Springfield–Beckley Municipal Airport is a civil-military airport in Green Township in

Clark County, Ohio Clark County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,001. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield. The county was created on March 1, 1818, and was nam ...

, United States. It is owned by the city of Springfield, five miles (8 km) to the north. It is named after the Beckley family, a member of which knew the Wright Brothers, and witnessed and photographed their first flights. Three units of the

Ohio Air National Guard The Ohio Air National Guard (OH ANG) is the aerial militia of the Ohio, State of Ohio, United States, United States of America. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and along with the Ohio Army National Guard an element of the Ohio Na ...

, including the 178th Wing (formerly 178th Fighter Wing), are based at the co-located Springfield Air National Guard Base. The airport hosts events such as fly-ins and

airshows An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are trade fair, exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without which they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground. The ...

with vintage airplanes. The airport has hosted the

Commemorative Air Force The Commemorative Air Force (CAF), formerly known as the Confederate Air Force, is an American non-profit organization based in Dallas, Texas, that preserves and shows historical aircraft at Air show, airshows, primarily in the U.S. and Canada. ...

. The airport is home to flight schools. Flight training is available for students at the Clark State Community College.

History

Springfield had scheduled airline flights on

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from 1948 to 1950 and on Lake Central from 1953 to 1955. In 2005, the 178th Fighter Wing lost its

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it e ...

training mission due to the Base Realignment and Closure Act. The airport received an updated master plan in 2016. The airport was praised for record-breaking

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sales during the onset of the

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in 2020. The airport was named the 2023 Ohio Airport of the Year by the Ohio Aviation Association. The airport was formerly home to the Ohio Center for Precision Agriculture.

Facilities

The airport covers and has two

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runways. Runway 06/24 measures 9,010 x 150 ft (2,746 x 46 m). Runway 15/33 measures 5,498 x 100 ft (1,676 x 30 m). 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 sells

. It offers services such as

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, hangaring, and courtesy cars and amenities such as internet, conference rooms,

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, a crew lounge, snooze rooms, television, and more. In 2021, the airport received more than $2 million in federal grants to rehabilitate its runways and add runway lighting. An additional $226,000 grant that year, approved to provide greater access to drive and parking areas for facilities at the airport, funded an electric charging station and a controlled flight simulator. In 2022, the airport removed and reinstalled a taxiway that had surpassed its useful life and did not conform to FAA standards. City officials approved money for more lighting upgrades. In 2023, new $1.2-million hangars opened and the aircraft parking ramp was expanded to accommodate the planned growth of a maintenance shop.

UAS testing

The airport is home to the Ohio UAS Center, which is managed by the

Ohio Department of Transportation The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT; ) is the administrative department of the government of Ohio, Ohio state government responsible for developing and maintaining all state and U.S. roadways outside of municipalities and all List of In ...

. Planning began in 2013 in an effort to secure one of six UAS test sites created by 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 ...

. The first UAS testing at the airport was approved in 2019, when the

United States Air Force 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 ...

began testing drones at the airport through the Air Force Research Lab. The airport hosts flight testing for

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and

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home delivery services. It is also the site of the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence, which will focus on research into autonomous flight, electrical vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, and electric flight for the U.S.

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. The airport has specially designed airspace to protect these operations as well as unique surveillance radar that operates out of a converted bus.

Aircraft

In the year ending November 8, 2022, the airport had 32,770 aircraft operations, an average of 90 per day: 99%

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 ...

, <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 ...

, and <1%

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 ...

. That year, 32 aircraft were then based at this airport: 23 single-engine and seven 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, ...

, one

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by one or more jet engines. Whereas the engines in Propeller (aircraft), propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much ...

, and one

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 ...

Accidents and incidents

*On February 9, 1988, a

British Aerospace Jetstream The British Aerospace Jetstream is a small twin turboprop airliner, with a Cabin pressurisation, pressurised fuselage, developed as the ''Jetstream 31'' from the earlier Handley Page Jetstream. A larger version of the Jetstream was also manuf ...

operated by Jetstream International Airlines on a training flight yawed and rolled while executing a

go around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on Final_approach_(aeronautics), final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for var ...

. The aircraft subsequently pitched up, rolled and entered a vertical descent and impacted the ground. All three crew were killed. *On June 23, 2004, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk was substantially damaged when it impacted the ground after takeoff from the Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport. The pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings at the airport. During climbout from the third approach, the airplane "dropped" and impacted the runway, first on its main

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

, and then on its nose landing gear. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed, resulting in a stall and hard landing. *On August 23, 2015, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk was damaged while landing at the Springfield–Beckley Municipal Airport. The pilot reported that, during landing, he bounced hard two times. After the second bounce, he applied full power to

. The pilot continued his cross-country flight to his final destination and landed without further incident. A post-flight inspection revealed substantial damage to the firewall. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot's improper pitch control during landing, which resulted in a hard landing. *On October 15, 2016, a

Piper PA-34 Seneca The Piper PA-34 Seneca is a twin-engined light aircraft, produced in the United States by Piper Aircraft. It has been in non-continuous production since 1971. The Seneca is primarily used for personal and business flying as well as multi-engine ...

was damaged during landing at the Springfield–Beckley Municipal Airport. The pilot made his approach with extra power to compensate for gusting winds. After the airplane's main

touched down, the aircraft was disturbed by a wind gust and ballooned by 50 to 100 feet. Though the pilot initiated a go-around, the airplane impacted the runway in a flat attitude, and the nose landing gear was pushed/driven through the top of the cowling. The probable cause of the accident was found to be the pilot’s inadequate compensation for gusting wind during the landing flare, which resulted in a hard landing. *On December 2, 2017, a small plane landed in a field near the airport. *On October 2, 2023, a small plane crashed at the airport.

References

External links

Springfield–Beckley Municipal AirportSpringfield Air National Guard Base
(official site)

(GlobalSecurity.org) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport Airports in Ohio Buildings and structures in Clark County, Ohio Transportation in Clark County, Ohio