Kirksville Regional Airport
Encyclopedia
Kirksville Regional Airport is a public airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

 located 6 NM southeast of the central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 of Kirksville
Kirksville, Missouri
Kirksville is the county seat of Adair County, Missouri, United States. It is located in Benton Township. The population was 17,505 at the 2010 census. Kirksville also anchors a micropolitan area that comprises Adair and Schuyler counties. The city is perhaps best known as the location of Truman...

, a city in Adair County
Adair County, Missouri
Adair County is a county located in northeast Missouri. As of 2010, the population was 25,607. Its county seat is Kirksville. The county was organized in 1841 and is named in honor of Kentucky Governor John Adair....

, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The airport is located in unincorporated Adair County and is owned by the City of Kirksville. It is mostly used for general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

, but is also served by one commercial airline. Service is subsidized by the Essential Air Service
Essential Air Service
Essential Air Service is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which, prior to deregulation, were served by certificated airlines, maintained commercial service. Its aim is to maintain a minimal level of scheduled air service to these...

 program.

Air Choice One began scheduled flight operations twice daily, to and from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is a Class B international airport serving Greater St. Louis. It is located approximately northwest of downtown St. Louis in unincorporated St. Louis County between Berkeley and Bridgeton. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state with 250 daily...

 during July 2009. Scheduled operations are currently subsidized by the Essential Air Service Act. Previously service was operated by Air Midwest
Air Midwest
Air Midwest, Inc., was a Federal Aviation Administration Part 121 certificated air carrier operating under air carrier certificate number AMWA510A issued on May 15, 1965. It was headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, United States, and was a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. It operated flights as US...

 (operating as US Airways Express
US Airways Express
US Airways Express is an airline brand name, rather than a fully certified airline, and as such, the US Airways Express name is used by several individually owned airlines or airline holding companies which provide regional airline and commuter service for US Airways.Operations are conducted from...

) to Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City International Airport , originally named Mid-Continent International Airport, is a public airport located 15 miles northwest of the central business district of Kansas City, in Platte County, Missouri, United States. In 2008, 10,469,892 passengers used the airport...

 and by RegionsAir
RegionsAir
RegionsAir was a Part 121 regional airline. Its headquarters and maintenance base were located at the Smyrna Airport in Smyrna, Tennessee, USA|. The hub airports for RegionsAir were Lambert-St...

 (operating as American Connection) with flights to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport
Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is a Class B international airport serving Greater St. Louis. It is located approximately northwest of downtown St. Louis in unincorporated St. Louis County between Berkeley and Bridgeton. It is the largest and busiest airport in the state with 250 daily...

.

History

Aviation in the Kirksville area began in the Kirksville area within a few years of the Wright brothers historic flight. Local resident Nick Sparling is credited as being Adair County's first aviator, in 1909. In 1924, Roy B. "Cap" Dodson started the first airport in the area, located on the north edge of Kirksville. However, an airfield at the present location of Kirksville Regional Airport wasn't created until 1930 when the Federal Aviation Administration built a series of emergency landing strips across the nation. With America's entry into World War Two the Kirksville Municipal Airport, as it had been declared in the late 1930s, received an major upgrade from the Civilian Pilots Training Program and the US Army Air Corps War Training Service. In 1942 a paved all-weather landing strip, hangars, a control tower and small restaurant were constructed. A post-war boom in commercial aviation finally reached Kirksville in 1961 when Ozark Airlines began regular air service. The plane must have been a familiar sight to many area World War Two veterans, as Ozark used the venerable Douglas DC-3, the civilian counterpart to the famed C-47 'Gooney Bird', now decked out in Ozark's white and evergreen instead of Army Air Corps colors. The Ozark route began in Kansas City, Missouri with intermediate stops in Kirksville, Ottumwa and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Moline, Illinois, and terminated in Chicago. With the arrival of Ozark's DC-3's also came upgrades to the airport facilities. The original paved runway was rebuilt and lengthened to accommodate the larger aircraft, and a shorter, turf, runway was retained for the use of small private planes. Still more improvements came as result of a bond issue approved by Kirksville voters in 1967. A new six-thousand foot concrete runway was constructed, as well as a new terminal building and improved hangar facilities. The longer runway was necessary to accommodate Ozark Airlines switch from the DC-3 to a newer, faster Fairchild prop-jet with larger passenger capacity. It was also in the 1960s that Ozark Airlines switched Kirksville service from a Kansas City-Chicago route to a Des Moines-to-St. Louis one. With the airport improvements also came a new name, Clarence Cannon Memorial Airport—chosen to honor long-time US Congressman Clarence Cannon of Missouri who had done much to help secure air service and funding for the airport. Despite the nearly one million dollars in facility upgrades and a steady flow of passengers in and out of Kirksville, Ozark Airlines found the route to be financially untenable by the mid-1970s, with their final departure coming on April 23, 1976. Fortunately a local pilot and dentist, Dr. Steven Barber, has established a small commuter air service, Horizon Airways, in 1972. Horizon was able to help fill the void left by Ozarks departure, eventually expanding to five aircraft and service to both Kansas City and St. Louis.

Facilities and aircraft

Kirksville Regional Airport covers an area of 409 acres (165.5 ha) which contains two runway
Runway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

s: 18/36 has concrete
Concrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 paved surface measuring 6,005 x 100 ft (1,830 x 30 m), and 9/27 has a turf
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...

 surface measuring 1,393 x 100 ft (425 x 30 m).For the 12-month period ending June 30, 2006, the airport had 8,350 aircraft operations, an average of 22 per day: 78% general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

, 14% scheduled commercial, 6% air taxi
Air taxi
An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...

 and 2% military. There are 34 aircraft based at this airport: 97% single engine and 3% multi-engine.

Incidents

  • On October 19, 2004, Corporate Airlines Flight 5966
    Corporate Airlines Flight 5966
    Corporate Airlines Flight 5966 was a flight route from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, United States to Kirksville Regional Airport in unincorporated Adair County, Missouri, near the city of Kirksville. Corporate Airlines flew the route as part of the...

     crashed on approach to Kirksville. Thirteen individuals died and two sustained injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board
    National Transportation Safety Board
    The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incidents, certain types of highway crashes, ship and marine...

    determined pilot error to be the cause of the accident.

  • On May 12, 2005 a Midwest Airlines Boeing 717 made an emergency landing at Kirksville Regional Airport after experiencing severe turbulence while en route from Kansas City, Missouri to Washington, D.C. A safe landing was made, with all 76 passengers and 4 crew unharmed. To date this is the largest aircraft to ever land at Kirksville Regional Airport.

External links

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