Pennridge Airport 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 one nautical mile (1.85 km) north 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 Perkasie

Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Perkasie is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia. Establishments in the borough early in the twentieth century included silk mills, baseballs, brickyards, lumber mills, tile works, a stone crusher, and manufacturies of cigars, tags and labels, wire novelties, etc. The...

, a borough

Borough (Pennsylvania)

In the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a borough is a self-governing municipal entity that is usually smaller than a city. There are 958 boroughs in Pennsylvania. All municipalities in Pennsylvania are classified as either cities, boroughs, or townships...

 in Bucks County

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...

, 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 privately owned by Pennridge Development Ent., Inc. The airport is situated in East Rockhill Township.

The airport is located on top of a ridge and is surrounded on every side by trees. Although the daily operations are under 100 takeoffs/landings, it is the largest privately owned airport between Philadelphia and Allentown

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

.

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier

Location identifier

A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for manned air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programming, weather reports, and related services.-ICAO...

 for the FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

 and IATA

International Air Transport Association

The International Air Transport Association is an international industry trade group of airlines headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the International Civil Aviation Organization is also headquartered. The executive offices are at the Geneva Airport in SwitzerlandIATA's mission is to...

, this airport is assigned CKZ by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned CKZ to Canakkale Airport

Çanakkale Airport

Çanakkale Airport is an airport in the city of Çanakkale, Turkey.Airport has one Runway, configured as 04-22 direction and 1800x30 m length.Total passenger traffic was 18,423 in 2009. The busiest days of the airport are 18 March and 25 April every year...

 in Canakkale

Çanakkale

Çanakkale is a town and seaport in Turkey, in Çanakkale Province, on the southern coast of the Dardanelles at their narrowest point. The population of the town is 106,116 . The mayor is Ülgür Gökhan ....

, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

).

History

The airport has been in place in Perkasie since January 23, 1966, but when Byrant Aviation took over in 1968 the activity increased rapidly. In 1981, Andrew Deutsch, a nearby resident, bought the airport to save it from turning into a housing development. For a brief period in the late 1980s, a landing fee of $5-6 was charged to pilots.

On November 1, 2008 John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

 made a stop at Pennridge Airport during his 2008 campaign.

Facilities and aircraft

Pennridge Airport covers an area of 270 acres (109.3 ha) at an elevation

Elevation

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 568 feet (173 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway

Runway

According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...

 designated 8/26 with an asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

 surface measuring 4,215 by 100 feet (1,285 x 30 m).

For the 12-month period ending November 25, 2008, the airport had 29,635 aircraft operations, an average of 81 per day: 99% 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...

 and 1% 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...

. At that time there were 42 aircraft based at this airport: 86% single-engine

Aircraft engine

An aircraft engine is the component of the propulsion system for an aircraft that generates mechanical power. Aircraft engines are almost always either lightweight piston engines or gas turbines...

, 12% multi-engine and 2% jet

Jet aircraft

A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...

.

External links

• Aerial photo as of 13 April 1999 from USGS The National Map via MSR Maps
• Pennridge Airport (N70) at PennDOT Bureau of Aviation