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Fort Worth Spinks Airport is a city-owned, public-use
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 14 nautical miles (26 km) south 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
Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
, in
Tarrant County Tarrant County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, it had a population of 2,110,640. It is Texas' third-most populous county and the 15th-most populous in the United States. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County, one of 2 ...
,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
,
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 the newest of the three airports that are owned by the City of Fort Worth and it serves the cities of Fort Worth, Burleson, and
Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...
. The airport is located at the intersection of Interstate 35W and HWY 1187 and serves as a reliever airport for
Fort Worth Meacham International Airport Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (Meacham Field) is a general aviation airport located near the intersection of Interstate 820 and Business U.S. Highway 287 in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is named after former Fort Worth Mayor ...
and
Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport , also known as DFW Airport, is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas Region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest hub for American Air ...
and has Class D designation. 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 ...
, this airport is assigned FWS by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.


History

Spinks Airport was named for Maurice Hunter "Pappy" Spinks, a renowned aerobatic competitor/promoter and aviation manufacturer who built the nearby Oak Grove Airport, portions of which have been encompassed by Spinks Airport. Pappy was a patron of the Aerobatic Club of America and was described by fellow aerobatic pilots as a "rough edged old millionaire", who had made a fortune during the Vietnam War as a vendor for nearby
Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...
. On May 28, 1989 Oak Grove airport was closed and Spinks Airport was opened.


Facilities and aircraft

Fort Worth Spinks Airport covers an area of 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 700 feet (213 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 two
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 ...
s: 18R/36L is 6,002 by 100 feet (1,829 x 30 m) 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; 18L/36R is 3,660 by 60 feet (1,116 x 18 m) with a
turf Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricultu ...
surface. The
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, ...
(Harrison Aviation) has constructed a terminal building that houses their operations and the offices of the airport manager. For the 12-month period ending September 30, 2008, the airport had 82,948 aircraft operations, an average of 227 per day: 99.4%
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 ...
, 0.4%
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 ...
, and 0.3%
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
. At that time there were 199 aircraft based at this airport: 78% 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 ...
, 18% multi-engine, 3% jet and 1%
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 ...
.


References


External links


Honored in 2007 as most improved airport in Texas

Harrison Aviation - FBO

Texas Gyro - Avionics and Instruments

Spinks Flight Center

Air Methods - Pediatric Transport for Cook Children's Hospital

CAM Aircraft Maintenance - Certified Aircraft Maintenance for all GA Aircraft

Aerial photo as of 19 January 1995
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 ...
'' *
{{Dallas airports Airports in Fort Worth, Texas Airports in Tarrant County, Texas