Columbia Air Center

The Columbia Air Center was an airfield in Croom, Maryland from 1941 to 1958. It was started by African American pilots who were not permitted to use other airports, but was also open to whites.^[1] It had an all black staff,^[2] and a number of the trainers had served in World War II as Tuskegee Airmen.

The airfield was located in Croom, Maryland, in Prince George's County on leased land near the Patuxent River. It housed up to five runways, three hangars, ten planes, and an all-black chapter of the Civil Air Patrol.^[1]

In 1959, the property was purchased by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and became the first part of the Patuxent River Watershed Park.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Andy Zieminski (February 7, 2008). "County’s first black-owned airport becomes training ground". Gazette.net: Maryland Community Newspapers Online. http://www.gazette.net/stories/020708/prinnew170059_32361.shtml. 
2. ^ Washington Afro-American newspaper article of August 16, 1941, as quoted in Clayton Davis. "Columbia Air Center, Croom, Maryland". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20091027081746/http://geocities.com/cd19/croom.html. 

External links

• Clayton Davis. "Columbia Air Center, Croom, Maryland". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20091027081746/http://geocities.com/cd19/croom.html. 
• Cloud Club II
• Columbia Air Center from The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, who now runs the park