Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport
Encyclopedia
Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport (ICAO: KVVS, FAA LID
: VVS, formerly 2G3) is a public-use airport
located four nautical miles (7 km
) southwest of the central business district
of Connellsville, a city in Fayette County
, Pennsylvania
, United States
. It is owned by the Fayette County Airport Authority. The airport serves the general aviation
community, with no currently scheduled commercial airline service.
The airport is named for Joseph A. Hardy, founder of 84 Lumber
. Previously known as ‘Connellsville Airport’, it was renamed in 2007 to recognize Hardy's support of improving the airport. Hardy, a Fayette County Commissioner at the time of donation, gave the airport authority $800,000 for runway improvements.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned VVS by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.
The airport property is home to other Fayette County entities and businesses :
This airport also serves to provide a convenient stopping place for tourism in the region including those travelling to the following county historic and popular spots:
(WPA) Program. Although first opened in October 1938 , it was heavily used during World War II
by the United States Army Air Force Air Technical Service Command as a sub-depot of the Middletown Air Depot near Harrisburg. Original airport construction occurred from 1936 to 1938 under the WPA.. California University of Pennsylvania
helped conduct pilot training in support of the war effort at the Connellsville Airport starting in late 1939.
The 805th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot, which opened on 1 July 1941, repaired and overhauled aircraft and returned them to active service. With the winding down of the war effort during the summer of 1945, the Air Force closed its facilities at Connellsville on 1 June 1945. The airport remained under Federal Government control from 1941 until July 1947 when the Government returned the airport to the city of Connellsville, stipulating it be used for public purposes. During the war, the Government improved the airport facilities greatly, mainly due to the increased industrialization occurring during the war and the expectation that the war would last for some time.
Connellsville Airport also served as the site of a Taylorcraft airplane maintenance facility where Taylorcraft airplanes were built and/or repaired in the late 1940s and 1950s. The current main terminal site is the remnants of the Taylorcraft hangar. Connellsville became the headquarters for the Taylor Aircraft Corporation in 1950.
The United States Marine Corps
(USMC) Reserve also had training areas on the airport in the 1950s. A two story brick building at the center of the airport held the base for the Marine Corps Reserve Training Center, which also utilized other buildings on the airport for various uses including a gymnasium, maintenance buildings, a weapons range, and locker rooms.
By the 1960s, the Connellsville airport had three paved runways, one of approximately 3,400 feet and the other two at 3,000 feet. Of those three, only two survive today. The middle runway was deactivated in the late 1960s. Today it is used as a taxiway and an area for driver training.
Anchor Hocking
‘Glass Corporation’, a former major Fayette County employer, rented significant space on the airport, mostly warehouse type space, in the 1960s.
The Fayette County Airport Authority (FCAA) was established in December 1965 to take ownership and management of the airport. Membership to the authority would be based on a representative sample of the county and be selected on the basis of business competence and proven community leadership. Fayette County Airport Authority in February 1966 worked with Penn Central Airways to provide air taxi service between Somerset, Connellsville, and the Greater Pittsburgh Airports. This agreement also involved AAA
of Uniontown and United Airlines
at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport who helped to handle reservations. ]
The airport reportedly fell into relative disrepair in the 1980s and 1990s due to poor pilot attendance/ usage and lack of operating funds.
Fayette County received additional medical support by the addition of the Stat MedEvac
group to the Connellsville Airport in 1994. Stat MedEvac performs year-round emergency helicopter support to medical emergencies (namely “life flight” capability). This entity owned by the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, operates from the sole dedicated helipad on the airport.
Airport revitalization efforts in the late 1990s resulted in significant improvements after 2001. In 2001, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education certified and licensed ‘Carnegie Mellon Driver Training & Safety Institute, Inc.’, (CM-DSTI) a non-profit subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University
, PA, to operate a private licensed school. This school, funded under a $7.5 Million congressional appropriation in 1999, provided large truck driver training on the airport property focusing on public transportation safety and security and human performance reliability (stress and fatigue). This included an indoor simulator (valued at approximately $650,000) and hands on training on Taxiway F (old decommissioned runway) This school occupied three buildings at the heart of the Connellsville Airport (formerly buildings occupied by the USMC Reserve Training Center). The school, which had 60 employees and a $12 Million annual budget, operated at the airport location until about 2002.
VVS has received on numerous occasions Federal funding for improvements to the facilities and runways specifically from the Aviation Development Program (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
) after 2001. In 2005, the new terminal opened at a cost in excess of $2,000,000. In 2009, VVS received $1 million from Federal (Rural Community Assistance Partnership grant) and state sources to extend the main runway (runway safe zone project). This extension, using allocation of Federal and state money, allows for larger aircraft to land at Connellsville Airport.
KVVS also received grant money to improve general aviation hangar space in close proximity to the new terminal built in 2005. This money totaling $ 1 million from a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant has to be spent on aviation hangar spaces and requires airport matching funds of approximately $ 800,000. As of August 2011, no construction date has been set. The county has promised $50,000 annually to support improvements.
Since 2003, the county bus service, Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation
(FACT) has occupied 4.5 acres of land immediately inside the main entrance to the airport. This publicly funded bus line services the communities throughout the county. This entity has a 49 year lease that commenced in April 2003 with two automatically renewing twenty-five year periods. Lease of the property occurred for the lump sum payment of $60,000 for the initial term.
Also in 2003, the Fayette County Hazardous Materials Response Team became an airport tenant. The purpose built building housing the response team is located adjacent to the main terminal building.
A strategic master plan was also enacted in 2003. This included plans for the main terminal construction as well as extension of the runway which was substantially completed by late Fall in 2009. The extension was completed to appease insurance companies that refused to let larger planes land on the airfield. This extension stands to increase air traffic to and from the Connellsville Airport location in support of larger economic development efforts and tourism.
This revitalization included construction of a new terminal building on the north ramp area at the site of the old Taylor Aircraft hangar from 1951. The hangar was partially disassembled to reveal the steel superstructure , with the new terminal being built into the west side of the old hangar. The remainder of the steel Taylor Aircraft hangar remains as part of a covered parking lot. Completion of the multimillion dollar terminal project occurred in 2005.
Approximately $6 Million was used to upgrade the airport from 2002 to 2007. Other significant grant monies have been used or are tied to current projects, including establishment of new aircraft hangar space to the South of the main terminal area. This requires removal of 1950s-1960s era hangars and warehouse space. This PennDOT Bureau of Aviation rehabilitation project is valued at $710,000 with a portion being funded by the FCAA directly through alternate sources. An approximately $3 million project to extend the main runway safe zone was completed in 2010.
of 1,267 feet (386 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 5/23 is 3,832 by 100 feet (1,179 x 30 m) and 14/32 measures 2,404 by 100 feet (739 x 30 m).
For the 12 months preceding August 18, 2009, VVS had 19,352 total aircraft operations, an average of more than 53 per day and consisting of 80% general aviation
, 10% military
air operations, and 8% air taxi
services. During this period 46 aircraft were based there (78% of those being single engine planes).
VVS, through Fayette County Aviation, and its tenants provide aviation support by way of fuel services (AVGAS and JetA) and aircraft mechanics.
LID
LID is an abbreviation for:* Language Independent Datatypes . Now renamed to General Purpose Datatypes.* League for Industrial Democracy .* Lewica i Demokraci , Polish party....
: VVS, formerly 2G3) is a public-use airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
located four nautical miles (7 km
KM
KM, Km, or km may stand for:*Kilometre *Kernel methods*Kettle Moraine High School*Khmer language *Kuomintang , a centre-right political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan...
) southwest of the central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
of Connellsville, a city in Fayette County
Fayette County
Fayette County is the name of eleven counties in the United States:*Fayette County, Alabama*Fayette County, Georgia*Fayette County, Illinois*Fayette County, Indiana*Fayette County, Iowa*Fayette County, Kentucky*Fayette County, Ohio...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is owned by the Fayette County Airport Authority. The airport serves the general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
community, with no currently scheduled commercial airline service.
The airport is named for Joseph A. Hardy, founder of 84 Lumber
84 Lumber
84 Lumber is an American building materials chain. 84 Lumber Company is the largest privately held building materials supplier to professional contractors in the country. Headquartered in the Pittsburgh Metro Area town of Eighty Four, Pennsylvania, it was founded in 1956 by Joseph Hardy...
. Previously known as ‘Connellsville Airport’, it was renamed in 2007 to recognize Hardy's support of improving the airport. Hardy, a Fayette County Commissioner at the time of donation, gave the airport authority $800,000 for runway improvements.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned VVS by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.
The airport property is home to other Fayette County entities and businesses :
- Fayette County Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Response Team.
- Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation (FACT). FACT is the main public bus service line for all of Fayette County with trips throughout the county each day. It occupies approximately 4.5 acres of property at the main entrance to the airport.
- Regional Stat MEDEVAC helicopter/air ambulance service, STAT MedEvac 5, a service of the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania, Inc. is also located on the airport and rents space, buys fuel and conducts maintenance on site.
- Connellsville Flying School
- Aero Aviation Training Center, LLC. Established in 2006 to provide flight training services to the public.
- Aviation Network , LLC. Established in 2008 to provide aviation management and maintenance.
- North Central Aviation, LLC. Established in 2003 to provide charter flights.
- The Washington Security Group, Inc. Established in 2004 to provide the training and consulting in specific national security areas.
This airport also serves to provide a convenient stopping place for tourism in the region including those travelling to the following county historic and popular spots:
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, Mill Run, PA 15464
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s Kentuck KnobKentuck KnobKentuck Knob, also known as the Hagan House, is a residence designed by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in rural Stewart Township near the village of Chalk Hill, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, USA, about southeast of Pittsburgh...
, Chalk Hill, PA 15421 - Ohiopyle, PA & Ohiopyle State Park
- Fort Necessity National BattlefieldFort Necessity National BattlefieldFort Necessity National Battlefield is a National Battlefield Site in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, which preserves elements of the Battle of Fort Necessity...
- Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Farmington, PA 15437
History
Originally, the airport was a cooperative project between the City of Connellsville, Fayette County, and the Federal Works Progress AdministrationWorks Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA) Program. Although first opened in October 1938 , it was heavily used during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
by the United States Army Air Force Air Technical Service Command as a sub-depot of the Middletown Air Depot near Harrisburg. Original airport construction occurred from 1936 to 1938 under the WPA.. California University of Pennsylvania
California University of Pennsylvania
California University of Pennsylvania is a public university located in California, Pennsylvania, USA. Founded in 1852, it is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Cal U's enrollment is approximately 9,400.The main campus consists of about 38 buildings situated on 92 acres...
helped conduct pilot training in support of the war effort at the Connellsville Airport starting in late 1939.
The 805th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot, which opened on 1 July 1941, repaired and overhauled aircraft and returned them to active service. With the winding down of the war effort during the summer of 1945, the Air Force closed its facilities at Connellsville on 1 June 1945. The airport remained under Federal Government control from 1941 until July 1947 when the Government returned the airport to the city of Connellsville, stipulating it be used for public purposes. During the war, the Government improved the airport facilities greatly, mainly due to the increased industrialization occurring during the war and the expectation that the war would last for some time.
Connellsville Airport also served as the site of a Taylorcraft airplane maintenance facility where Taylorcraft airplanes were built and/or repaired in the late 1940s and 1950s. The current main terminal site is the remnants of the Taylorcraft hangar. Connellsville became the headquarters for the Taylor Aircraft Corporation in 1950.
The United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
(USMC) Reserve also had training areas on the airport in the 1950s. A two story brick building at the center of the airport held the base for the Marine Corps Reserve Training Center, which also utilized other buildings on the airport for various uses including a gymnasium, maintenance buildings, a weapons range, and locker rooms.
By the 1960s, the Connellsville airport had three paved runways, one of approximately 3,400 feet and the other two at 3,000 feet. Of those three, only two survive today. The middle runway was deactivated in the late 1960s. Today it is used as a taxiway and an area for driver training.
Anchor Hocking
Anchor Hocking
Anchor Hocking Glass Corporation is a manufacturer of glassware. The Hocking Glass Company was founded in 1905 by Isaac Jacob Collins. That company merged with the AnchorCap and Closure Corporations in 1937. Anchor Hocking is primarily located in Lancaster, Ohio...
‘Glass Corporation’, a former major Fayette County employer, rented significant space on the airport, mostly warehouse type space, in the 1960s.
The Fayette County Airport Authority (FCAA) was established in December 1965 to take ownership and management of the airport. Membership to the authority would be based on a representative sample of the county and be selected on the basis of business competence and proven community leadership. Fayette County Airport Authority in February 1966 worked with Penn Central Airways to provide air taxi service between Somerset, Connellsville, and the Greater Pittsburgh Airports. This agreement also involved AAA
AAA
AAA, or Triple-A, may be a three-letter acronym or may just mean something that is high-quality, premier, or excellent.As a proper noun, Aaa is found only in the species name Cavaticovelia aaa , an insect from Hawaii....
of Uniontown and United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport who helped to handle reservations. ]
The airport reportedly fell into relative disrepair in the 1980s and 1990s due to poor pilot attendance/ usage and lack of operating funds.
Fayette County received additional medical support by the addition of the Stat MedEvac
STAT Medevac
STAT MedEvac is a service of the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The primary function of STAT MedEvac is to provide air medical transport for patients with an injury or critical illness...
group to the Connellsville Airport in 1994. Stat MedEvac performs year-round emergency helicopter support to medical emergencies (namely “life flight” capability). This entity owned by the Center for Emergency Medicine of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, operates from the sole dedicated helipad on the airport.
Airport revitalization efforts in the late 1990s resulted in significant improvements after 2001. In 2001, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education certified and licensed ‘Carnegie Mellon Driver Training & Safety Institute, Inc.’, (CM-DSTI) a non-profit subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
, PA, to operate a private licensed school. This school, funded under a $7.5 Million congressional appropriation in 1999, provided large truck driver training on the airport property focusing on public transportation safety and security and human performance reliability (stress and fatigue). This included an indoor simulator (valued at approximately $650,000) and hands on training on Taxiway F (old decommissioned runway) This school occupied three buildings at the heart of the Connellsville Airport (formerly buildings occupied by the USMC Reserve Training Center). The school, which had 60 employees and a $12 Million annual budget, operated at the airport location until about 2002.
VVS has received on numerous occasions Federal funding for improvements to the facilities and runways specifically from the Aviation Development Program (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation oversees transportation issues in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, currently Barry Schoch Presently, PennDOT supports over of state roads and highways, about 25,000...
) after 2001. In 2005, the new terminal opened at a cost in excess of $2,000,000. In 2009, VVS received $1 million from Federal (Rural Community Assistance Partnership grant) and state sources to extend the main runway (runway safe zone project). This extension, using allocation of Federal and state money, allows for larger aircraft to land at Connellsville Airport.
KVVS also received grant money to improve general aviation hangar space in close proximity to the new terminal built in 2005. This money totaling $ 1 million from a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant has to be spent on aviation hangar spaces and requires airport matching funds of approximately $ 800,000. As of August 2011, no construction date has been set. The county has promised $50,000 annually to support improvements.
Since 2003, the county bus service, Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation
Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation
Fayette Area Coordinated Transportation, known by the moniker of FACT, is a public transportation service located in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. It provides inter-city bus and paratransit service to select communities within the county...
(FACT) has occupied 4.5 acres of land immediately inside the main entrance to the airport. This publicly funded bus line services the communities throughout the county. This entity has a 49 year lease that commenced in April 2003 with two automatically renewing twenty-five year periods. Lease of the property occurred for the lump sum payment of $60,000 for the initial term.
Also in 2003, the Fayette County Hazardous Materials Response Team became an airport tenant. The purpose built building housing the response team is located adjacent to the main terminal building.
A strategic master plan was also enacted in 2003. This included plans for the main terminal construction as well as extension of the runway which was substantially completed by late Fall in 2009. The extension was completed to appease insurance companies that refused to let larger planes land on the airfield. This extension stands to increase air traffic to and from the Connellsville Airport location in support of larger economic development efforts and tourism.
This revitalization included construction of a new terminal building on the north ramp area at the site of the old Taylor Aircraft hangar from 1951. The hangar was partially disassembled to reveal the steel superstructure , with the new terminal being built into the west side of the old hangar. The remainder of the steel Taylor Aircraft hangar remains as part of a covered parking lot. Completion of the multimillion dollar terminal project occurred in 2005.
Approximately $6 Million was used to upgrade the airport from 2002 to 2007. Other significant grant monies have been used or are tied to current projects, including establishment of new aircraft hangar space to the South of the main terminal area. This requires removal of 1950s-1960s era hangars and warehouse space. This PennDOT Bureau of Aviation rehabilitation project is valued at $710,000 with a portion being funded by the FCAA directly through alternate sources. An approximately $3 million project to extend the main runway safe zone was completed in 2010.
Facilities and aircraft
Joseph A. Hardy Connellsville Airport covers an area of 351 acres (142 ha) at an elevationElevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....
of 1,267 feet (386 m) above mean sea level. It has two asphalt paved runways: 5/23 is 3,832 by 100 feet (1,179 x 30 m) and 14/32 measures 2,404 by 100 feet (739 x 30 m).
For the 12 months preceding August 18, 2009, VVS had 19,352 total aircraft operations, an average of more than 53 per day and consisting of 80% general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
, 10% military
Military aviation
Military aviation is the use of aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling warfare, including national airlift capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a theater or along a front. Air power includes the national means of conducting such...
air operations, and 8% air taxi
Air taxi
An air taxi is an air charter passenger or cargo aircraft which operates on an on-demand basis.-Regulation:In the United States, air taxi and air charter operations are governed by Part 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations , unlike the larger scheduled air carriers which are governed by more...
services. During this period 46 aircraft were based there (78% of those being single engine planes).
VVS, through Fayette County Aviation, and its tenants provide aviation support by way of fuel services (AVGAS and JetA) and aircraft mechanics.
See also
- Pennsylvania World War II Army AirfieldsPennsylvania World War II Army AirfieldsDuring World War II, the United States Army Air Force established numerous airfields in Pennsylvania for training pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters and bombers....