Ohio State University Airport is a public

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

six miles (10 km) northwest of downtown Columbus, in Franklin County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. It is owned and operated by

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in Columbus. It is also known as the OSU Don Scott Airport, named after Donald E. Scott, an OSU

alumnus Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

who died during his training as a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The airport's main entrance is located on Case Road, and is easily accessible from OH-315 and Interstate 270. The Ohio State University Airport serves the university while offering general aviation services for the public. It is one of 30 airports owned by universities across the country, but it is one of only three owned by a Tier One research institution. The airport is largely exempt from paying property taxes.

History

The Ohio State University opened its first airport in 1917 to train cadets to build and fly aircraft for

World War 1 World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. That airport was shut down in 1920 when

Ohio Stadium Ohio Stadium is an American football stadium in Columbus, Ohio, on the campus of Ohio State University. It primarily serves as the home venue of the Ohio State Buckeyes football team and is also the site for the university's Spring Commencemen ...

was built on the site. The university built a second airport soon after its first shut down, and it was among a number of universities that took part in the

Civilian Pilot Training Program The Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was a flight training program (1938–1944) sponsored by the United States government with the stated purpose of increasing the number of civilian pilots, though having a clear impact on military prepare ...

, sponsored by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, for the purpose of fostering private flying. The current OSU Airport began in 1943 as a flight training facility for military and civilian pilots, operated by the OSU School of Aviation. The airport was used as a research location for

crop dusting Aerial application, or crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific spreading of fertilizer is also known a ...

aircraft in the 1940s. A

Piper J-3 Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

was used for testing until it crashed in 1957 and the project was halted. It became a public-use airport in 1959 upon receipt of federal funding for runway improvements. The first jets were based at the airport in 1962. The university started a partnership with the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) in the 1960s. The Association's Safety in Flight Evaluation Conference has been held at The Ohio State University Airport ten times. The Ohio State University Airport has been home to NIFA's headquarters since 2015. In the 1970s, the University used Douglas DC-3s at the airport to transport university sports teams, faculty, and administration to and from Columbus. Discussions to sell the airport have been on and off since 1986. The OSU Airport is now a self-supporting entity of the Ohio State University through the Department of Aerospace Engineering & Aviation. The Department oversees all aspects of the Airport from Airport Management, to Fixed-Base Operations, to Airport Maintenance. The Airport is also home to the OSU Department of Aerospace Engineering & Aviation Gas Turbine Laboratory, several facilities operated by the OSU College of Agriculture, the Ohio Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation, fourteen corporate flight departments, and four

flying clubs Flying may refer to: * Flight, the process of flying * Aviation, the creation and operation of aircraft Music Albums * '' Flying (Cody Fry album)'', 2017 * ''Flying'' (Grammatrain album), 1997 * ''Flying'' (Jonathan Fagerlund album), 2008 * ...

. Per a partnership with

NetJets NetJets Inc. is an American company that sells Fractional ownership of aircraft, fractional ownership shares in private business jets. Founded as Executive Jet Airways in 1964, it was later renamed Executive Jet Aviation. NetJets became the ...

, whose headquarters are in Columbus, the University's department of aviation also founded the Ohio State University Center for Aviation Studies, which provides funding for research projects and student scholarships and fellowships as well as conducting economic and public policy studies in technical projects. The OSU Airport is a Part 139 Certificated Airport, serving as a general aviation reliever for the nearby

John Glenn Columbus International Airport John Glenn Columbus International Airport is an international airport located east of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as Port Columbus International Airport, it is managed by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also overs ...

. It is the base for the Ohio State Highway Patrol's Aviation Section and the Ohio Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation.

Historical airline service

In August 1975, the US

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1940 from a split of the Civil Aeronautics Authority and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services (including scheduled passe ...

, the now-defunct Federal agency that, at the time, regulated almost all airline service, approved Wright Air Lines to fly from Cleveland

Burke Lakefront Airport Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport is a city-owned airport on the shore of Lake Erie, in the northeast part of downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is classified as a general aviation airport and is an FAA designated reliever to Cleve ...

to Columbus via Don Scott Airport. At the time, Wright flew 44-passenger piston-powered

Convair 440 The Convair CV-240 is an American airliner that Convair manufactured from 1947 to 1954, initially as a possible replacement for the ubiquitous Douglas DC-3. Featuring a more modern design with cabin pressurization, the 240 series made some inroa ...

aircraft. The new service was not well received by Ohio State or the airport's neighbors and they were able to force Wright out, the service lasting only from September 29 to December 15. Wright moved to

Port Columbus International Airport John Glenn Columbus International Airport is an international airport located east of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as Port Columbus International Airport, it is managed by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also overs ...

– today’s John Glenn International Airport.

Facilities and aircraft

Facilities

The airport has three

runways In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (grass, dirt, gravel, ...

. Runway 9R/27L is the airport's main runway. It measures 5,004 x 100 ft (1525 x 30 m) and is paved with

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

. Runway 9L/27R runs parallel to it; it measures 2994 x 100 ft (913 x 30 m) and is paved with asphalt. The third runway, designated as runway 5/23, measures 3562 x 100 ft (1086 x 30 m) and is also paved with asphalt. The airport also has a helipad for helicopter operations. Designated as helipad H1, it measures 40 x 40 ft (12 x 12 m) and is paved with asphalt. In 2020, the airport's main runway received rehabilitations to continue offering safe operations. The airport's master plan includes a plan to expand runway 9R/27L to 6,000 feet to help corporate aviation departments fly further non-stop from the airport. The airport has a

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 ...

that offers both

avgas Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the United Kingdom, UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in moto ...

and

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 ...

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...

as well as amenities such as general maintenance,

catering Catering is the business of providing food services at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park, festival, filming location or film studio. History of catering The earliest account of major service ...

, a crew lounge, snooze rooms,

showers A shower is a place in which a person bathes under a spray of typically warm or hot water. Indoors, there is a drain in the floor. Most showers are set up to have adjustable temperature, spray pressure and showerhead nozzle angle. The si ...

, a courtesy car, and more. The FBO unveiled a new $15 million terminal building in 2018, which received funding in large part from a $10 million donation. It also added dozens of new hangars to house more airplanes, and it is developing a 50-acre corporate airpark.

Aircraft

Based on the 12-month period ending December 31, 2021, the airport has 77,745 annual aircraft operations, an average of 213 per day. This includes 79%

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 ...

, 21%

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 A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

. The airport generally ranks in the top five airports in Ohio in terms of the number of take-offs and landings, along with Cleveland Hopkins, John Glenn Columbus,

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, and Cincinnati Lunken. For the same time period, there were 143 aircraft based at the airport: 118 single-engine and 10 multi-engine

airplanes An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, ...

as well as 11 jets and 4

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 attribu ...

Accidents and incidents

* In 1967, the crew of a

TWA The Twa, often referred to as Batwa or Mutwa (singular), are indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, recognized as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. Historically and academically, the term � ...

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

mistook the Ohio State University Airport for

(now known as John Glenn Columbus International Airport). After shuttling all passengers and baggage to Port Columbus, and removing all galley equipment and seats, the plane was light enough to depart for the larger airport across town.

References

External links

Historic photo; Don Scott field in 1954Historic photo; Don Scott field in 1983
* {{Transportation in Columbus, Ohio Airports in Ohio

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Transportation in Columbus, Ohio University and college airports Airports established in 1943 1943 establishments in Ohio Transportation buildings and structures in Franklin County, Ohio Transportation in Franklin County, Ohio Buildings and structures in Franklin County, Ohio