Vero Beach Regional Airport is a public

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 ...

one mile northwest of

Vero Beach Vero Beach is a city in and the seat of Indian River County, Florida, United States. Vero Beach is the second most populous city in Indian River County. Abundant in beaches and wildlife, Vero Beach is located on Florida's Treasure Coast. It is thi ...

Indian River County Indian River County ( es, Condado de Río Indio, link=) is a county located in the Treasure Coast region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 159,788. Its seat is Vero Beach. It is Florida's 7th richest county ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

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. The airport is publicly owned and is the home of Piper Aircraft.

History

1929–1941

In 1929, Bud Holman, whose sons and grandsons now operate Sun Aviation, was one of the group that built the airport in Vero Beach. The Vero Beach Regional Airport was dedicated in 1930 and in 1932 Eastern Air Lines began refueling there. In 1935 EAL started passenger and mail service from Vero Beach, continuing until about January 1973. By the end of the 1930s the airport got runway lights and radio and teletype machines; in 1939, using Public Assistance workers, the runways were extended and a year later the Civil Aviation Administration spent $250,000 on more improvements.

NAS Vero Beach

In 1942 the

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 o ...

notified Vero Beach that it had selected its airport for a naval air station and purchased surrounding the airport. The base was commissioned as Naval Air Station Vero Beach in 1942 and initially functioned as an operational training unit training for Naval Aviators beginning in February 1943 with the SB2A Buccaneer aircraft. In December 1944 the mission of NAS Vero Beach changed to night fighter training using

F6F Hellcat The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United States Navy's dominant fighter in the second ha ...

s and

F7F Tigercat The Grumman F7F Tigercat is a heavy fighter aircraft that served with the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) from late in World War II until 1954. It was the first twin-engine fighter to be deployed by the USN. While ...

s. Witham Field in Stuart was designated as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Witham Field and was a subordinate base of NAS Vero Beach. Airfields at Sebastian/Roseland (OLF Roseland) and Fort Pierce (OLF Fort Pierce) also served as outlying landing fields. Air-sea rescue of downed pilots was provided from Fort Pierce. Over 237,100 hours of flight time occurred between 1942 and the base closing in 1946. Base personnel were quartered in the Beachland Hotel, The Sebastian Inn, and other facilities in the community. At its peak NAS Vero Beach was home to 250 aircraft and 1,400

and U.S. Marine Corps personnel, to include Navy

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and Woman Marines. After the war, the installation was reduced to a skeletal staff and in 1947 the Navy closed NAS Vero Beach and returned it to the city for use again as a civil airport.

Postwar

In 1948

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

arrived as Bud Holman, a local businessman, invited the Brooklyn Dodgers to take over barracks facilities from the closed naval air station for winter and spring training. The Dodgers liked the area so much that Dodgertown was born, a tract next to the airport, as their training grounds. The Dodgers continued to use the facility even after becoming the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

until they moved to a new facility in Glendale, Arizona in 2008. In 1957 Piper Aircraft selected Vero Beach for a research and development center at the former naval air station; in 1961 Piper moved administrative and manufacturing operations here. By 1967 Piper had expanded its facility to and its workforce to over 2,000. Manufacturing of Piper Aircraft at the Vero Beach facility ceased in the mid-1980s when increasing product liability insurance premiums made continued operation financially impossible. Upon limitation of liability by new legislation by

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

in the early 1990s, manufacturing began again in 1995. FlightSafety Academy, a leading flight training school and part of FlightSafety International, is also at Vero Beach Regional Airport. The facility's focus is on ''ab initio'' flight training for prospective U.S. and international commercial airline pilots who are not graduates of a military flight training program. Today, Vero Beach Regional Airport is a tower-controlled facility with an FAR Part 139 operating certificate. Although the airport has seen airlines (mainly regional) in the recent past. It currently has scheduled less-than-daily service on Elite Airways to Newark Liberty International Airport and to Asheville Regional Airport which began on May 25, 2017.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

* {{Florida airports 1930 establishments in Florida Airports in Florida Airports established in 1930 Buildings and structures in Vero Beach, Florida Transportation buildings and structures in Indian River County, Florida Transportation in Vero Beach, Florida