More than anything, pilots need airports but many airports are on the endangered-species list. The poster-child of lost airports is charming Horace Williams Field, owned by the University of North Carolina and now gone. Meigs Field was murdered in the dark of night by a Chicago gangster who happened to be the mayor. Charles Lindbergh departed on his famous flight from Roosevelt Field; you can still see the runway in the parking lot of a Long Island shopping center. Mountain Meadow Airstrip in Burlington, CT is now a scrub-filled knoll, the victim of rising insurance premiums. Santa Monica is on life-support and even the charming Tacoma Narrows airport south of Seattle has been on and off death row. But there are actions we can take as pilots to protect, preserve, and even promote our airports. And nobody will do it but us. Here are two examples of communities turning their local airports into important assets.
