| Orangeburg Municipal Airport | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: OGB – ICAO: KOGB | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | Public | ||
| Operator | City of Orangeburg | ||
| Serves | Orangeburg, South Carolina | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 195 ft / 59.4 m | ||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 17/35 | 5,399 | 1,646 | Asphalt |
| 5/23 | 4,508 | 1,374 | Asphalt |
Orangeburg Municipal Airport (IATA: OGB, ICAO: KOGB) is a public airport located 2 miles south of Orangeburg, South Carolina. The airport serves the general aviation community, with no scheduled commercial airline service.
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Orangeburg airport opened in November, 1937 as a public airport. In 1941 the United States Army Air Forces indicated a need for the airfield as a training airfield and control was turne over to the USAAF in February 1941. An immediate construction program began to turn the civil airport into a military airfield. Construction involved runways and airplane hangars, with three concrete runways, several taxiways and a large parking apron and a control tower. Several large hangars were also constructed. Buildings were ultimately utilitarian and quickly assembled. Most base buildings, not meant for long-term use, were constructed of temporary or semi-permanent materials. Although some hangars had steel frames and the occasional brick or tile brick building could be seen, most support buildings sat on concrete foundations but were of frame construction clad in little more than plywood and tarpaper.
Orangeburg Municipal Airport was activated on 23 August 1941 and was used by the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command, Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command) as a basic flying training airfield, with instruction being carried out by the 58th Flying Training Detachment (Contract Pilot School). The Hawthorne School of Aeronautics was the contractor who operated the primary flight school.
The primary trainer used at Orangeburg by the Hawthorne School of Aeronautics, the Boeing PT-17 Stearman. The president of Hawthorne was Beverly "Bevo" Howard, who had learned to fly at the age of 16. The military designation of the Hawthorne school was the 2162nd Army Air Force Base Unit.
The flight school at Orangeburg Airport operated several auxiliary airfields:
At the end of 1944, training of Free French pilots was transferred from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Orangeburg. The unit was inactivated on 1 September 1945, and the airport returned to civil control
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
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