Northeastern Regional 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 ...

Chowan County, North Carolina Chowan County ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolin ...

, United States. It is owned by the town of

Edenton Edenton is a town in, and the county seat of, Chowan County, North Carolina, United States, on Albemarle Sound. The population was 4,397 at the 2020 census. Edenton is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. In recent years Edenton has b ...

and located three

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 ...

s (6 km) southeast of its

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 ...

. This airport is included in 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, which 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.

History

The airport was originally constructed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

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 Marine Corps Air Station Edenton. In this role, it hosted

Marine Operational Training Group 81 Marine Operational Training Group 81 (MOTG-81) was a United States Marine Corps aviation training group that was established during World War II. Squadrons from MOTG-81 trained pilots, aircrew and ground crew on the PBJ-1 medium bomber. The Mar ...

(MOTG-81) and its subordinate squadrons. MOTG-81 trained pilots, aircrewmen and ground crews on the land-based

PBJ-1 The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in e ...

medium bomber, a

U.S. 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 of ...

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

variant of the

U.S. Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...

bomber that was operated by Marine bombing squadrons, primarily in the Pacific theater. In 1946, the installation was redesignated as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Edenton and was administered by Marine Air Base Squadron 14 (MABS-14). The Marine Corps reactivated the station on March 1, 1949 and began operations the following day. Marine Corps fighter squadrons flying the

F9F-2 Panther The Grumman F9F Panther is one of the United States Navy's first successful aircraft carrier, carrier-based jet fighters, as well as Grumman’s first jet fighter. A single-engined, straight-winged day fighter, it was armed with four Hispano-Su ...

and attack squadrons flying the AD-4B and AD-5 Skyraider were based there during the Korean War and early years of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. NAAS Edenton was decommissioned in the 1960s and turned over to the local government for conversion to a civilian airport.http://www.skyraider.org/skyassn/skysqdhist/usmcskkyraiders.htm and http://mofak.com/no_outstanding_lieutenants.htm The sole operational runway, Runway 1/19, was originally an 8,000 foot by 200 foot paved surface when control of the air station was relinquished by the military. Although the entire pavement length remains, the approach ends have been displaced and only a 6,000 foot by 100 foot section is currently maintained and usable. A Category I ILS approach has also been installed on Runway 19, albeit without any precision approach lighting. Although still standing, the former air station's air traffic control tower was abandoned upon the military's departure and has never reopened, leaving the airport as a non-towered airport as over 90% of all airports are in the U.S.A. Several of the other former military buildings have since been converted to multiple civilian aviation and non-aviation uses.

Facilities and aircraft

Northeastern Regional Airport covers an area of 734

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 (297 ha) at an elevation of 20 feet (6 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 1/19 with an asphalt surface measuring 6,000 by 100 feet (1,829 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending June 17, 2011, the airport had 14,000 aircraft operations, an average of 38 per day: 93%

, 4% air taxi, and 4% military. At that time there were 21 aircraft based at this airport: 90.5% single- engine and 9.5% multi-engine.

References

External links

Northeastern Regional Airport
at Chowan County website * at North Carolina DOT airport guide
Aerial image as of March 1993
from USGS '' The National Map'' * {{US-airport-ga, EDE Airports in North Carolina Transportation in Chowan County, North Carolina Buildings and structures in Chowan County, North Carolina

History

Facilities and aircraft

See also

References

External links