Felts Field is a public airport in the Northwestern United States, located northeast of Downtown Spokane, in

Spokane County, Washington Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 539,339, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest ...

. It is owned by Spokane City-County. The airport has two parallel runways. Now used for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

, Felts Field was Spokane's commercial airport before the opening of

Spokane International Airport Spokane International Airport is a commercial airport in Spokane, Washington, United States, located approximately west-southwest of Downtown Spokane. It is the primary airport serving the Inland Northwest (United States), Inland Northwest, w ...

. The

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

(FAA)

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

for 2017–2021 categorized it as a regional reliever facility.

History

Felts Field, Spokane's historic airfield, is on the south bank of the Spokane River east of Spokane. Aviation activities began in 1913. Then called the ''Parkwater airstrip'', it was designated a municipal flying field in 1920 at the instigation of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce. In 1926, the

Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business ...

recognized Parkwater as an airport, one of the first in the West. In September 1927, in conjunction with Spokane's National Air Races that Felts Field hosted, the airport was renamed Felts Field for James Buell Felts, a Washington Air National Guard aviator killed in a crash that May. Parkwater Aviation Field, later Felts Field, was the location for flight instruction, charter service, airplane repair,

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...

, headquarters of the 116th Observation Squadron of the Washington Air National Guard, and eventually the first

airmail Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be th ...

and commercial flights in and out of Spokane. In the summer of 1946, the airlines (

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

and United) moved west to Geiger Field (later Spokane International Airport). Felts Field remains a busy regional hub for private and small-plane aviation and related businesses and services. In 1991, it was designated Felts Field Historic District on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Today the airport is used for general aviation. No scheduled passenger service remains at Felts, though scheduled Part 135 cargo operations remain via UPS and DHL contracting ( Ameriflight LLC and previously Merlin Express Airways).

Facilities

Felts Field covers at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. It has two runways: 4L/22R is

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

and 4R/22L is asphalt. It has a

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tech ...

landing area designated 3W/21W, . The runways were formerly numbered 3/21. In the year ending February 28, 2015, it had 54,881 aircraft operations, averaging 150 per day: 93%

, 7%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

, and <1% military. In July 2017, 176 aircraft were based at Felts Field: 146 single-engine, 15 multi-engine, and 15

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

Historic Flight Foundation museum

The hangar facilities at the airport house the

Historic Flight Foundation The Historic Flight Foundation (HFF) was an aviation museum located at Felts Field in Spokane, Washington. The museum collected, restored, and flew historic aircraft from the period between Charles Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh's solo Atlantic cro ...

aviation museum. The museum was opened to the public in 2019 as a second location to the Historic Flight Foundation's

Paine Field Seattle Paine Field International Airport — also known as Paine Field and Snohomish County Airport — is a commercial and general aviation airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in uni ...

museum in

Everett, Washington Everett (; ) is the county seat and most populous city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the Seattle metropolitan area, metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett ...

Cargo carriers

Accidents and incidents

* On the morning of Saturday, November 29, 2003, an Ameriflight LLC cargo (

Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner The Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (previously the Swearingen Metro and later Fairchild Aerospace Metro) is a 19-seat, Cabin pressurization, pressurized, twin-turboprop airliner first produced by Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation, Swearingen ...

) (N439AF) crashed on approach to runway 22R at Felts Field using the ILS. The pilot's

HSI HSI may refer to: Government and politics * Croatian Syrmian Initiative, a political party in Serbia () * Hispanic-serving institution, an American college designation * Homeland Security Investigations, an American law enforcement agency * Human ...

was previously noted as inoperative, deferred, and due for scheduled maintenance. It is unclear whether the pilot was using backup instrumentation as prescribed via the deferral process or using the faulty HSI. The Metro III failed to maintain ILS glide slope and crashed short of the runway into rising terrain and trees. The pilot was killed during the subsequent impact and fire. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

References

External links

*
National Park Service
– Felts Field Historic District