Laurinburg–Maxton Airport is a 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 three miles (5 km) north 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 Maxton and east of Laurinburg. Maxton is located primarily in Robeson County,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

USA 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

while Laurinburg is in Scotland County,

as is the airport proper. This

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 covers and 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. It is home of the United States Army Parachute team Golden Knights. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier 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 ...

, Laurinburg–Maxton Airport is assigned MEB by the FAA and MXE by the IATAGreat Circle Mapper: MXE/KMEB – Maxton, North Carolina (Laurinburg–Maxton Airport)
/ref> (which assigned MEB to Essendon Airport in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

). The airport's

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

identifier is KMEB. The airfield was constructed for the United States Army Air Force during World War II. During the war the airfield was a large training base for glider-towing aircraft. KMEB Northwest Aircraft Boneyard

Today the airfield is noted for being the home of Charlotte Aircraft, a company which parts-out and scraps older aircraft. Visitors to the airfield can see a number of 727s, DC-10s, 737s, and 747s in various stages of being dismantled and scrapped. In 2006 the forward fuselage of Northwest Airlines' first 747-100 was removed from the aircraft at Maxton by Guard-Lee for installation in the

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

on the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

in Washington DC. The remainder of the aircraft was scrapped and parted by Charlotte Aircraft at Laurinburg–Maxton Airport. This was replaced with N603US, which was the third Northwest Airlines 747-100. In 1994 the East Coast Timing Association (ECTA) began land speed racing at what became known as the "Maxton Mile". The ECTA was formed by two Bonneville racers, Tom Sarda and John Beckett, with the idea of providing its members with a place to run speed trials in the eastern half of the United States. It had a mostly concrete surface with greater traction than the slick salt of Bonneville, and it produced similar speeds to the SCTA sanctioned El Mirage. The longest runway at Maxton sat unused since the 1960s and was badly overgrown. Volunteers with the ECTA removed hundreds of truckloads of debris to reveal 1.6 miles of concrete. The ECTA held its first time trials at Maxton in 1994 and for 14 years constantly improved the runway, eventually repaving almost 40% of the mile. ECTA lost their lease on the property in 2010 after 14 years. The airport authority had leased half of the runway to the Gryphon Group, a para-military anti-terrorist training center. The two groups could not co-exist at the airport, although the ECTA only held 5 weekend events a year.

References

External links

* at North Carolina DOT airport guide * 1943 establishments in North Carolina Airports established in 1943 Airports in North Carolina Transportation in Scotland County, North Carolina Buildings and structures in Scotland County, North Carolina {{NorthCarolina-airport-stub

See also

References

External links