Newport Municipal 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 surfa ...

located five nautical miles (6 mi, 9 km) northeast of the central business district of Newport, a city in Jackson County,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

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 territori ...

. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems 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 ...

'' airport.

History

Newport was chosen as a site for an Army Airfield 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 opposing ...

through the encouragement of Congressman Wilbur D. Mills. The flat land already lent itself to airport usage as most trees had been cleared and the ground had been drained for farming. The project was announced in the middle of May 1942 and construction began almost immediately. 34 farm families were displaced from the main site, along with those living at the auxiliary sites. Construction was rapid given the emergency wartime conditions and within three months the post was to be in full operation. The airfield consisted of four concrete runways, 4907x150 (N/S), 5004x150 (NE/SW), 5000x150 (E/W), 5000x150 (NW/SE), plus associated taxiways, landing aids, and an extended length parking apron. After the war, it reverted to civilian use.

Civil use

After the war's end, the Newport airfield was declared to be government surplus, and eventually, most of the main field was turned over to the City of Newport to be used as a civilian airport facility and industrial park. While many of the base's buildings were sold off, some were used by civilians who occupied much of the housing. The large hangar-type buildings were all gone by the early 1960s, and there are no longer any military buildings remaining at the airfield. All the auxiliary airfields were disposed of and none of the temporary structures built by the USAAF or USMC remain today. The few that survived the war were destroyed by a tornado in 1953. Several of the runways are still in use, and a new airport terminal was constructed in 1983. A number of industries are located at what is now the Newport Industrial Park. The Jackson County Learning Center has been located at the base since 1959. Some homes from the original residential area are still occupied. Also holding a place of prominence at the former airbase is Arkansas State University-Newport.Thole, Lou (1999), ''Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now'' - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub,

Facilities and aircraft

Newport Municipal Airport covers an area of 331 acres (134 ha) 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 § Ver ...

of 239 feet (73 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 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, concre ...

s, 4/22 and 18/36, each with a

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 wid ...

surface measuring 5,002 by 150 feet (1,525 x 46 m). For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2009, the airport had 10,000 aircraft operations, an average of 27 per day: 93%

, 6%

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) ...

, and 1%

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 25 aircraft based at this airport: 92% 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 ...

, and 8% multi-engine.

References

External links

Aerial image as of February 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, 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 pro ...

'' * * {{AR-Airports, state=expanded Airports in Arkansas Transportation in Jackson County, Arkansas Buildings and structures in Jackson County, Arkansas Newport, Arkansas

History

Civil use

Facilities and aircraft

See also

References

External links