| Hernando County Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| USGS aerial image, 31 December 1998 | |||
| IATA: none – ICAO: KBKV – FAA LID: BKV | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | Hernando County | ||
| Location | Hernando County, near Brooksville, Florida | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 76 ft / 23 m | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 3/21 | 5,015 | 1,529 | Concrete |
| 9/27 | 7,002 | 2,134 | Concrete |
| Statistics (2001) | |||
| Aircraft operations | 79,000 | ||
| Based aircraft | 167 | ||
| Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1] | |||
Hernando County Airport (ICAO: KBKV, FAA LID: BKV) is a joint civil-military public airport located 6 nautical miles (11 km) southwest of the central business district of Brooksville, a city in Hernando County, Florida, United States. It is owned by Hernando County[1] and is 45 miles (72 km) north of Tampa. While having consistent growth in its traffic rate, the Hernando County Airport does not yet serve the public through commercial airlines, but does have charter and executive service.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Hernando County Airport is assigned BKV by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.[2]
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Hernando County Airport was opened in November 1942 by the United States Army Air Forces. Known as Brooksville Army Airfield, it was used as part of the Air University's Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics (AAFSAT) tactical combat simulation school in Central and Northern Florida.
Headquartered at Orlando Army Air Base, AAFSAT's mission was to develop tactics and techniques of aerial warfare and to establish technical and tactical proficiency requirements for combat units to effectively engage and defeat enemy air forces. This was done with a wide variety of aircraft, including heavy strategic bombers, tactical fighters, medium and light bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and dive bombers, based at different airfields of the school.
AAFSAT used Brooksville as a heavy and medium bomber training base, assigning the following squadrons to the airfield:
In March 1944, Brooksville was reassigned to Third Air Force and it became an auxiliary airfield of MacDill Field (now MacDill AFB) and Drew Field (now Tampa International Airport).
In late 1945, the field was reported to the War Assets Administration (WAA) as being in surplus and between April 1946 and June 1947, the WAA sold or moved the on-site equipment to military locations where it could be better utilized. The land and left-over facilities were sold to the city of Brooksville by a General Services Administration (GSA) quitclaim deeds which contained clauses that limited the property to be used for a public airport only. Some of these clauses have since been modified by the Federal Aviation Administration. [3][4][5]
Within a few years, the city of Brooksville transferred the property to Hernando County, which remains the current owner. Two small sections of the land have been sold to private interests and the rest is currently used by the county for an airport, 155-acre (0.63 km2) industrial park, prison, land rentals, and tree farming.[6]
Since 2000, the Hernando County Airport has been a joint civil-military airfield, home to the Florida Army National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility #2 and the Florida Army National Guard's 171st Aviation Battalion (171 AVN BN), which relocated from their previous facility at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport, occupying newly constructed facilities adjacent to an existing Florida Army National Guard Armory housing the 3rd Battalion, 20th Special Forces. The 171 AVN BN flies UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and C-23 Sherpa fixed-wing cargo aircraft.[6]
Hernando County Airport covers an area of 2,498 acres (1,011 ha) which contains two concrete paved runways: 9/27 measuring 7,002 x 150 ft (2,134 x 46 m) and 3/21 measuring 5,015 x 150 ft (1,529 x 46 m).[1]
For the 12-month period ending November 7, 2001, the airport had 49,000 aircraft operations, an average of 134 per day: 98% general aviation, 1% military and 1% air taxi. There are 108 aircraft based at this airport: 83% single engine, 7% multi-engine, 5% helicopters, 3% ultralights and 2% jet aircraft.[1]
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.