Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Majors Airport

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Airport type
  
Public

Serves
  
Greenville, Texas

17/35
  
8,030

Address
  
Greenville, TX 75402, USA

Elevation
  
163 m

Owner
  
City of Greenville

Elevation AMSL
  
535 ft / 163 m

8,030
  
2,448

Code
  
GVT

Phone
  
+1 903-457-3100

Majors Airport

Majors airport vlog


Majors Airport (IATA: GVT, ICAO: KGVT, FAA LID: GVT) is a city-owned airport five miles southeast of Greenville, in Hunt County, Texas.

Contents

Originally named Majors Field, it is home to L-3 Communications Mission Integration Division (MID), which performs aircraft modification.

Grant martin approach and landing to greenville texas majors airport


History

Majors Airport, named for Lieutenant Truett Majors, the first Hunt County native to perish in World War II, began operations on June 26, 1942, as a training center for the United States Army Air Forces. Lt Majors was killed in the 1942 Battle of the Philippines in January 1942. Greenville was chosen as a site for the USAAF basic flight-training center due to the efforts of the influential politician Sam Rayburn, the base was dedicated and named on 5 January 1943.

Majors Army Airfield was assigned initially to the Gulf Coast Training Center (later Central Flying Command), the airport was at one point the home to approximately 5,000 pilots, support personnel, and civilian employees. Majors also was a major training base for Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)s. Flying training was performed with Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer. Also had several PT-17 Stearmans and a few P-40 Warhawks assigned.

In addition to training United States Army pilots, the airfield was the training site for Escuadrón 201 of the Mexican Air Force. The training center was reassigned to Second Air Force on 30 November 1944 as a group training center, primary for the assignment of replacement personnel to combat squadrons in Overseas theaters.

Majors AAF was inactivated on 18 July 1945 after the defeat of Germany; the city of Greenville then took ownership, then leased the site to TEMCO (which, after a series of acquisitions, became L-3 Mission Integration Division).

The airport had airline flights (Central DC-3s) for a year or two around 1952.

On 5 March 2014 a regional American Eagle jet heading from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport made an emergency landing after the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit. Flight 3400 was bound for Moline, Il., when it was diverted about 9 p.m. to Majors Airport in Greenville. Jim Hogan, a passenger from Iowa City, Iowa seated in the exit row, opened the door and led the way for the other passengers to disembark.

Facilities

Majors Airport covers 1,525 acres (617 ha) at an elevation of 535 feet (163 m). Its one runway, 17/35, is 8,030 by 150 feet (2,448 x 46 m) asphalt.

In the year ending April 30, 2007 the airport had 35,640 aircraft operations, average 97 per day: 92% general aviation and 8% military. 39 aircraft were then based at the airport: 90% single-engine and 10% multi-engine.

References

Majors Airport Wikipedia