Keystone Heights Airport

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Keystone Heights Airport
Keystone Heights Airport, 5 February 1999
IATA: none – ICAO: none – FAA: 42J
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		City of Keystone Heights, Florida
Location		3 miles north of Keystone Heights, Florida
Elevation AMSL		196 ft / 59.7 m
Coordinates		29°50′41.1″N, 082°02′51.1″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
4/22	5,044	1,537	Asphalt
10/28	4,899	1,493	Asphalt

Keystone Heights Airport (FAA LID: 42J) is a public airport located two miles (3 km) north of Keystone Heights, Florida.

The airport is adjacent to Camp Blanding, the Florida National Guard Reservation and "Fly through History" Military Museum and Memorial Park. This museum is dedicated to the World war II units that trained there during the early 1940s.

Keystone Heights Airport employs one full-time clerk and two part-time maintenance workers. The airport is home to fixed wing as well as helicopter flight training schools; a skilled driving school, the European Rally and Performance Driving School; an aluminium manufacturing company; REDD Team Manufacturing; and an FAA certified airframe and power plant mechanic. The businesses located on airport property employ approximately 80 people.

[edit] History

The airport was constructed in 1942 as Crystal Lake Airfield, and was commissioned in December 1942 as Keystone Army Airfield (AAF). It was used as a United States Army Air Forces Third Air Force training airfield.

It was a base for the 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Group. The 432d moved to Keystone from Alachua AAF on 23 February 1943, and was based there until 1 November 1943, when it moved to Shaw AAF, South Carolina.

At Keystone, the 432d served as the operational training unit (OTU) of the USAAF School of Applied Tactics. The school trained aircrews and provided reconnaissance training to assist fighter, bombardment, and ground units. Aircraft assigned were P-39s, B-24s and P-47s.

After the end of World War II, the facility was turned over to the City of Keystone Heights in 1947.