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 except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

and military use

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 ...

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 at t ...

s (4 km) north of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center 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 wit ...

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

, a town in Rutherford County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. 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, Tennessee, Smyrna, about 25 miles southeast of Nashville, Tennessee. During World War II, it was known as Smyrna Army Airfield. History World W ...

. 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. With the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of September 3, 1982, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was required to develop a ...

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 ...

'' for

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

, 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) 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 Army. It is simultaneously part of two differen ...

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 Reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, federal military reserve force of the United States Air Force, as well as the air militia (United States), militia of each U.S. ...

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 w ...

aircraft of the 118th Airlift Wing (now redesignated the

118th Wing The 118th Wing (118 WG) is a unit of the Tennessee Air National Guard, stationed at Joint Base Berry Field, formerly Berry Field Air National Guard Base, Nashville, Tennessee. The 118th is equipped with the MQ-9 Reaper. If activated to federal ...

) of the

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

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 developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...

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 A ...

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 A ...

. 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 measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

s (688 ha) 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 543 feet (166 m) above

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

. It has two

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 ...

paved

runway 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, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

s 14/32 is 8,038 (grooved) by 150 feet (2,450 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 the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

designated H1 with a

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 ...

surface measuring 40 by 40 feet (12 x 12 m). For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2023, the airport had 123,375 aircraft operations, an average of 338 per day: 88%

, 2%

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 ...

, 10%

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% scheduled commercial. At that time there were 189 aircraft based at this airport: 121 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 ge ...

, 26 multi-engine, 40 jet, and 2

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 ...

. The airport has an operational control tower from 7am to 10pm on weekdays and 7am to 7pm on weekends, a precision instrument landing system (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 January 11, 1955, a

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar The Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (Navy and Marine Corps designation R4Q) is an American military transport aircraft developed from the World War II-era Fairchild C-82 Packet, designed to carry cargo, personnel, Litter (rescue basket), litte ...

crashed after engine failure 5 miles NE of the airport. All 37 airborne infantry and three crew members bailed out before the aircraft crashed, but two crew members were killed. * On November 26, 1962, a USAF

Lockheed 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 w ...

lost two engines during a training flight and crashed. All five occupants died. * On June 2, 2016, while practicing for an upcoming air show at the airport,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Blue Angels The Blue Angels, formally named the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, are a Aerobatics, flight demonstration squadron of the United States Navy.. Blue Angels official site. Formed in 1946, the unit is the second oldest formal aerobatics ...

#6, an

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

, 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 as a spy, during the American Civil War. He is popularly known as the ''Boy Hero of the Confederacy'', although he was 21 ...

Home, a nearby historic site. The pilot,

USMC The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

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 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''. Early life and career Lara was born William Jose ...

. 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), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a Collaboration, 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 eff ...

'' * * {{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

Military use

Facilities and aircraft

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

External links