Pearson Field

Pearson Field
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner City of Vancouver
Serves Vancouver, Washington
Elevation AMSL 25 ft / 8 m
Coordinates 45°37′14″N 122°39′23″W / 45.62056°N 122.65639°W / 45.62056; -122.65639
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
8/26 3,275 998 Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 52,200
Based aircraft 175

Pearson Field (ICAO: KVUO, FAA LID: VUO),[2] is a city-owned municipal airport located one mile (2 km) southeast of the central business district of Vancouver, a city in Clark County, Washington, United States.[1]

Pearson Field is the oldest continuously operating airfield in the Pacific Northwest and one of the two oldest continuously operating airfields in the United States, receiving recognition in 2012 as an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics historic aerospace site.[3][4] Pearson Field's history began with the landing of a Baldwin airship, piloted by Lincoln Beachey, upon the polo grounds of the Vancouver Barracks in 1905.[5][6] Located in the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, it is also the only airport in the United States that operates totally within the boundaries of a national historic reserve.[7] Primarily used for general aviation, the airfield's lone runway is located directly beneath the final approach to runway 10L at nearby Portland International Airport. The airport lies next to Washington State Route 14 and the Columbia River.

History

The Goodyear blimp at Pearson Field in June 1973.

Pearson Field's history dates back to the early 1900s and is named for local resident First Lieutenant Alexander Pearson Jr. of the United States Army.

1905 
Lincoln Beachey pilots his Baldwin airship from the grounds of the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition on the shores of Guild's Lake in Portland, Oregon to Vancouver Barracks in the first aerial crossing of the Columbia River. This flight also set an endurance record for flight at the time. Carrying a letter from Theodore Hardee, an official of the fair, to the commandant of the Vancouver Barracks, General Constant Williams, the flight is also the recognized as the first time an airship is used to deliver a letter.[8][9]
1911 
First airplane lands at Pearson Field.
1912 
A homebuilt aircraft built onsite becomes the first aircraft departure.[10]
1923–1941 
Pearson Field is home to the US Army Air Service.
1923 
Commander Lt. Oakley G. Kelly makes the first non-stop transcontinental flight.
1924 
Pearson Field is a stopover point on the army's first round-the-world flight.
1925 
Pearson Field is named after Lt. Alexander Pearson by order of Major General John L. Hines.[11] On 16 September 1925, during the inauguration of Pearson Field, in front of 20,000 spectators and against 53 competitor pilots, Edith Foltz won the dead-stick landing competition.[12]
1937 
Soviet aviator Valery Chkalov lands at the end of the first non-stop transpolar flight.
1994 
City of Vancouver and National Park Service enter into agreement governing the future of Pearson Field.
2005 
Pearson Field celebrates its 100-year anniversary.
2012 
Pearson Field receives AIAA historic aerospace site designation.[13][14][15]
2015 
AIAA monument placed.
2016 
Former State Representative John McKibbin, along with Irene Mustain, depart from the field; their plane crashes in the Columbia River.

Facilities and aircraft

Pearson Field covers an area of 140 acres (57 ha) which contains one runway designated 8/26 with a 3,275 × 60 ft (998 × 18 m) asphalt pavement. For the 12-month period ending May 31, 2006, the airport had 52,200 aircraft operations, an average of 143 per day: 97% general aviation, 2% military and 1% air taxi. At that time there were 175 aircraft based at this airport: 97% single-engine and 3% multi-engine.[1]

The airfield has a 150 T-hangars and tiedown facilities, with capacity for 175 light aircraft.

Located at the airport are the Pearson Air Museum and Jack Murdock Aviation Center, a full service FBO,[16] and the Pearson Field Education Center. Located nearby are the Grand Central Retail Center,[17] Jantzen Beach SuperCenter and the Portland International Raceway.

Economic impact

The state of Washington provides economic impact studies of airports within the state. In the 2001 report, Pearson Field contributed about 600 jobs to the area. Salaries drawn in relation to business at Pearson total about $11M USD. The total economic activity related to Pearson totals about $38M USD.[18] There was an updated report in 2012.[19]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 FAA Airport Master Record for VUO (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-12-20
  2. ↑ Great Circle Mapper: KVUO - Vancouver, Washington (Pearson Field)
  3. ↑ http://www.fortvan.org/images/AIAA_Booklet.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.aiaa.org/HistoricAerospaceSites/
  5. ↑ Alley, Bill (2006). Pearson Field Pioneering Aviation in Vancouver and Portland. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-3129-8.
  6. ↑ Pearson Field: Compiled From Columbian Archives. the Columbian. 2010-05-21. URL:http://www.columbian.com/history/pearson/. Accessed: 2010-05-21. (Archived by WebCite at https://www.webcitation.org/5pu3OJB4I)
  7. ↑ Pearson Field Airport - Services & Public Safety - City of Vancouver, Washington, USA
  8. ↑ Alley, William (2006). Pearson Field. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7385-3129-8.
  9. ↑ http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83025138/1905-09-20/ed-1/seq-1/
  10. ↑ "College Park Vrs Pearson Field". AOPA Pilot: 38. May 2014.
  11. ↑ General Orders No. 9, J.L. Hines, War Department, May 7, 1925
  12. ↑ http://fortvan.org/images/Pearson/Educational_PDFs/Foltz.pdf
  13. ↑ http://fortvan.org/images/AIAA_Booklet.pdf
  14. ↑ http://www4.columbian.com/news/2012/sep/06/pearson-fields-standing-in-aviation-history-recogn/
  15. ↑ http://www4.columbian.com/news/2012/sep/10/pearson-field-soars-past-kitty-hawk-in-one-area-of/
  16. ↑ http://www.aeromt.com
  17. ↑ http://www.nouspace.net/dene/gcrc/index.html
  18. ↑ "AIRPORT: Pearson Field (VUO) ASSOCIATED CITY: Vancouver ARC: B-II REGION: Southwest" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transport Aviation Division. 2001. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  19. ↑ "Pearson Field" (PDF). Washington State Department of Transport. 2012. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
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