Dennis F. Cantrell Field was a public use
airport located one
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 ...
(2
km) southeast 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 ...
of
Conway, in
Faulkner County
Faulkner County is located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 113,237, making it the fifth most populous of Arkansas's 75 counties. The county seat and largest city is Conwa ...
,
Arkansas,
United States. It was owned by the City of Conway.
It is replaced with the new
Conway Airport at Cantrell Field since September 2014.
This airport was included in the FAA's
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
Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...
it as a ''
general aviation'' airport.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter
location identifier for the
FAA 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 ...
, this airport was assigned CWS by the FAA but had no designation from the IATA (IATA designation CWS is assigned to
Center Island, Washington airport, which is FAA designation 78WA).
Facilities and aircraft
Dennis F. Cantrell Field covered an area of 198
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 (80
ha) at an
elevation of 316 feet (96 m) above
mean sea level. It had two
asphalt paved
runways: 8/26 was 4,875 by 100 feet (1,486 x 30 m) and 18/36 was 3,278 by 60 feet (999 x 18 m).
For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2010, the airport had 16,000 aircraft operations, an average of 43 per day: 94%
general aviation, 3%
air taxi, and 3%
military. At that time there were 41 aircraft based at this airport: 73% single-
engine, 22% multi-engine, 2%
jet
Jet, Jets, or The Jet(s) may refer to:
Aerospace
* Jet aircraft, an aircraft propelled by jet engines
** Jet airliner
** Jet engine
** Jet fuel
* Jet Airways, an Indian airline
* Wind Jet (ICAO: JET), an Italian airline
* Journey to Enceladus a ...
, and 2%
helicopter.
Aviation Accidents
On June 30, 2007, a
Cessna Citation I
The Cessna 500 Citation I is a small business jet produced by Cessna, the basis of the Citation family.
The Fanjet 500 prototype was announced in October 1968, first flew on September 15, 1969, and was certified as the 500 Citation on September ...
aircraft attempting to land at the airfield instead crashed into a nearby house, killing the pilot and a woman on the ground. Wet conditions, combined with pilot error in landing too far down the runway, prevented the plane from having enough room to either safely stop or to attempt another takeoff. The plane continued off the runway until colliding with a wall and then the house, which was located 500 feet away. Both the passenger and the other occupant of the house survived the crash. A similar incident occurred in 1990, when a plane crashed into a fence and house near the airport, killing the co-pilot.
On November 7, 2012, a 65-year-old pilot from Mississippi crashed shortly after takeoff from the airfield. He reported engine troubles and attempted to return to the airport, but instead collided with trees and crashed. He later died of his injuries.
Safety of the airport was a primary concern in the decision to relocate to a new site. The existing airfield was considered too close to
Interstate 40 and nearby residential areas, and it lacked sufficient space to accommodate jet traffic.
[{{cite news , last=Mershon , first=Matt , title=Conway Airport dedicated, aiming to attract new business , url=https://katv.com/archive/conway-airport-dedicated-aiming-to-attract-new-business , work=KATV , date=2014-09-05 , access-date=2020-08-18] The new Conway airport covers 431 acres of land, compared to the 150 acres formerly occupied by KCWS.
References
External links
Aerial image as of 5 April 2000from
USGS ''
The National Map''
Defunct airports in the United States
Airports in Arkansas
Transportation in Faulkner County, Arkansas
2015 disestablishments in Arkansas