Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport
Encyclopedia
Allentown Queen City Municipal 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 in Lehigh County
Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
-Climate:Most of the county's climate is considered to fall in the humid continental climate zone. Summers are typically hot and muggy, fall and spring are generally mild, and winter is cold. Precipitation is almost uniformly distributed throughout the year....

, 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...

. The airport is located on Lehigh Street
Lehigh Street
Lehigh Street is a major road that connects Emmaus, Pennsylvania in the west to Allentown, Pennsylvania in the east, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States...

, two nautical miles (3.7 km) 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 Allentown, Pennsylvania
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...

. It is owned by the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority. Also known as Queen City Airport, it is home to the Civil Air Patrol
Civil Air Patrol
Civil Air Patrol is a Congressionally chartered, federally supported, non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force . CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded membership that includes people from all backgrounds, lifestyles, and...

 Squadron 805 and Lehigh Valley Aviation Services, a fixed base operator
Fixed base operator
A Fixed-base operator or commonly abbreviated FBO is a term developed in the United States after the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926...

 (FBO).

On July 31, 2008, 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...

 airport identifier was briefly changed from 1N9 to JVU. However, after seeking approval for an identifier associated with the area, the FAA approved the change to XLL (Little Lehigh Executive, in honor of the local Little Lehigh Creek
Little Lehigh Creek
The Little Lehigh Creek is approximately long, in eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is also sometimes referred to as the Little Lehigh River. It is called the Little Lehigh because it is the largest tributary of the Lehigh River....

) effective November 20, 2008.

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 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 currently has no designation from the IATA.

History

In mid-December 1942, it was announced that Allentown was the site of a new aircraft production plant. Vultee Aircraft
Vultee Aircraft
The Vultee Aircraft Corporation became an independent company in 1939 and had limited success before merging with the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in 1943 to form the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, or Convair.-History:...

 and Consolidated Aircraft
Consolidated Aircraft
The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors. Consolidated became...

 announced that Consolidated Vultee (later known as Convair
Convair
Convair was an American aircraft manufacturing company which later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Vultee Aircraft and Consolidated Aircraft, and went on to produce a number of pioneering aircraft, such as the Convair B-36 bomber, and the F-102...

) would lease Mack Truck
Mack Trucks
Mack Trucks is an American truck-manufacturing company and a former manufacturer of buses and trolley buses. A wholly owned subsidiary of Renault Véhicules Industriels since 1990, Mack Trucks is currently a subsidiary of AB Volvo. The company's headquarters are located in Greensboro, North Carolina...

's Plant 5C for production of the Consolidated Vultee TBY-2 Sea Wolf Torpedo Plane for the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

. In addition to 5C, Consolidated Vultee
Convair
Convair was an American aircraft manufacturing company which later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Vultee Aircraft and Consolidated Aircraft, and went on to produce a number of pioneering aircraft, such as the Convair B-36 bomber, and the F-102...

 would build an office building, a hangar, an airport and a highway linking 5C with the new airport complex.

Mack officials were initially reluctant to give up Plant 5C because they considered it essential for Truck war production, however the War Production Board
War Production Board
The War Production Board was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States...

 and the Navy overruled them.

Convair Field, as the airfield was originally named, was dedicated on October 10, 1943.
When the plant reached full production, it employed several thousand people, over half of which were women. Consolidated Vultee became Allentown's second largest industry, handling over $100,000,000 in war contracts. By the end of 1943, the facility was producing TBY-2 Sea Wolves as well as components for the BT-13 Valiant Trainer
BT-13 Valiant
The Vultee BT-13 Valiant was an American World War II-era basic trainer aircraft built by Vultee Aircraft for the United States Army Air Corps, and later US Army Air Forces...

 and B-24 Liberator Bomber.

Along with the airfield and manufacturing facilities, an entire new neighborhood of homes was built for the aircraft workers and their families. In December 1943, the National Housing Center approved the construction of 250 units for Vultee workers on a tract bounded by Twelfth, Fourteenth, Harrison and Wyoming streets by the Allentown Housing Authority. This neighborhood, containing streets named "Liberator Avenue", "Catalina Avenue", and "Vultee Street", still exists.

With the end of the war in 1945, aircraft production was shut down. Plant 5C was returned to Mack Trucks and the remainder of the facility was declared surplus by the War Assets Administration
War Assets Administration
The War Assets Administration was established in the Office for Emergency Management, effective March 25, 1946, by EO 9689, January 31, 1946. American factorieshad produced massive amounts of weaponry during the World War II...

. The property was obtained by General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...

 to manufacture small appliances, particularly toasters. In 1962 the facility again was closed and the property was obtained by the city.
It is currently owned and operated by the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority. LNAA also manages the Lehigh Valley International Airport
Lehigh Valley International Airport
Lehigh Valley International Airport , formerly Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton International Airport, is a public airport in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania....

 and Braden Airpark
Braden Airpark
Braden Airpark , also known as Easton Airport, is a small airport located about three nautical miles north of the central business district of Easton, Pennsylvania, United States....

. In 2006, the airport received an award for the General Aviation Airport of the Year by the Eastern Region of the Federal Aviation Administration
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...

.

Facilities and aircraft

Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport covers an area of 201 acres (81.3 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 399 feet (122 m) above mean sea level. It has two 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...

 paved 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...

s: 7/25 is 3,949 by 75 feet (1,204 x 23 m) and 15/33 is 3,159 by 75 feet (963 x 23 m).

For the 12-month period ending June 10, 2008, the airport had 54,220 aircraft operations, an average of 148 per day: 97% 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...

, 2% 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...

 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 95 aircraft based at this airport: 78% 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...

, 16% multi-engine and 6% helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

.

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