Reading Regional Airport
Reading Regional Airport Carl A. Spaatz Field Reading Army Air Field | |||||||||||||||
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AMSL 344 ft / 105 m | | ||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 40°22′43″N 075°57′55″W / 40.37861°N 75.96528°W | ||||||||||||||
Website | www.ReadingAirport.org | ||||||||||||||
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Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Statistics (2022) | |||||||||||||||
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Reading Regional Airport (IATA: RDG, ICAO: KRDG, FAA LID: RDG), also known as Carl A. Spaatz Field, is a public airport three miles (5 km) northwest of Reading, in Bern Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It is owned by the Reading Regional Airport Authority.[1]
Charter airlines
- Millennium Aviation
- Southwest Airlines (Orlando), chartered by Boscov's Travel
Airlines | Destinations |
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Southwest Airlines (operated for Boscov's Travel) | Charter: Orlando[4] |
Cargo
Airlines | Destinations |
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Facilities
The airport covers 888 acres (359 ha) and has two asphalt runways: 13/31 is 6,350 x 150 ft (1,935 x 46 m) and 18/36 is 5,151 x 150 ft (1,570 x 46 m).[1]
As of 2022, the airport had 38,139 aircraft operations, average 104 per day: 85%
History
Opened as a civil airport in April 1938, Reading Airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces First Air Force as a training airfield during World War II.
Reading Army Air Field opened on June 1, 1943, with the 309th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron as its host unit. The mission was to train tactical reconnaissance units. The
Aircraft used for training were the Curtiss
On November 11, 1943, the 26th was reassigned to
On January 1, 1944, Reading AAF was reassigned to
On June 1, 1944, the 309th Air Base Squadron was disbanded and replaced by the 4109th Army Air Forces Base Unit. Activity at Reading was phased down in summer 1945, and with the war ending it was inactivated as an active military airfield on 26 February 1946 and designated as an Air Force Reserve base. On that date the field was turned over to
During the late 1940s, a series of reserve bombardment groups were assigned to the airport:
- On 24 May 1946 the Olmsted Air National Guard Base(present day Harrisburg International Airport)
- A-26 Invader
- 59th, 451st and 452d Bombardment Squadrons. Also had the 55th Troop Carrier Group assigned, but never equipped.
- A-26 Invader
- 49th and 51st Bombardment Squadrons
- C-46 Commando
- 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th Combat Cargo Squadrons
Due to budgetary cutbacks the Reserve Training Center at Reading was inactivated on 1 May 1950 and reassigned to
In the 1950s, Reading Air Services sponsored the National Maintenance & Operations Meeting, better known as the Reading Airshow, and later Reading Aerofest. The annual airshow was one of the largest in the United States through the sixties and seventies peaking at 100,000 in attendance in 1976. The show expanded to a week long trade and airshow, then declined and ended in 1980 as infrastructure was overwhelmed and prices escalated. It was revived again in 1985 as a smaller airshow, the Reading Aerofest, ending in 1998.[10][11]
Since the 1950s, the airport has been home to the Reading Composite Squadron (Pennsylvania Wing designation Squadron 811) of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.
In the 1950,s TWA, Capital and Colonial (then Eastern) stopped at Reading. Allegheny replaced Capital in 1960, TWA left in late 1962, Eastern left in 1969, and Reading dropped out of the OAG in 2004. It may never have had a scheduled jet.
On December 5, 1984, Reading Airport was dedicated as
Mid-Atlantic Air Museum
The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is located at Reading Airport. It collects and actively restores historic war planes and classic airliners as well as rare civilian and military aircraft, with large number of historic aircraft on display to the public. It has also embarked on an ambitious project to restore its P-61B-1-NO Black Widow, recovered from New Guinea in 1989, to flying condition.
Accidents near RDG
- On July 11, 1946, TWA Flight 513, a Lockheed L-049 Constellation on a training flight crashed 2.8 miles NW of RDG due to a fire in the forward baggage hold. Five out of the 6 occupants were killed.[12]
- On April 9, 1977, an Altair Airlines Aérospatiale N 262 collided with a Cessna 195 at 4,500 feet AGL after being cleared for a left downwind approach to runway 31 and crashed 6.8 miles S of RDG. All 3 crew in the N262 were killed as well as the pilot of the Cessna.[13]
See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
- Maurer, Maurer (1969), Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II, Air Force Historical Studies Office, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. ISBN 0-89201-097-5
- Air Force Historical Research Agency records search, Reading Army Airfield
- Mid Atlantic Air Museum
- ^ PDF, effective 2023-7-13
- ^ Reading Regional Airport, official web site
- ^ FAA Passenger Boarding and All-Cargo Data
- ^ "Boscov's Travel". www.boscovstravel.com.
- ^ "Washington Post: To test during a pandemic, it takes an airline 20 June 2020". YouTube.
- ^ "LBQ825 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History 09-Jun-2021 (KHEF-KRDG)".
- ^ "LBQ791 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History".
- ^ "LBQ825 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History 09-Jun-2021 (KRDG-KRDU)".
- ^ "LBQ790 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History 08-Jun-2021 (KTEB-KRDG)".
- ^ "Flying Magazine". August 1991. p. 20.
- ^ Roger Mola (September 2001). "That '70s Airshow Business, babes, and barnstormers. For awhile, Reading, Pennsylvania, had it all". Air & Space Magazine.
- ^ "CAB accident report for NC86513". rosap.ntl.bts.gov. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
- Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on August 4, 2023.
External links
- Official website
- Reading Regional Airport at Pennsylvania Bureau of Aviation
- FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective April 18, 2024
- FAA Terminal Procedures for RDG, effective April 18, 2024
- Resources for this airport:
- AirNav airport information for KRDG
- ASN accident history for RDG
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for KRDG
- FAA current RDG delay information