History
Located on approximately 415 acres (1.68 km2) five miles (8 km) northeast of the City of Bend, Oregon, the Bend Municipal Airport traces its history back to 1942. A group of patriotic Bend citizens banded together to deed a small piece of farmland to the City of Bend for the express purpose that a municipally owned and operated landing strip be established. The site was developed and used for pilot training through World War II. Following the war, the airstrip was maintained by the City of Bend for continued civil use, where it experienced slow growth throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
By the 1970s, it was clear that the Bend Municipal Airport was becoming a significant element of the transportation infrastructure for Central Oregon and, in 1979, development of a comprehensive Airport Master Plan was undertaken. This plan established much of the direction for development at the airport and forecast significant growth in activity at the Bend Airport. This early Master Plan, however, was completed while General Aviation was booming across the country. A downturn in the general economy affected General Aviation in the 1980s and through the early 1990s, and as a result, the forecast growth in demand at the airport did not materialize. That all changed by the late 1990s, however, and General Aviation began a significant resurgence that continues today, along with tremendously increased business and corporate aviation travel into and out of Bend. Today, the Bend Municipal Airport stands poised to serve as the General Aviation and Corporate Aviation gateway to Central Oregon. Continued development of Cessna Aircraft, Epic Aircraft, Leading Edge Aviation, Precise Flight, and other growing tenants on the Airport have made a thriving aviation business park of the Bend Airport. In total, more than eighteen aviation related businesses are located on the airport employing more than 1000 people, making the Bend Municipal Airport one of the largest concentrations of family-wage jobs in the metropolitan Bend area. Over the next several years, a significant number of improvements are planned, including an Airport Master Plan Update and development of a full east side parallel taxiway, as well as more than 40 acres (160,000 m2) of general aviation and corporate aviation facilities.
Read more about this topic: Bend Municipal Airport
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