Arlington Municipal Airport (Washington)

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Arlington Municipal Airport
IATA: none – ICAO: KAWO – FAA: AWO
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		City of Arlington
Serves		Arlington, Washington
Elevation AMSL		142 ft / 43 m
Coordinates		48°09′39″N 122°09′32″W / 48.16083, -122.15889
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
16/34	5,332	1,625	Asphalt
11/29	3,498	1,066	Asphalt
Statistics (2007)
Aircraft operations			190,000
Based aircraft			591
Source: Federal Aviation Administration^[1]

Arlington Municipal Airport (ICAO: KAWO, FAA LID: AWO) is a public airport located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Arlington, a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is owned by the City of Arlington.^[1]

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Arlington Municipal is assigned AWO by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.^[2]

1 History
2 Today
3 Facilities and aircraft
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Construction of the airport was approved on February 23, 1934. The first plane took off on June 13, 1934 and the airport was officially dedicated on July 4, 1935. The airport is on the National Register of Historic Places. U.S. Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Arlington, Washington began in 1940, when the Navy leased the airstrip from the town of Arlington to supplement training facilities at Seattle. However, no important construction took place until 1942. In that year the Navy permitted the Army to develop the field as a strategic base for medium bombers to counteract the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians. Early in 1943 the Japanese threat in the Aleutians diminished and at the same time the Naval carrier program required additional training fields within reach of gunnery ranges in the Puget Sound area. By 14 August, 1945 Arlington was a well-balanced station equipped to support two light carrier Air groups for either day or night operations. No major projects were pending at that time, and it was felt that none remained to be undertaken unless a significant addition was made to the functions of the station.

At the close of World War II, the U.S. military reduced funding and operations around the United States. On October 10, notification was received from the Chief of Naval Operations that Arlington would be reduced to a caretaker status on December 1, 1945.

[edit] Today

Currently, the airport is host to several businesses making significant contributions to the aviation industry. Some activities include flight instruction, emergency parachute manufacturing, kit plane and sailplane sales/manufacturing, historic and decommissioned aircraft restoration, aircraft upholstery, aircraft cover manufacturing, and much more. The airport is home to corporate & decommissioned military jets, vintage aircraft, piston aircraft, helicopters, gliders, and ultralights.

The City continues to support general aviation through financing, planning and development. During the 1995 Master Plan update, the City planned and developed the airport specifically for general aviation use. Items specific to general aviation included in the 2002 Master Plan Update are additional T-hangars, a 100’ by 1,000’ (50’ pavement / 50’ turf) ultralight runway, and a compass rose.

[edit] Facilities and aircraft

Arlington Municipal Airport covers an area of 1,189 acres (481 ha) which contains two asphalt paved runways: 16/34 measuring 5,332 x 100 ft. (1,625 x 30 m) and 11/29 measuring 3,498 x 75 ft. (1,066 x 23 m).^[1]

For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2007, the airport had 190,000 aircraft operations, an average of 520 per day: 99.7% general aviation, 0.3% air taxi and <0.1% military. There are 591 aircraft based at this airport: 83% single-engine, 1% multi-engine, 1% jet, 2% helicopter, 5% glider and 7% ultralight.^[1]

[edit] References

Arlington Centennial 1903-2003: A Pictorial History of Arlington, Washington
Information for this article was obtained from legal documents, government documents, correspondence, original applications, and newspaper articles from The Arlington Times.