Historic airport's future uncertain

Since its humble beginnings in 1928, the Horace Williams Airport has continually made its way into the town spotlight.

With plans for Carolina North looming in the future, the tract is once again making local history.

And if N.C. Area Health Education Centers program is relocated to the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, a new chapter might begin in the story of the site's history.

Doug Eyre, a former University professor and local historian, said the airport began as Martindale Field when Charlie Martindale, a local builder, purchased the 50 acre tract from Horace Williams in 1928.

At the onset of World War II, military preparedness was recognized as a necessity, and thus a joint effort between UNC-CH, N.C. State University and Duke University was launched to build an airport and encourage training of civilian pilots, he said.

The 50-acre tract was purchased by the University from Martindale, and Williams willed his remaining land which totaled close to 1,000 acres to the school.

“He wrote in his will that he hoped the University would hold his property instead of selling it,” stated an article in the Chapel Hill Weekly from Dec. 20, 1940.

The airport, renamed the Horace Williams Airport, became the second in the state to be formally recognized by the federal government, Eyre said, adding that it was also the largest university-owned airport in the United States.

“After the war, there was a big interest in small aircraft ownership,” he said.

Out of that interest grew a small commercial airport, and the Chapel Hill Flying Club emerged providing flying lessons and aircraft rental, Eyre said.

As the town grew, so did fears about the safety of airplanes flying so close to residential areas.

“Gradually over the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s in particular, there was a big boom of suburban growth,” Eyre said.

He explained that while the airport once sat in isolation, it was now in the midst of neighborhoods and the relocated Chapel Hill High School.

In April 2001, a member of the Chapel Hill Flying Club was forced to make an emergency landing at the airport.

Two were involved in the crash, but no injuries were sustained.

According to an April 26, 2001 Daily Tar Heel article, the airport saw five crashes in three years.

“Some residents living nearby the airport see the risk of another crash, especially a more destructive one, as a cause for alarm,” the article stated.

As a result, the Chapel Hill Flying Club was evicted from the facility. Since then, AHEC has been the only group to utilize the airport, Eyre said.

AHEC continues to use the airport to fly its six planes.

The program, which began in the 1970s, aims to impact the availability of health care in the state especially in more rural areas, said AHEC director Tom Bacon.

A resolution in the state budget would allow the University to close the airport if AHEC is relocated to the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Concrete plans for Carolina North, the University’s proposed satellite campus, will remain uncertain until the fate of the airport is decided.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.