Martin State Airport is a joint civil-military 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 surfa ...

located nine nautical miles (10 mi, 17 km) east 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 " cit ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, in

Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City of ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

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 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. The facility is located within the census-designated place of Middle River on Maryland State Highway 150 (Eastern Boulevard), near the intersection of

Maryland State Highway 700 Maryland Route 700 (MD 700) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known as Martin Boulevard, the state highway runs from MD 150 in Middle River north to U.S. Route 40 (US 40) in Rossville. MD 700 was constructed as a defense acc ...

(Martin Boulevard). The Maryland Aviation Administration operates the airport on behalf of the

Maryland Department of Transportation The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) is an organization comprising five business units and one Authority: * Maryland Transportation Authority (Transportation Secretary serves as chairman of the Maryland Transportation Authority) * ...

. MTN is a general aviation relief airport.

History

This was the former plant airport for the

Glenn L. Martin Company The Glenn L. Martin Company—also known as The Martin Company from 1957-1961—was an American aircraft and aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin, and operated between 1917-1961. The Martin Company produc ...

which produced a large number of military aircraft at this location between the 1920s and 1960s. The

Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum The Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum is located at Martin State Airport in Middle River, Maryland. It educates visitors through the use of exhibits, artifacts, archival materials and stories about aviation in Maryland over the last hundr ...

and old seaplane ramps are located at the southeast corner of the airport. In 1937, Glen Martin proposed height restrictions around the airport because a new generation of large, heavy transports would be flying from its seaplane base. By 1945, Martin had built $5.5 million in structures on the field. The company attempted to sell the property to the City of Baltimore for $1 million, but the commissioner Robert O'Boneell said there was insufficient room for expansion. In 1974, Governor Marvin Mandel proposed to purchase the airport from Martin Marietta. The company formed a real-estate arm, Chesapeake Park Inc., with the former Baltimore County Council Chair Herry J. Bartenfelder to build residential and commercial real estate. Citizens of Essex opposed the use conversion, lending support to the State's purchase of the field for $9.4 million. In 1980, Port-A-Port T-Hangars were purchased for general aviation use and lease. In the 1990s the airport was targeted as part of the Middle River Employment Center district to have MD route 43 highway extended from I-95 direct to the terminal through a series of wetland parcels.

Military use

The

Maryland Air National Guard The Maryland Air National Guard (MD ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Maryland, United States of America, and a reserve component of the United States Air Force. It is, along with the Maryland Army National Guard, an element of the Mary ...

175th Wing The 175th Wing (175 WG) is a unit of the Maryland Air National Guard, stationed at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River, Maryland. If activated to federal service, components of the Wing are gained by the two separate major commands ...

is a tenant activity at MTN with locally based A-10C aircraft. The Air National Guard facility is located on the northeast side of the field and is officially named Warfield Air National Guard Base.

Facilities and aircraft

Martin State 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 § ...

of 21 feet (6 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has 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 ...

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 ...

designated 15/33 which is 6,997 by 180 feet (2,132 x 55 m). It also had one

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard ...

with a 65 by 65 ft (20 x 20 m)

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most ...

surface. For the 12-month period ending October 6, 2010, the airport had 69,193 aircraft operations, an average of 189 per day: 91%

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 service ...

, 6%

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 distin ...

, and 3%

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) ...

. At that time there were 218 aircraft based at this airport: 64% 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 ...

, 14% multi-engine, 6%

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 ...

, 5%

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 attribut ...

and 11%

Operations

Martin State Airport serves a wide variety of general aviation and commercial operators. Martin State is home base to many helicopter operations including local news helicopters WJZ Channel 13 and WBAL Channel 11; Medevac services Express Care 1 and Helicopter Transport Services; and the aviation units for the

Maryland State Police The Maryland State Police (MSP), officially the Maryland Department of State Police (MDSP), is the official state police force of the U.S. state of Maryland. The Maryland State Police is headquartered at 1201 Reisterstown Road in the Pikesvill ...

, Baltimore County Police, and the

Baltimore City Police The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) is the municipal police department of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Dating back to 1784, the BPD, consisting of 2,935 employees in 2020, is organized into nine districts covering of land and of waterway ...

. There is a wide variety of flight training activities at the airport's three flight schools: Middle River Aviation, First Class Flight Academy, and Brett Aviation.Brett Aviation
/ref>

Cargo operations

References

External links

Martin State Airport

Martin Airport on Google Street View

Aerial photo as of 8 April 1994
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, ...

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 pro ...

'' * * {{Authority control Airports in Maryland Transportation buildings and structures in Baltimore County, Maryland