Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport

Infobox Airport
name = Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport
nativename = Queen City Airport


image-width =
caption = Queen City Airport
13 April 1999
IATA = JVU
ICAO = KJVU
type = Public
owner = Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority
location = Allentown, Pennsylvania
elevation-f = 399
elevation-m = 122
coordinates = Coord|40|34|13.0|N|75|29|17.9|W|type:airport
website = [http://www.lvasfbo.com/index.html www.lvasfbo.com/index.html]
r1-number = 7/25
r1-length-f = 3,950
r1-length-m = 1,204
r1-surface = Asphalt
r2-number = 15/33
r2-length-f = 3,159
r2-length-m = 963
r2-surface = Asphalt

Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport Airport codes|JVU|KJVU, also known as Queen City Airport, is a public general aviation airport located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States. The airport is home to the Civil Air Patrol Squadron 805 and Lehigh Valley Aviation Services, a fixed base operator.

History

In mid-December 1942, it was announced that Allentown was the site of a new aircraft production plant. Vultee Aircraft and Consolidated Aircraft announced that Consolidated Vultee (later known as Convair) would lease Mack Truck's Plant 5C for production of the PBY Catalina Flying Boat for the United States Navy. In addition to 5C, Consolidated Vultee would build an office building, a hangar, an airport and a highway linking 5C with the new airport complex.

Mack officials were initially reluctant to give up Plant 5C because they considered it essential for Truck war production, however the War Production Board and the Navy overruled them.

Convair Field, as the airfield was originally named, was dedicated on October 10, 1943. [cite web
title = Pennsylvania Airport History
url = http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Internet/Bureaus/pdBOA.nsf/History?OpenPage
accessdate = 2007-07-17] When the plant reached full production, it employed several thousand people, over half of which were women. Consolidated Vultee became Allentown's second largest industry, handling over $100,000,000 in war contracts. By the end of 1943, the facility was producing PBY Catalina flying boats as well as components for the BT-13 Valiant Trainer and B-24 Liberator Bomber.

Along with the airfield and manufacturing facilities, an entire new neighborhood of homes was built for the aircraft workers and their families. In December 1943, the National Housing Center approved the construction of 250 units for Vultee workers on a tract bounded by Twelfth, Fourteenth, Harrison and Wyoming streets by the Allentown Housing Authority. This neighborhood, containing streets named "Liberator Avenue", "Catalina Avenue", and "Vultee Street", still exists.

With the end of the war in 1945, aircraft production was shut down. Plant 5C was returned to Mack Trucks and the remainder of the facility was declared surplus by the War Assets Administration. The property was obtained by General Electric to manufacture small appliances, particularly toasters. In 1962 the facility again was closed and the property was obtained by the city.

It is currently owned and operated by the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority. LNAA also manages the Lehigh Valley International Airport and Braden Airpark. In 2006, the airport received an award for the General Aviation Airport of the Year by the Eastern Region of the Federal Aviation Administration. [cite web
title = Queen City Airport Designated General Aviation Airport of the Year by the Federal Administration Eastern Region
url = http://www.lvia.org/info_booth/news_room/030206.html
date = 2006-03-02
accessdate = 2007-07-17]

On July 31, 2008, the airport identifier was changed from 1N9 to KJVU. However, there is a possibility that the identifier will be changed to KXLL (Little Lehigh Executive, in honor of the local Little Lehigh Creek) on November 20, 2008.

References

* Allentown 1762-1987 A 225-Year History, Volume Two, 1921-1987. Mahlon H. Hellerich, editor, Lehigh County Historical Society, 1987.

External links

* www.lvasfbo.com
* [http://members.tripod.com/~jmgil/index.html Civil Air Patrol Squadron 805]
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