Robertson Airport , also known as Robertson Field, 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 surfa ...

Hartford County, Connecticut Hartford County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. According to the 2020 census, the population was 899,498, making it the second-most populous county in Connecticut. Hartford County contains the ...

, United States. It is owned by the town of Plainville and is located two nautical miles (4 km) north of its central business district. It is included in the

Federal Aviation Administration 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 ...

(FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a local reliever airport facility. It is primarily used for general aviation, charter flights, and flight training.

History

Opened in 1911, Robertson Field is the oldest airport in Connecticut. John H. Trumbull, a Plainville native and Connecticut's Governor from 1925 to 1931, is known to have used the airfield. He was dubbed "The Flying Governor". In 1990 the Tomasso family completed renovation and expansion of the runway. The Town of Plainville had explored a purchase of the airport beginning in 1995. It was appraised by Tomasso at $6.5 million, double its tax assessment by the town. In July 2007, the town received a $116,850 federal grant to further study buying the airport. Tomasso Brothers, Inc, hired New Britain based firm Gaffney Bennet Public Relations to create an astroturf campaign with the aim of pressuring town officials to purchase the airport. The campaign involved "brochures, mailers, newspaper op-eds and advertisements” and was eventually successful. The Town of Plainville purchased the airport from Tomasso Brothers, Inc. for $7.7 million

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

on December 30, 2009. In December 2012, the runway was repaved and the airport received several upgrades. One of them being the addition of different and updated

pilot-controlled lighting Pilot-controlled lighting (PCL), also known as aircraft radio control of aerodrome lighting (ARCAL) or pilot-activated lighting (PAL), is a system that allows aircraft pilots to control the lighting of an airport or airfield's approach lights, runw ...

along with precision markings on the runway for an

instrument approach In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a landi ...

procedure the airport received in April 2015.

Facilities and aircraft

Robertson Field covers an area of 39 acres (16 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 202 feet (62 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

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 ...

designated 2/20 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 ...

surface measuring 3,665 by 75 feet (1,117 x 23 m). It also has one helipad designated H1 with an asphalt surface measuring 30 by 30 feet (9 x 9 m). For the 12-month period ending May 31, 2011, the airport had 21,105 aircraft operations, an average of 57 per day: 97%

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 ...

, 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) ...

, 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 110 aircraft based at this airport: 94% 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 6% multi-engine. The

Connecticut Wing Civil Air Patrol The Connecticut Wing Civil Air Patrol is the highest echelon of Civil Air Patrol in the state of Connecticut. Headquartered in Beers Hall at the Connecticut Valley Hospital campus in Middletown, Connecticut, Connecticut Wing (CTWG) has 14 primar ...

186th Composite Squadron (NER-CT-058) operates out of the airport.

Accidents and incidents

Just before 10 a.m. on September 2, 2021, a

Cessna Citation The Cessna Citation is a family of business jets by Cessna that started in 1972 with the entry into service of the first model. In the fifty years following the 1969 first flight, more than 7,500 Citations were delivered, forming the largest b ...

560X with four people on board crashed into a warehouse after takeoff. All on board were killed, and two people were injured in a building the aircraft impacted. The cause of the crash has not been determined but is under investigation.

References

External links

Town of Plainville: Aviation Commission

Interstate Aviation, Inc.
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, ...

(FBO)
Silver City Flying Club
at Robertson Airport
Aerial image as of March 1991
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 ...

'' *
186th Composite Squadron
website {{Airports in Connecticut , state=expanded Airports in Hartford County, Connecticut Plainville, Connecticut