Quonset State Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located on

Quonset Point Quonset Point (), also known simply as Quonset, is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Its name is widely known from the Quonset hut, which was first manufactured there. ''Quonset'' is an Algonqui ...

, in northeastern

North Kingstown North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is home to the birthplace of American portraitist Gilber ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

, United States, adjacent to

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. ...

. It is a

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 service ...

airport and there is no scheduled airline service available. It is included in the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

(FAA)

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 2017–2021, in which it is

categorized Categorization is the ability and activity of recognizing shared features or similarities between the elements of the experience of the world (such as objects, events, or ideas), organizing and classifying experience by associating them to a ...

as a regional

facility. It was the site of the

Naval Air Station Quonset Point A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It inclu ...

from 1941 until the early 1970s, when the military presence in Rhode Island was drastically scaled down. Despite the Navy's departure, the airport remains the home of Quonset Point Air National Guard Station and the

143d Airlift Wing The 143rd Airlift Wing (143 AW) is a unit of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, stationed at Quonset Point Air National Guard Station, Rhode Island. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Mobilit ...

(143 AW) of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, flying the

C-130J Hercules The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the newes ...

. The Rhode Island

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 ...

also maintains an Army Aviation Support Facility adjacent to the Air National Guard Station for the 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, flying the

UH-60 Blackhawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System ( ...

. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer program ...

for the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

and IATA, Quonset State Airport is assigned OQU by the FAA but is designated NCO by the IATA. Quonset State Airport is one of six active airports operated by the

Rhode Island Airports Corporation Rhode may refer to: *In Greek mythology: :*Rhodos, goddess and personification of the island of Rhodes :*Rhode, one of the fifty daughters of Danaus * ''Rhode'' (spider), a genus of spiders *Rhode (surname) *Rhode, County Offaly, an Irish town *Rh ...

. The other five airports include T.F. Green State Airport,

North Central State Airport North Central State Airport is a public use airport in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The airport is owned by the State of Rhode Island and opened for service in 1951. It serves the northern portion of the Providence metropoli ...

Westerly State Airport Westerly State Airport is a public use airport in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. It serves the town of Westerly and is located southeast of its central business district. It is primarily a general aviation airport, but there i ...

, Newport State Airport, and

Block Island State Airport Block Island State Airport is a public use airport located on Block Island, in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The airport is owned by the State of Rhode Island. It is primarily a general aviation airport, but there is also sc ...

. In the early 1980s Providence Airline Corp had daily flights leaving Quonset to Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford County, Connecticut; Syracuse, New York; Buffalo, New York; Chicago, Illinois; and Romulus, Michigan. On May 19, 2021,

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used ...

carrying President Joe Biden landed at Quonset State Airport where he was greeted by Rhode Island Governor

Dan McKee Daniel James McKee (born June 16, 1951) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 76th governor of Rhode Island since March 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as Rhode Island's 69th lieutenant governor from 2015 to ...

as well as Col. Adam Wiggins, the

143rd Airlift Wing The 143rd Airlift Wing (143 AW) is a unit of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, stationed at Quonset Point Air National Guard Station, Rhode Island. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Mobility ...

Commander and other officials. He then continued on

Marine One Marine One is the call sign of any United States Marine Corps aircraft carrying the president of the United States. It usually denotes a helicopter operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron One ( HMX-1) "Nighthawks", consisting of either the larg ...

to the

Coast Guard Academy The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) is a service academy of the United States Coast Guard in New London, Connecticut. Founded in 1876, it is the smallest of the five U.S. service academies and provides education to future Coast Gu ...

New London New London may refer to: Places United States * New London, Alabama *New London, Connecticut * New London, Indiana * New London, Iowa *New London, Maryland * New London, Minnesota *New London, Missouri *New London, New Hampshire, a New England tow ...

and returned later in the day to depart on Air Force One. Quonset State Airport RI June 2021

Facilities and aircraft

Quonset State Airport covers an area of which contains 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 ...

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: 16/34 measuring 7,504 x 150 ft (2,287 x 46 m) and 5/23 measuring 4,000 x 75 ft (1,219 x 23 m). The airport lies within Class D

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

and has an operating non-federal air traffic

control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

(closed on Mondays). For the 12-month period ending July 31, 2007, the airport had 20,750 aircraft operations, an average of 56 per day: 68%

, 28%

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 distin ...

and 4%

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) ...

. At that time there were 48 aircraft based at this airport: 60% 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 ...

, 4% multi-engine, 10%

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 attribut ...

and 25%

. The

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 instructio ...

on field is AV Ports. The flight and aviation instruction and airplane rental company on field is Parker Aviation, LLC., which was established on field in 2012.

References

External links

Quonset State Airport (OQU)
page from Rhode Island Airport Corp. *
Parker Aviation, LLC
A Rhode Island-based Aviation Training Company located at Hangar One on field.

of the former Quonset Naval Air Station. * * {{RI Airport Airports in Rhode Island Transportation buildings and structures in Washington County, Rhode Island Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island