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Mobile Downtown Airport

 
Wikipedia: Mobile Downtown Airport
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Brookley Complex
Mobile Downtown Airport

Brookley Complex Logo.png
Mobile Downtown Airport - AL - 4 Mar 2002.jpg
Photo of airport - 4 March 2002
IATA: BFM – ICAO: KBFM – FAA: BFM
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Mobile Airport Authority
Location Mobile, Alabama
Elevation AMSL 26 ft / 8 m
Coordinates 30°37′36″N 088°04′05″W / 30.62667°N 88.06806°W / 30.62667; -88.06806
Website BrookleyComplex.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14/32 9,618 2,932 Asphalt/Concrete
18/36 7,800 2,377 Asphalt/Concrete
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 84,484
Based aircraft 50
Sources: FAA[1] and airport website[2]

The Brookley Complex (IATA: BFM, ICAO: KBFM, FAA LID: BFM), also known as the Mobile Downtown Airport[1] and as Brookley Field, is an industrial complex and airport located 3 miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Mobile, a city in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The complex lies along the western shore of Mobile Bay. It is owned and operated by the Mobile Airport Authority.[2] Prior to 1969, the airport was an active military installation known as Brookley Air Force Base.

According to the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2007-2011, it is categorized as a reliever airport.[3] The airport has a control tower and has both a 9,600-foot (2,926 m) runway and a 7,800-foot (2,377 m) runway. Various instrument approaches to all runways are available, including an on-site VORTAC and instrument landing system (ILS). The complex is served by a 24-hour fixed base operator, the Downtown Air Center. In addition to the airport section, the complex is home to many aerospace industries and features direct connections with rail, road, and water transportation.[4]

Contents

Facilities and services

Brookley is the largest industrial and transportation complex in the region with over 100 companies and 4000 employees on 1,700 acres (688 ha).[5] The complex is home to many aerospace industries and features direct connections with Mobile Bay via its own docks, CSX railway, and with Interstate 10.[4] The Brookley Complex is included in Mobile's Foreign Trade Zone 82,[6] a zone that provides special customs procedures to U.S. plants engaged in international trade-related activities.[7]

Brookley includes the largest private employer in Mobile County, ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering, a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Engineering.[5] Brookley also serves as base of operations for Teledyne Continental Motors and the new Airbus Engineering Center.[5]

For the 12-month period ending January 31, 2006, the airport had 84,484 aircraft operations, an average of 231 per day: 57% military, 34% general aviation, 6% air taxi and 2% scheduled commercial. There are 50 aircraft based at the airport: 80% single engine, 4% multi-engine, 10% jet aircraft and 6% helicopters.[1]


Cargo and maintenance hub

The Brookley Complex is a maintenance facility for FedEx Express, US Airways, and United Airlines. FedEx Express also uses the complex for three daily cargo flights from Memphis, Tennessee. UPS Airlines has one daily cargo flight from Louisville, Kentucky. The complex is also utilized by ABX Air (DHL).

Expansion

Airbus North America selected the airport for the location of an engineering facility which opened in 2007. On 29 February 2008, the United States Air Force announced that a partnership between Northrop Grumman and EADS (Airbus' parent company) had won the contract to produce the new KC-45 aerial refueling tanker to replace the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker. The contract is considered to be worth up to $40 billion with 179 planes to be delivered over the next ten to fifteen years. The production of these aircraft will be at Brookley.[8] That contract was later cancelled, leaving the status of future Mobile tanker production unclear. EADS also announced plans to move its A330-200F freighter assembly line from France to Mobile as well.

History

Brookley Air Force Base - 7 April 1952
World War II scene at Brookley Army Air Field.

Brookley Complex had its aeronautical beginnings with Mobile's first municipal airport, the original Bates Field. However, the site itself had been occupied from the time of Mobile's founding, starting with the home of Mobile's founding father, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, in the early 1700s.[9] In 1938 the Army Air Corps took over the then 1,000-acre (405 ha) Bates Field site and established the Brookley Army Air Field.[10] The military was attracted to the site because of the area's generally good flying weather and the bay-front location, but Alabama Congressman Frank Boykin's influence in Washington was important in convincing the Army to locate the new military field in Mobile instead of Tampa, Florida.[11] However, later that year, Tampa was also chosen for a military flying installation of its own, which would be named MacDill Field, home of present day MacDill Air Force Base.

During World War II, Brookley Army Air Field became the major Army Air Forces supply base for the Air Material Command in the southeastern United States and the Caribbean.[10][12] At this time it was a modification and repair center for various military aircraft, to include the B-29 Superfortress and P-51 Mustang, and employed 17,000 civilians, about 7500 of whom were women.[12][10] Following World War II and the creation of an independent United States Air Force, the installation became Brookley Air Force Base. In 1962, the Air Material Command was renamed as the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and Brookley AFB became the host base of the successor organization, Mobile Air Materiel Area (MOAMA).

After an immediate end to many of the wartime jobs of World War II, the base's civilian workforce again expanded to around 16,000 people by 1962, a result of both the Cold War and other USAF base closings in other areas of the country.[13] During this time, AFLC's Mobile Air Materiel Area (MOAMA) provided depot-level maintenance for various USAF aircraft of the period, to include the C-119 Flying Boxcar, C-131 Samaritan, F-84 Thunderstreak, RF-84 Thunderflash and the F-104 Starfighter.

On 19 November 1964, the Department of Defense announced a progressive reduction in employment and the eventual closure of Brookley Air Force Base.[14] Local legend says that this closure decision was due more to political retribution by the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson for Alabama's support of Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election than an effort for actual economies within the Department of Defense. [15]

When it finally closed in June 1969, [16] Brookley AFB represented the largest base closure in U.S. history up to that time, eliminating 10% of local jobs for the Mobile workforce, which provided an annual payroll of $95 million to the local economy.[14]

After closure, the base was returned to the City of Mobile. Later, the city transferred it to the Mobile Airport Authority and it became known as the Mobile Downtown Airport. The city had created the Mobile Airport Authority in 1982 to oversee the operation of the Mobile Regional Airport and what would become the Brookley Complex.[5] The Mobile Airport Authority is autonomous and is not a part of the city or Mobile County.[5] The Authority’s five board members are appointed by Mobile’s Mayor, approved by the Mobile City Council, and serve 6 year terms.[5]

Many of the sets from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind were filmed in an aircraft hangar at Brookley.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c FAA Airport Master Record for BFM (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25. Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
  2. ^ a b "The People of Brookley Complex". Brookley Complex website. http://www.brookleycomplex.com/contact/index.php. Retrieved 2007-12-06. 
  3. ^ "National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems: 2007-2011". Federal Aviation Administration. 2006-10-06. http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/npias/reports/index.cfm?sect=2007. Retrieved 2007-11-13. 
  4. ^ a b ""Infrastructure"". "Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce". http://www.mobilechamber.com/infrastructure.asp. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f ""Mobile Airport Authority FAQs"". "Mobile Airport Authority website". http://www.mobairport.com/info/. Retrieved 2007-12-06. 
  6. ^ ""FTZ Board Order Summary"". "U.S. Foreign Trade Zones Board". http://ia.ita.doc.gov/Ftzpage/orders/ord1276-1360.html. Retrieved 2007-12-07. 
  7. ^ ""Foreign Trade Zones"". "U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board". http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/tic.html. Retrieved 2007-12-07. 
  8. ^ ""Northrop/EADS wins tanker contract"". "al.com.". http://blog.al.com/live/2008/02/wsj_reports_northropeads_wins.html. Retrieved 2008-02-29. 
  9. ^ Delaney, Caldwell. The Story of Mobile, page 32. Mobile, Alabama: Gill Press, 1953. ISBN 0940882140
  10. ^ a b c Thomason, Michael. Mobile : the new history of Alabama's first city, page 213. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2001. ISBN 0817310657
  11. ^ Thomason, Michael. Mobile : the new history of Alabama's first city, page 210. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2001. ISBN 0817310657
  12. ^ a b "Alabama and World War II". Alabama Department of Archives and History. http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec50det.html. Retrieved 2007-12-06. 
  13. ^ Thomason, Michael. Mobile : the new history of Alabama's first city, page 286. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2001. ISBN 0817310657
  14. ^ a b Thomason, Michael. Mobile : the new history of Alabama's first city, pages 289-297. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2001. ISBN 0817310657
  15. ^ http://www.brookleycomplex.com/aboutus_history.html
  16. ^ http://www.brookleycomplex.com/aboutus_history.html

External links


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