Aviation View Jan 2023

37 AVIATION VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 2, ISSUE 4 NEWTON C I TY-COUNTY A I RPORT and Harvey County. A nine-member Aviation Commission acts as an advisory group to the city and Harvey County Commissioners. Today, Newton City-County Airport has been designated by the FAA as a general aviation reliever airport for Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport. In total, the airport sits on about 880 acres. The main runway 17-35 is 7002 feet long by 100 feet wide with grooved concrete. Palmer quips, “We also have a crosswind runway for the four days a year that the winds blow out of the east or the west. It is asphalt and measures 3500 feet long by 60 feet wide. All our surfaces have been rehabilitated or reconstructed since 2014 – which means it is all in great shape.” The original runway was put down by the U.S. Navy in 1943 and was originally 7002 feet long by 300 feet wide. It was one of the widest runways in the country at the time. Obviously, over the years, there have been some modifications made to it, and finally in 2014, there was a full reconstruction of that runway which narrowed it to 100 feet and changed it from asphalt to grooved concrete. Since then, a rehab was done on the east-west runway 08- 26. Taxiway Charlie, the long taxiway that leads out to the departure end of runway 26, also underwent rehabilitation. And finally, in June 2022, the full reconstruction of Taxiway ECHO was completed. It was redone in concrete – as were all the other taxiways. “So, we are in a great position when it comes to runways,” Palmer reports, “and all of that was accomplished with 90% federal funding. Of course, the projects cost almost $17 million and the local share, $1.7 million, is not insignificant but the city and the county understand not just that they are co-owners, but that the airport is an important resource for us.”