Shannon Airport is a public use airport located two miles south of the City of Fredericksburg, Virginia,

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 territorie ...

. It was opened in October 1950 by Sidney L. Shannon Jr in honor of his father, Sidney Shannon Sr, an early investor in

Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. Ea ...

Facilities and aircraft

Shannon Airport covers 62 acres adjacent to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

battlefield at Slaughter Pen Farm. As of 2019, there are 85 single-engine

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 ...

aircraft, 5 multi-engine aircraft, 2

helicopters 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 ...

, 2 ultralights, and a single glider based on the field. The two runways, (grass, 15/33 and asphalt, 06/24), measure 1300' and 2999' respectively. The airport also has full fuel service as well as self serve (

Jet A Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...

and 100LL), courtesy cars, a restaurant, gift shop, and a flight school.

Civil War history

A major part of the

Battle of Fredericksburg The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnsi ...

was fought where the airport now stands. A ditch at the end of what is now runway 24 became a key portion of the battle with hand-to-hand combat taking place before the Federal troops finally retreated. Artillery was situated where the terminal is, and artifacts such as buttons, musket balls and artillery shells were found when the taxiway was replaced. Many of these artifacts are currently on display at the Shannon Air Museum.

Air Museum

Shannon Airport is home to the Shannon Air Museum, founded in 1976. The museum currently displays the last surviving

Vultee V-1 The Vultee V-1 was a 1930s American single-engined airliner built by the Airplane Development Corporation, designed by Gerard Vultee and financed by automobile manufacturer Errett Cord. Design and development The prototype (designated the ...

, along with other "

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...

" aircraft such as the

Pitcairn Mailwing The Pitcairn Mailwing family was a series of American mail carrier and three-seat sport utility biplane aircraft produced from 1927 to 1931. Design and development The Pitcairn Mailwings were developed to carry air mail for the United States P ...

, and

Curtiss Robin The Curtiss Robin, introduced in 1928, was a high-wing monoplane built by the Curtiss-Robertson Airplane Manufacturing Company. The J-1 version was flown by Wrongway Corrigan who crossed the Atlantic after being refused permission. Design The ...

. The collection was relocated to Virginia Aviation Museum at Richmond International Airport upon Sid Shannon Jr.'s death in 1981. The Shannon Air Museum only reopened in June 2017 when volunteers were able to move the collection back, after the

Virginia Aviation Museum The Virginia Aviation Museum was an aviation museum in unincorporated Henrico County, Virginia, adjacent to Richmond International Airport (formerly "Richard Evelyn Byrd Flying Field"). Erected in 1986, the museum housed a collection of some thi ...

(then a part of

Science Museum of Virginia The Science Museum of Virginia is a science museum located in Richmond, Virginia. Established in 1970, it is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is housed in the former Broad Street Station, built in 1917. History Early proposals In 1 ...

) had closed the previous year due to its building deteriorating. Notable curators of the museum included

Dick Merrill Henry Tyndall "Dick" Merrill (February 1, 1894 – October 31, 1982) was an early aviation pioneer. Among his feats he was the highest paid air mail pilot, flew the first round-trip transatlantic flight in 1936, was Dwight D. Eisenhower's pers ...

Accidents and incidents

*29 September 2012: A Cessna 150M, registration number ''N66246'', went into a 90-degree left bank immediately after takeoff and descended in a spiral, striking the ground and killing the pilot and the single passenger. The accident was attributed to ''"The pilot's failure to maintain airplane control during initial climb. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's impairment due to alcohol."'' * 22 July 2013: A

Cessna 172M The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.severe recurrent major depression," and after a brief altercation with him before the flight, his fiancée had reported to local police that she believed he intended to kill himself. The accident was attributed to ''"The pilot's intentional descent into the ground to commit

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

."'' * 12 August 2016: A Beechcraft T-42A, registration number ''N128VB'', struck the ground during an attempted

go-around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for various reasons, such as an unstab ...

after an unsuccessful landing attempt, substantially damaging the aircraft and killing all 6 occupants. Investigators found no significant anomalies in the aircraft and its engines. The accident was attributed to ''"The pilot(s) failure to maintain adequate airspeed during an attempted go-around, which resulted in an exceedance of the airplane's critical

angle of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it is m ...

and an

aerodynamic stall In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', p. 486. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. This occurs when th ...

."''

References

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External links

Shannon Air Museum
Airports in Virginia Airports established in 1950 1950 establishments in Virginia Aerospace museums in Virginia Museums established in 1976 1976 establishments in Virginia