Community support is the key to military airfield conversions
More than 22 years passed between June 1971, when the last military aircraft took off from Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois, and September 1, 1993, when the first general aviation airplane landed at the new Rantoul National Air Center. The Village of Rantoul, a community of 14,000 in east-central Illinois, took over the long-unused airfield when the adjoining base closed.
The Air Force base, which was one of five airfields on the U.S. Department of Defense's initial military base closure list in 1988, was closed on September 30, 1993. About 33 others were included on two subsequent lists. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission's next base closure list is due to be released this month.
When a military airfield closes, a lot has to happen before general aviation aircraft can land on its broad expanse of concrete and taxi to a commodious ramp for fuel or to tie down. For openers, the military installation's hangars, ramps, and runways have to survive the base closure as a civilian airfield.
The first step in converting a military airfield to civilian use is to obtain a planning grant. "Military base closures are so large that they have a serious economic impact on the community," explained Leonard C. Sandelli of the FAA's Military Airport Program. The goal is a consensus for the reuse of the base. "If you have community consensus, you're more likely to have a successful (airfield) conversion."
Planning grants from the Department of Defense's Office of Economic Adjustment are awarded to a local planning organization or community reuse group for non-airport portions of a base. The FAA will fund a feasibility study to determine a civil airport's viability, if necessary, and an airport master plan for establishing and operating an airport. Do not forget an environmental impact statement; this can be coordinated with the military branch closing the base so that its study fulfills all parties' needs.
An application can then be made to the military department for the airport property; if the FAA determines that the property is suitable and the military accepts the application, the Department of Defense will turn over the property. Most airports are initially leased to their sponsors because the title cannot be transferred until any required environmental cleanup has been completed by the Department of Defense.
A separate application must be made to the FAA for instrument approaches. The FAA will survey existing navaids, but it will operate them only under extraordinary circumstances.
By many accounts, Chanute's runways should not have seen civilian use. "It's more than the conversion of a military airfield — it was the resurrection of an airport," said John DeBack, who was the Air Force's closure officer at Chanute. He returned as a civilian to serve as transition coordinator. "The community has been responsible for it."
Community pressure was at least partially responsible for the termination of flight operations at Chanute in 1971, DeBack explained; schools had been built off the ends of three of the base's four runways. "Now all you hear is how they love to hear those airplanes come in and out of here," he said. "And they talk about it — the town's small enough that you hear it in restaurants."
If community pressure could help close an airport, community support could revive it. "Rantoul decided early on (in the base reuse process) that we wanted an airport, because an airport is a very valuable economic development tool," said Ray M. Boudreaux, director of aviation and development for the village.
Rantoul applied for 1,200 acres of land — more than half of the base's total acreage — that included the airport and 2 million square feet of "revenue-producing properties," in base reuse jargon. "We were fortunate to receive the revenue-producing properties we requested," Boudreaux said, explaining that the revenue from renting those hangars and other buildings was needed to cover the costs of operating and upgrading the airport. The village had promised its residents that the airport project would be financially self-sufficient, not requiring the expenditure of tax receipts, and that it would bring jobs to the community.
After its first year, 1.5 million square feet of that space has been leased, generating $1.2 million in annual revenues and creating some 1,000 jobs at the former base. "Essentially, we've surpassed all our goals," Boudreaux commented. "We became self-supporting in less than a year, and we're very happy about that."
The largest employer at the Rantoul Aviation Center is Rantoul Products, a division of Textron that produces plastic automotive interior components for Chrysler. The firm employs 357 people on two sites at the center, including an injection molding facility located in a 55,000- square-foot hangar. Microfilm Services Company employs 250 people, while 141 work for the Illinois National Guard — primarily at the Lincoln's Challenge School, a training facility for high-school dropouts. Among the 45 other tenants, J.B. Hunt Transport Incorporated uses a classroom building and a closed runway to train truck drivers; other companies rent former engine test cells as storage space. "One of the keys is getting private business involved," Boudreaux observed. "If they have a financial stake in it, they have a motivation to succeed."
The airport's largest hangar, with 70,000 square feet of open space, remains available for lease; it has been used for boat and recreational-vehicle shows. A 55,000-square-foot hangar being used by the airport's FBO will become available if a new 25,000-square-foot general aviation hangar is built on the south side of the field. The smaller facility is being considered because it would be more efficient to heat than the present enormous hangar, which dwarfs the airport's 20 based aircraft.
The University of Illinois's civil engineering program, which has received the FAA's Center of Excellence Award for pavements research, is locating its Advanced Transportation Research Engineering Laboratory at the airport. Boudreaux hopes that will make Rantoul the successful candidate to host a new FAA pavement testing program.
In an $800,000 project administered by the State of Illinois through the FAA's State Block Grant Pilot Program, 5,000 feet of the Rantoul National Air Center's east-west runway was resurfaced before the airport property was transferred to the city on October 1, 1993. Since then, the unlighted north-south runway was repainted and opened for VFR use; an instrument approach to Runway 27, based on the Danville VOR, is scheduled to be published this month. The airport's master plan calls for an eventual extension of the east-west runway to 10,000 feet; that would take place more quickly if a commitment is received from a firm that is considering Rantoul for a major large-aircraft maintenance facility.
Aircraft services are provided by Flightstar, which also operates the FBO at the University of Illinois-Willard Airport 17 nautical miles to the southwest in Champaign/Urbana. "We've done a lot to promote the facility," said Mike Kochvar, Flightstar's site manager. Based single- engine aircraft weighing less than 3,000 pounds can park in the heated community hangar for $70 per month, half the rate charged in Champaign. A flight instructor and a Piper Tomahawk are available, and mechanics drive up from Champaign if an aircraft can't be shuttled there for maintenance. "A full-time mechanic will probably be our next big step," Kochvar said.
Dave Mennenga of Urbana, Illinois, keeps his Piper J-3 Cub at Rantoul and gives the airport high marks. "This airport is one of aviation's best-kept secrets around here," he said.
Contrary to what many pilots believe, the FAA — although it plays a large part in the successful conversions of military airports to civilian use — has relatively little influence on whether the property is recycled as an airport. Nor does the Department of Defense, which actually handles most of the nuts and bolts of the base conversion process. The eventual fate of military airfields, and other installations targeted for closure by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, lies primarily in the hands of the neighboring communities.
Indeed, several military airfields the FAA would like to see converted to civilian use will probably be closed. "Typically, those airports that could do us the most good have the highest property values," the FAA's Sandelli said. "They're in the population centers." Two airports likely to be lost are Naval Air Station Glenview, near Chicago, where there is local opposition because of noise considerations, and Naval Air Station Alameda, California. "The City of Alameda is not interested in an airport," he said. "In those two communities, I don't know how general aviation is perceived by the public. The FAA position, and DOD's, is that the community should be in the driver's seat."
Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, formerly Pease Air Force Base — a large Strategic Air Command bomber facility — now hosts commercial air service and serves as a GA reliever for the Boston area. Pilots in California can land at San Bernardino International Airport, previously Norton Air Force Base. The former Ellington Air Force Base near Houston is now Ellington Field, a reliever for the busy William P. Hobby Airport.
Other military airfields are moving closer to opening as public facilities. Two county governments have agreed to sponsor the conversion of Tipton Army Airfield at Fort Meade, Maryland, where public support for an airport increased when the governor proposed building a state-run prison boot camp on the site. In Austin, Texas, Bergstrom Air Force Base is well on its way to replacing cramped Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. And voters in Orange County, California, narrowly approved a plan to turn Marine Corps Air Station El Toro — slated for closure in 1999 — into an international civilian airport.
AOPA supports the conversion of military airports, especially in metropolitan areas where they will increase capacity for GA. The association's Airports Department monitors the conversion efforts and becomes more involved when necessary — as in the case of NAS Glenview, where a civil airport sponsor is still being sought. Several of AOPA's regional representatives have served as advocates for general aviation on base reuse committees.
Portions of the Chanute conversion could serve as an example for communities near military bases on this month's closure list, which must be approved by Congress. "(The Chanute conversion) could have been a basket case," the FAA's Sandelli said. "Those people were visionaries. What they did was very smart."
Because many communities don't really understand aviation, he said, community education in the beginning can help to avoid conflict later. "I think (a lot of communities) have a feeling that aviation is air carrier. There's a perception that general aviation is recreational flying, as opposed to what it really is. People don't look at airports as creating jobs."
From Flying to Fixing
Chanute Air Force Base's evolution to a technical training facility
The Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum at the Rantoul National Air Center preserves much of the history of Chanute Air Force Base. Pilot training began at the Illinois facility in July 1917. Built adjacent to the Village of Rantoul, the airfield was named for civil engineer and aviation pioneer Octave Chanute.
A reduced need for military pilots following World War I cast an early shadow on the installation's future, but the facility gained a reprieve in 1921 when the military's Air Service Mechanics School was moved from Kelly Field, Texas. The base served primarily as a technical training facility since then. During its 76-year history, Chanute trained more than 2 million military personnel.
Flight operations continued at the base, using a variety of aircraft. Donald O. Weckhorst, who was stationed at Chanute as a mechanic in 1954 and 1955, recalled that pilots and navigators serving there used North American B-25 Mitchells to maintain proficiency. A fleet of Curtiss C-46 Commandos flew training equipment into the field. C-47 Dakotas, C-119 Flying Boxcars, T-29 utility transports, and T-33 jet trainers were also assigned to Chanute after World War II, said Weckhorst, who returned in 1976. He worked as the base's historian for 10 years after retiring from the Air Force in 1980; today, he is the museum's curator and historian.
The Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum is the largest aerospace museum in Illinois. One exhibit honors pioneer aviators of Illinois, while the Frasca Room features eight flight simulators loaned to the museum by Rudy Frasca, president of simulator manufacturer Frasca International in nearby Urbana. The oldest simulator is a Frasca 100C, built in 1963 and used by Frasca to instruct local pilots.
Most of the military aircraft on display in the museum today — including an A-4 Skyhawk, A-7 Corsair II, AT-6B Texan, B-66 Destroyer, C- 130 Hercules, F-5 Freedom Fighter, F-15 Eagle, F-84 Thunderstreak, F-100 Super Sabre, F-101B Voodoo, F-104 Starfighter, F-105 Thunderchief, F-111A Aardvark, HU-16B Albatross, P-51H Mustang, RF-4 Phantom, T-39A Sabreliner, and UH-1B Iroquois — flew to Chanute for use as maintenance trainers. So did the museum's Corvair B-58A Hustler, one of only six examples of the Air Force's first supersonic bomber on public display; Chanute was designated as the prime installation to bring the delta-winged Hustler into combat readiness and was its primary maintenance training base. Unique to the museum is an underground intercontinental ballistic missile silo, built in 1961 to train Minuteman missile maintenance personnel.
Chanute's four runways were closed in 1971. The last Air Force airplane to fly out of Chanute was a T-29 utility transport, Weckhorst said. The T-29 was the military version of the Convair-Liner 240, a twin- radial-engined transport. The base itself was closed in 1993.
The museum held its grand opening on October 8, 1994, and has established a non-profit foundation for fundraising. Located beside the FBO, it is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Adult admission is $3.50. For more information, call the museum at 217/893-1613.
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