Merritt Island Airport is a 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...

 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...

 under the administration of the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority. It located in Merritt Island

Merritt Island, Florida

Merritt Island is a census-designated place in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is located on the east coast of the state on the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2000 census, the population was 36,090. It is part of the Palm Bay – Melbourne – Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Brevard County

Brevard County, Florida

Brevard County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the population is 536,521, making it the 10th most populous county in the state. Influenced by the presence of the John F. Kennedy Space Center, Brevard...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, USA

United States

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

, northwest of Patrick Air Force Base

Patrick Air Force Base

Patrick Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located between Satellite Beach and Cocoa Beach, in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It was named in honor of Major General Mason Patrick. An Air Force Space Command base, it is home to the 45th Space Wing...

.

History

In the early 1940s, the Brevard County Mosquito Control District constructed the Central Brevard Airport. The airfield included two sod landing strips:

(1) a north-south strip measuring approximately 1,800 feet in length; and,
(2) a northwest southeast strip measuring approximately 3,000 feet in length.

An operations building and maintenance hangar were located on the south side of the airfield and the Mosquito Control District had a maintenance hangar on the north side of the airfield. The north-south landing strip was eventually abandoned, replaced by various facilities such as T-hangars that currently occupy this area. The Brevard County Mosquito Control District subsequently deeded the Central Brevard Airport property over to the Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority in exchange for ten acres of land located within Space Coast Regional Airport. Central Brevard Airport was renamed Merritt Island Airport and became a public general aviation facility.

Facilities

Merritt Island Airport covers 129 acres (52 ha) and has one 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...

:

• Runway 11/29: 3,601 x 75 ft. (1,098 x 23 m), Surface: asphalt
  Asphalt
  Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
  
  

Businesses

• Aerocomp, an airplane manufacturer is located at the Merritt Island Airport.
• Baer Air offers aircraft charters and has a base at the airport.
• Voyager Aviation International offers flight training.