Drake Field


Drake Field is a public airport three miles south of Fayetteville, in Washington County, Arkansas. It is also known as Fayetteville Executive Airport and was formerly Fayetteville Municipal Airport.

History

Drake Field was the commercial airport for Northwest Arkansas until the opening of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill, Arkansas. It was served by Central Airlines Douglas DC-3s and Convair 600s from 1955 until Central was acquired by the original Frontier Airlines in 1967. Frontier started scheduled jet service at Drake Field in 1977, weekly Boeing 737-200s to Dallas/Ft. Worth via Fort Smith. Frontier Convair 580s flew nonstop to Dallas/Ft. Worth and direct to Kansas City, Little Rock, Memphis, St. Louis and Tulsa; Frontier pulled out in 1982.

Facilities

The airport covers at an elevation of. Its one runway, 16/34, is 6,006 by 100 feet.
The Arkansas Air & Military Museum is at the airport, with part of its collection housed in a heritage-listed hangar built in the 1940s and several aircraft on display outdoors.
In the year ending April 30, 2009 the airport had 35,267 aircraft operations, average 96 per day: 97% general aviation, 2% air charter, 1% military, and <1% airline. 85 aircraft were then based at the airport: 69 single-engine, 7 multi-engine, 8 jets and one helicopter.