Smyrna Airport is a public

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 ...

and military 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 two

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 (4 km) north 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 ...

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...

, a town in Rutherford County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

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 is owned by the Smyrna / Rutherford County Airport Authority. Smyrna Airport is the third largest airport in Tennessee and is the state's busiest general aviation airport. Prior to March 1971, the facility was an active military installation known as

Sewart Air Force Base Sewart Air Force Base (1941–1971) is a former United States Air Force base located in Smyrna, about 25 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. During World War II, it was known as Smyrna Army Airfield. History World War II The War Depar ...

. 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 ''

reliever airport A relief airport or reliever airport is an airport that is built or designated to provide relief or additional capacity to an area when the primary commercial airport(s) requires additional capacity, on a long-term or temporary basis. Reliever a ...

'' for

Nashville International Airport Nashville International Airport is a public/military airport in the southeastern section of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1937, its original name was Berry Field, from which its ICAO and IATA identifiers are derived. The ...

, which is located twelve nautical miles (22 km) to the north.

Military use

Smyrna Airport currently operates as a joint use facility with a

Army National Guard The Army National Guard (ARNG), in conjunction with the Air National Guard, is an organized Militia (United States), militia force and a Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States A ...

helicopter unit, Army Aviation Support Facility #1 (AASF#1), which operates 60 helicopters with 300 full-time

personnel. The airport previously served as an outlying

Air National Guard The Air National Guard (ANG), also known as the Air Guard, is a federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the ter ...

training facility for

C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 ...

aircraft of the 118th Airlift Wing (now redesignated the 118th Wing) of the

Tennessee Air National Guard The Tennessee Air National Guard (TN ANG) is the aerial militia of the State of Tennessee, United States of America. It is, along with the Tennessee Army National Guard, an element of the Tennessee National Guard. As state militia units, the units ...

Berry Field Air National Guard Base Nashville International Airport is a public/military airport in the southeastern section of Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Established in 1937, its original name was Berry Field, from which its ICAO and IATA identifiers are derived. The ...

until the wing's termination of C-130 operations in 2012. The airport also continues to support training operations by

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...

aircraft of the Tennessee Air National Guard's

164th Airlift Wing The 164th Airlift Wing is a unit of the Tennessee Air National Guard, stationed at Memphis Air National Guard Base, Tennessee. If activated to federal service in the United States Air Force, the 164th is gained by Air Mobility Command. The wi ...

Memphis Air National Guard Base Memphis International Airport is a civil-military airport located southeast of Downtown Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is the primary international airport serving Memphis. It covers and has four runways., effective Au ...

at the

Memphis International Airport Memphis International Airport is a civil-military airport located southeast of Downtown Memphis in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. It is the primary international airport serving Memphis. It covers and has four runways., effective Au ...

. The Tennessee Army National Guard also leases part of the airport to maintain the Grubbs/Kyle Training Center. This facility supports 24 different units and 1,270 assigned Army National Guard personnel, 162 of which are full-time, as well as numerous military aircraft.

Facilities and aircraft

Smyrna Airport covers an area of 1,700

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 (688 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 543 feet (166 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

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 ...

paved

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 14/32 is 8,048 (grooved) by 150 feet (2,453 x 46 m) and 1/19 is 5,546 by 100 feet (1,690 x 30 m). It also has one

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

designated H1 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 wi ...

surface measuring 40 by 40 feet (12 x 12 m). For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2017, the airport had 86,964 aircraft operations, an average of 238 per day: 89%

, 5%

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 ...

, 5%

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) an ...

, and <1% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 160 aircraft based at this airport: 87 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 ...

, 27 multi-engine, 12 jet, 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 ...

, 2

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

, and 30

. The airport has an operational control tower from 7am to 10pm on weekdays and 7am to 7pm on weekends, a precision

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

(ILS) approach to Runway 32, and DoD Into-Plane Contract jet fuel for military and other US Government aircraft provided by the on-site civilian

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), Contour Flight Management.

Accidents and incidents

* On June 2, 2016, while practicing for an upcoming air show at the airport,

United States 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 ...

Blue Angels The Blue Angels is a flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy.

#6, an

F/A-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twinjet, twin-engine, supersonic aircraft, supersonic, carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a Fighter aircraft, ...

, crashed on the grounds of the

Sam Davis Sam Davis (October 6, 1842 – November 27, 1863) was a Confederate soldier executed by Union forces in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. He is popularly known as the ''Boy Hero of the Confederacy'', although he was 21 when he ...

Home, a nearby historic site. The pilot of the plane,

USMC The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

Capt. Jeff Kuss, was killed as a result of the crash. The incident occurred just after takeoff while Capt. Kuss was performing the Split-S maneuver. The Navy investigation found that he had performed the maneuver too low while failing to retard the throttle out of afterburner, causing him to fall too fast and recover too low above the ground. Capt. Kuss ejected, but his parachute was immediately engulfed in flames, causing him to fall to his death. His body was recovered multiple yards away from the crash site. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. The investigation also cited weather and pilot fatigue as additional causes of the crash. There were neither casualties nor severe property damage on the ground, as the plane went down in an empty field. The Town of Smyrna has erected a permanent memorial to Capt. Kuss near the airport, which includes a decommissioned F/A-18 Hornet identical to the aircraft destroyed in the crash, painted in the Blue Angels #6 livery. * On May 29, 2021, a Cessna Citation 501, registered N66BK, crashed into nearby Percy Priest Lake soon after takeoff. All seven occupants on board died, including

Gwen Shamblin Lara Gwen Shamblin Lara (February 18, 1955 – May 29, 2021) was an American author, founder of the Christian diet program ''The Weigh Down Workshop'' and founder of the Remnant Fellowship. She is the subject of the 2021 HBO Max docuseries, '' The W ...

and her husband

Joe Lara William Joseph Lara (October 2, 1962 – May 29, 2021) was an American actor, martial artist, and musician, known for the role of Tarzan in the American TV series '' Tarzan: The Epic Adventures''. Career Lara played Tarzan in the 1989 TV movie ' ...

. The investigation into the crash is ongoing.

References

External links

Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport

Hollingshead Aviation FBO

Aerial image as of February 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 ...

'' * * {{Airports in Tennessee Airports in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Rutherford County, Tennessee Smyrna, Tennessee Airports established in 1971 1971 establishments in Tennessee Transportation in Rutherford County, Tennessee