History with ‘Hud’: How a grass runway grew into the Wilmington International Airport
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Wilmington International Airport tallied a record number of passengers last year, with over one million combined people coming and going from the coastal city in 2022. But the airport has grown tremendously over its nearly-100-year history.
Wilmington’s aviation story didn’t begin in its present-day location. The first runway was a grass strip between present day Floral Parkway and Audubon Boulevard, around 5 miles across town. The site attracted many aviation enthusiasts and military planes in the early 1920s, but was quickly outgrown.
Several people went to County Commissioners to propose a new landing field on a county-owned land tract near Gordon Road. By May of 1927, a new airfield began to take shape, offering two runways measuring around 1,700 feet of landing space each.
The first official landing at the new airport site was made by Warren Pennington in 1927, who completed the successful touchdown after flying in from Rocky Mount in an American Eagle Airplane.
The airport was given the name Bluethenthal Field on Memorial Day 1928 in honor of Arthur Bluethenthal, who was the first Wilmington resident killed in World War One while flying over France.
Steady growth and improvement began the next year when Coastal Plains Airways began operations. By 1941, the airport covered 634 acres and saw several airlines bidding to include Wilmington in their routes.
The United States Air Force took over the airfield for a time during World War Two, using the site for anti-submarine patrols and aircraft training. During this period, the airfield was expanded due to military need, with three new 7,000 foot runways. The airfield was given back to New Hanover County at no cost after the war, as part of the Surplus Property Tax Act of 1944.
Piedmont Airlines (which later became US Airlines) began commercial flights to Wilmington in February 1948, offering travel between the Port City and Cincinnati, Ohio. They later began a route to New York City, which remains one of the airport’s main routes today.
A large terminal building replaced the existing wooden terminal in 1950, with a control tower being built. Runway renovations also took place to allow accommodations of 737 jets. The 1950s also brought a name change to the airport, which became known as the New Hanover County Airport.
The word “international” was added in 1988, with a new 88,000 square foot terminal being dedicated in September 1990. A final name change to the Wilmington International Airport took place in December of 1997.
For a number of years, ILM was even one of four airports along the east coast serving as an emergency abort landing site for the Space Shuttle.
Major improvements kicked off in the 2000s, with ILM being awarded $10 million in 2006. An airport expansion project recently wrapped up after kicking off a three phase plan in 2018.
The growing airport now covers 1,800 acres and has five airlines offering 17 nonstop destinations at times through the year. Quite the improvement for an airport which began on a single grass strip nearly 100 years ago.
