Sebring 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 ...

located six

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 (7 mi, 11 km) southeast 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 Sebring, a city in

Highlands County, Florida Highlands County is a County (United States), county located in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 101,235. Its county seat is Sebring, Florida, Sebring ...

, United States. It is owned by the Sebring Airport Authority. 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. A portion of the old runway system is now

Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U.S., its first race being run i ...

, home to the

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. The event is the second round ...

, a

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMS ...

series race which has been held annually since 1952. The airport is also home to a business park and is a

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

-certified Foreign Trade ZoneFTZ No. 215.

DayJet DayJet was an American commercial aviation operation that provided on-demand jet travel using Eclipse 500 very light jets. Founded by Ed Iacobucci, the former leader of the IBM-Microsoft Joint OS/2 development team IBM executive and the foun ...

formerly flew into Sebring Regional Airport through an on-demand system, providing direct flights to approximately one dozen cities. DayJet suspended operations on September 19, 2008; there is no regularly scheduled passenger service into the airport.

Facilities and aircraft

Sebring Regional Airport covers an area of 1,768

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 (715 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 § Vert ...

of 62 feet (19 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. 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 concrete, as ...

s with

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 a ...

surfaces: 01/19 is 5,234 by 100 feet (1,595 x 30 m) and 14/32 is 4,990 by 100 feet (1,521 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending November 19, 2009, the airport had 103,087 aircraft operations, an average of 282 per day: 99.6%

and 0.4%

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 46 aircraft based at this airport: 67% 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 gen ...

, 20%

ultralight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with ailer ...

, 9% multi-engine, 2% jet, and 2%

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 attributes ...

. The airport is also the home of the

Light-sport aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a fairly new category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictio ...

Expo held annually since 2004.

Governing body

The governing body of the airport is the Sebring Airport Authority. It consists of a board of seven members selected by the City Council of the City of Sebring. The terms of board members is four years, and two members are selected each successive year for three years and the remaining member is selected in the fourth year.

History

: ''For the World War II use of the airport, see

Hendricks Army Airfield Hendricks Army Airfield was a World War II United States Army Air Forces base located 6.6 miles east-southeast of Sebring, Florida. History Hendricks Army Airfield is a former United States Army Air Forces base. It was used during World War I ...

'' Sebring Regional Airport was originally constructed in 1940 as Hendricks Field, a

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

crew training base of the

US Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

, later the

US 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 ...

. In 1940, Sebring officials and citizens contacted their Florida congressional delegation to see about getting an Army base in the area. In the summer of 1940, and in early 1941, a group of Army Air Corps officers surveyed the area. On June 12, 1941, Congressman J. Hardin Peterson advised that an area of of woodland had been approved for a basic flying school. The City of Sebring purchased the land and leased it to the government at $1 per year for 99 years. With the end of the war in 1945, the training program began to wind down during September and October, and by mid-November the order came to inactivate the base by December 31, 1945. On February 21, 1946, the city received a permit to operate a civilian airfield on the site and on May 1, 1946, the abandoned airfield was turned over to the City of Sebring to become Sebring Air Terminal, now Sebring Regional Airport & Commerce Park. In December 1950, the first sports car endurance race was held, and since then the world-famous 12 Hours of Sebring Grand Prix of Endurance has been held in March each year, with the race track taking the East-West ramp and the closed Runway 9/27, along with some streets of the former air base-turned commerce park. Only the main hangar, restored in 2000, is now in use. New water and sewage systems were completed, and the military's former high water tower, a very noticeable landmark, was brought down in December 1997. The original military control tower was brought down in December 1999 and has been restored and re-erected as a historical icon, although the airport continues to operate as an uncontrolled airfield.

Aviation Expo at Sebring Airport

Starting in 2004, Sebring became the home to the annual US Sport Aviation Expo. By 2015, the event had grown to 140 exhibitors. May 30, 2019, the Sebring airport authority announced the event permanently scrubbed.

Incidents

On December 5, 1978,

Douglas C-53 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in ...

N25656 of Caribe Air Sales crashed shortly after take-off and was destroyed by fire. The gust locks had not been removed before flight and the aircraft was overloaded. All three people on board were killed.

Sports car racing

Following the end of

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 ...

, aeronautical engineer Alec Ullman, seeking sites to restore military aircraft for civilian use, saw potential in Hendricks Field's runways to stage a sports car endurance race, similar to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Sebring's first race was held on New Year's Eve of 1950, and the first 12 Hours of Sebring was held on March 15, 1952. The latter would grow to be a major international race. In 1959, the racetrack hosted the first Formula One United States Grand Prix. For much of Sebring's history, the track followed a 5.38 mile (8.66 km) layout. In 1983, the track was changed to allow simultaneous use of the track and one of the runways. In 1987, more changes allowed use of another runway. Further changes in 1991 accommodated expansion of the airport's facilities, and brought the track close to its current configuration. The entire track could now be used without interfering with normal airport operations.

References

Other sources

* * Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas * Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), ''Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy'', Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.

External links

Sebring Regional Airport
official site
US Sport Aviation Expo

Volo Aviation
Fixed-Base Operator/Manager
Aerial image as of January 1999
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 prov ...

'' *
{{Florida airports Airports established in 1941 Airports in Florida Buildings and structures in Sebring, Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Highlands County, Florida Special economic zones of the United States 1941 establishments in Florida