Boeing ...

. On May 26, 2009, the

Oregon State Legislature The Oregon Legislative Assembly is the state legislature for the U.S. state of Oregon. The Legislative Assembly is bicameral, consisting of an upper and lower house: the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms; and the Ho ...

passed a resolution identifying the airport as Wes Lematta Field at Aurora State Airport. The late Wes Lematta was the founder of Columbia Helicopters located on the northeastern corner of the field.

Facilities and aircraft

Aurora State Airport covers an area of which contains one

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 ...

paved

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 ...

(17/35) measuring 5,004 x 100 ft (1,525 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2000, the airport had 73,895 aircraft operations, an average of 202 per day: 91%

, 8%

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 ...

and <1% military. There are 432 aircraft based at this airport: 84% single engine, 7% multi-engine, 1% jet aircraft and 8%

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 ...

s. Three

fixed-base operator A fixed-base operator (FBO) is an organization granted the right by an airport to operate at the airport and provide aeronautical services such as fueling, hangaring, tie-down and parking, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance, flight instruction, ...

s operate at the field: Aurora Aviation, Atlantic FBO Network, and Willamette Aviation. Aurora Flight Training and Willamette Aviation provide flight instruction, aircraft rentals, and aircraft sales, while Atlantic FBO Network primarily provides aircraft refueling services, hangars for corporate aircraft, and an executive lounge for private and corporate jet operations. Willamette Aviation also provides self service 100LL fuel (located at the end of runway 17). Due to increased flight activity and its location in the busy airspace corridor between Salem

McNary Field McNary Field (Salem Municipal Airport) is in Marion County, Oregon, United States, two miles southeast of downtown Salem, which owns it. The airport is named for U.S. Senator Charles L. McNary. McNary Field has had scheduled airline flights, i ...

and

Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city li ...

, an

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

(ATC) tower was constructed at the Aurora State Airport. As of late 2015 construction of the control tower was complete and the tower became operational. In addition, the

airspace class The world's navigable airspace is divided into three-dimensional segments, each of which is assigned to a specific class. Most nations adhere to the classification specified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and described bel ...

designation at UAO was changed to "Class D"

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

. Adjacent to the airport are the Columbia Aviation Heliport and Columbia Helicopters Heliport.

Airlines and destinations

History

The airport was built by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in 1943, and was known as Aurora Flight Strip. It was an outlying (supporting) airfield to

Portland Army Air Base Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

for military aircraft on training flights. It was closed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and was turned over for state government use by the War Assets Administration (WAA).

References

* Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History's Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.

External links

Airport Master Plan

Aurora Jet Center website

Aurora Aviation website

Willamette Aviation website

Southend Airpark website
{{Authority control Airports in Marion County, Oregon Aurora, Oregon Flight Strips of the United States Army Air Forces Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Oregon 1943 establishments in Oregon

Facilities and aircraft

Airlines and destinations

History

See also

References

External links