“Even now, someone will come up to me and say, ‘Oh! I still have one of the airport’s mugs!'” Keith Holt, director of the Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport, relates.The “mugs,” as follow-up questioning reveals, were not mugs at all, but the old runway light’s cover globes. When the airport wasn’t protected by a fence, students would sneak in and steal the covers and, apparently, use them as drinking containers.Long before lights, or contraband drinking mugs, the runway was a single grassy strip, conveniently 1.5-ish miles from the Virginia Tech campus and adjacent to the Huckleberry railroad tracks. It was built to be an emergency landing destination for a popular mail and passenger route between Washington D.C. and Nashville, since plane engines were not as reliable to get to-and-fro without issue as they are now. From Drill Field to Runway In 1929, Virginia Tech engineering affiliates surveyed the existing airfield and by the end of the year, the Virginia Highway Department was cap stoning the new Virginia Polytechnic Institute [VPI] Airport. Before that, planes visiting Blacksburg landed on the next spacious piece of grass, the drill field.Early users were mostly pilots taking locals for rides comically called, “barnstormers.” This grew to pilots offering lessons, then eventually the site was designated by the Defense Department as a Civilian Pilot Training Program location. However, the sheer number of training flights destroyed the grassy strip. In 1941, the WPA (Works Progress Administration) built the first paved runway.Where you have airplanes, you need airplane fixers. An early aviation mechanics program also started in the ‘40s, recruiting high school graduates to live on the property – there were barracks, a dining hall and an infirmary – during their training. Approximately 750 students came through this program.And ever since, the little-airport-that-could has provided services including fuel, flight training, plane maintenance and aircraft storage to air travel aficionados. T hangar space, a fully enclosed plane parking lot, was, and still is, in incredibly high demand. Currently, there is a waiting list 30 folks strong. New Management Lands In 2002, Virginia Tech decided to step away from all airport operations. Now the airport is run by an Airport Authority, with one representative each from Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and Virginia Tech. Today, the airport oversees sports team charter flights, private pilots and business travel – like Amtrak, Dollar General or, even, Chicken Salad Chick executives. The university has a hangar and VCOM (Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine) acquired Shelor’s old hangar when the ground travel giant decided to build a new one. Additional hangars are under construction.The most recent expansion in 2020 took the runway from 4,500 feet to 5,500 feet. Now airplanes can depart with more fuel because heavier planes need more runway length. Unfortunately, the historical “Hokie Hangar” sat in the safety area for the extension, so it met its demise, crumbling in fantastic style. “It was a little sad and scary to see how easily it came down,” Holt laughs. Airport Action Takes Off Holt came on as airport director also in 2020, coming from nearby New River Valley Airport in Dublin. He got his pilot’s license his freshman year in college. The FAA’s requirement to receive a pilot’s license is 40 hours of flight training. Getting your driver’s license takes more time.An average day sees roughly three to five corporate flights and five to 10 private flights. There are 12 employees, four of whom are full-time, and they operate seven days a week. “On a football game Saturday, it’s anywhere between 40 to 65 planes. We don’t act as air traffic control, but we will marshal them into parking positions. On game days all hands are on deck.”So how does even a small airport function without a control tower? “It’s a see-and-avoid type of system. It’s a self-announce arrangement – ‘I’m here, who else is here, and what runway are you using?,'” Holt reveals. Even with all the bells and whistles of technology, the billowy orange windsock is still one of the most important features from a pilot’s perspective, Holt explains, as planes take off and land into the wind. Speaking of developing technology, Vermont’s Beta Technologies completed its installation of an electric airplane charger in 2023. The inaugural electric flight occurred on Valentine’s Day, 2024. It landed, charged up, then took off for the next leg, perhaps foretelling the next achievement of aviation advancement.The community may still be getting used to the massive 2020 runway extension that relocated Tech’s dairy barns (so long, cows! and cow smell!). The well-planned Southgate Drive/U.S. 460 interchange has made game day feel like our homespun version of Chicago’s O’Hare. One can’t help but wonder: “What could possibly be next?””We’re at the phase of a creating a future master plan,” states Holt. “There will be a focus on what we’re able to do inside the fence line. I don’t anticipate we’ll be going through another major land acquisition. We want to maximize the space we already have.”While the flyable sky feels endless, land, after all, is not. Nancy S. Moseley is a local writer and proud Airport Acres neighborhood lifer, the airport her front yard. Once she and her dad got in trouble for sneaking in to go sledding, a little bit too close to the runway. Hindsight: They should’ve grabbed a mug for hot chocolate after. Fun fact: The famed seismic station that measures the effect of game day’s Enter Sandman song on earth’s stability is located on airport property. TIMELINE 1931: VPI Airport officially opens1940: First hangar1966: Second runway 1967: Runway lights1995: New terminal building2013: VT sold 26 acres to the airport for runway expansion2016: VT corporate hangar was complete2020: Runway expansion finished2024: First electric flight Text by Nancy S. MoseleyPhotos by Jon Fleming
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