Bremerton National Airport is eight miles southwest of downtown

Bremerton Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...

, in

Kitsap County, Washington Kitsap County is located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 275,611. Its county seat is Port Orchard, and its largest city is Bremerton. The county was formed out of King County and Jefferson County on ...

. It is owned by the Port of Bremerton. 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 categorized it as 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 ...

'' facility. It is the largest airport on the

Kitsap Peninsula The Kitsap Peninsula () lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kits ...

with an all-weather, fully lit 6,000-foot runway. It was known as Kitsap County Airport until July 1, 1983.

History

In 1936, about 15 local residents founded an airport, then known as Fleet Field which later became Bremerton National Airport. They turned an old lake bed known as Bayes' Bog into a 600-foot-long, 15-foot-wide gravel landing strip. During World War II, Kitsap County Airport was used by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as an outer landing field for

NAS Seattle Naval Station Puget Sound is a former United States Navy, United States Naval station located on Sand Point (peninsula), Sand Point in Seattle, Washington. Today, the land is occupied by Magnuson Park. History After World War I, a movement was b ...

. Military use continued throughout the

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and it would occasionally host temporary detachments of aircraft from the Navy. The taxiways and runways of the Kitsap County Airport hosted a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. First run in 1839, it is a handicap ...

(now Cup Series) event, on August 4, 1957, for the 1957 NASCAR season.

Parnelli Jones Rufus Parnell Jones (born August 12, 1933) is an American former professional racing driver and racing team owner. He is notable for his accomplishments while competing in the Indianapolis 500 and the Baja 1000 desert race. In 1962, he became the ...

won in a Oscar Maples Ford. The airport has a second runway which has been closed for some time and is currently used as a drag strip by Bremerton Motorsports Park. In 1954, Kitsap County Airport was the site for the

SCCA The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting road racing, rallying, and autocross in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional r ...

Seafair Seafair is a summer festival in Seattle, Washington, that encompasses a wide variety of small neighborhood events leading up to several major citywide celebrations. While many small block parties and local parades occur under the auspices of Seaf ...

Nationals. This was

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

's debut on a Northwest track at a time when the company was just starting to dominate west coast sports car racing. In 2019, the airport was described as a potential candidate for expansion as part of Washington State's Department of Transportation effort to expand commercial airport space in the Puget Sound region. In July 2020, the Commercial Aviation Coordinating Committee (CACC) announced that they would submit a shortlist of expansion candidates within the year, and in December 2020, Bremerton National Airport was placed on the shortlist, along with Arlington Municipal Airport,

Paine Field Paine Field , also known as Snohomish County Airport, is a commercial and general aviation airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in unincorporated Snohomish County, Washington, between the ...

Sanderson Field Sanderson Field is a public lighted-land airport located in Shelton, a city in Mason County, Washington, United States. It is located just outside the City of Shelton corporate limits, and is owned and operated by the Port of Shelton. It is bor ...

Tacoma Narrows Airport Tacoma Narrows Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport located west of the central business district of Tacoma, a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. It is situated south of Gig Harbor, Washington, one mile southwest of ...

, and

South Lewis County Airport South Lewis County Airport , also known as Ed Carlson Memorial Field, is a county-owned public-use airport in Lewis County, Washington, United States. It is located three nautical miles (4 mi, 6 km) north of the central business district of To ...

. On April 29th, 2021, the CACC released a white paper detailing the benefits of each site. While Bremerton National Airport was described as being able to "provide additional general aviation aircraft storage capacity and expand business aviation support", the CACC was concerned about the distance between the airport and major interstates, including the travel time between counties.

Facilities

The airport covers 1,729

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 (700 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 444 feet (135 m). Its 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 ...

, 2/20, is 6,000 by 150 feet (1,829 x 46 m) asphalt. In the year ending August 31, 2014, the airport had 66,000 aircraft operations, average 181 per day: 98%

, 1% military, and <1%

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 ...

. 168 aircraft were then based at this airport: 88% single-engine, 7% multi-engine, 2% jet, 2%

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 ...

, 1% glider, and 1%

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

*
Bremerton National (PWT)
at

WSDOT The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...

Airport Directory
Aerial image as of June 1990
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 ...

'' * {{NASCAR K&N Pro Series racetracks Airports in Washington (state) Bremerton, Washington Transportation buildings and structures in Kitsap County, Washington