Airport in Indian River County, Florida
Vero Beach Regional Airport
(
IATA
:
VRB
,
ICAO
:
KVRB
,
FAA
LID
:
VRB
) is a public
airport
one mile northwest of
Vero Beach
in
Indian River County, Florida
, United States. The airport is publicly owned and is the home of
Piper Aircraft
.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
1929?1941
[
edit
]
In 1929, Bud Holman, whose sons and grandsons now operate Sun Aviation, was one of the group that built the airport in Vero Beach.
[2]
[3]
The Vero Beach Regional Airport was dedicated in 1930 and in 1932
Eastern Air Lines
began refueling there.
[2]
[4]
In 1935 EAL started passenger and mail service from Vero Beach,
[5]
making Vero Beach the smallest little airport in Florida to have airmail service,
[2]
continuing until about January 1973. By the end of the 1930s the airport got runway lights and radio and teletype machines; in 1939, using Public Assistance workers, the runways were extended and a year later the
Civil Aviation Administration
spent $250,000 on more improvements.
[
citation needed
]
NAS Vero Beach
[
edit
]
In 1942 the
U.S. Navy
notified Vero Beach that it had selected its airport for a
naval air station
and purchased 1,500 acres (6.1 km
2
) surrounding the airport. The base was commissioned as
Naval Air Station Vero Beach
in 1942 and initially functioned as an operational training unit training for
Naval Aviators
beginning in February 1943 with the
SB2A Buccaneer aircraft
.
In December 1944 the mission of NAS Vero Beach changed to night fighter training using
F6F Hellcats
and
F7F Tigercats
.
Witham Field
in Stuart was designated as
Naval Auxiliary Air Station Witham Field
and was a subordinate base of NAS Vero Beach. Airfields at
Sebastian/Roseland (OLF Roseland)
and
Fort Pierce (OLF Fort Pierce)
also served as outlying landing fields. Air-sea rescue of downed pilots was provided from Fort Pierce. Over 237,100 hours of flight time occurred between 1942 and the base closing in 1946. Base personnel were quartered in the Beachland Hotel, The Sebastian Inn, and other facilities in the community. At its peak NAS Vero Beach was home to 250 aircraft and 1,400
U.S. Navy
and
U.S. Marine Corps
personnel, to include Navy
WAVES
and
Woman Marines
. After the war, the installation was reduced to a skeletal staff and in 1947 the Navy closed NAS Vero Beach and returned it to the city for use again as a civil airport.
[6]
[7]
Postwar
[
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]
In 1948
Major League Baseball
arrived as Bud Holman, a local businessman, invited the
Brooklyn Dodgers
to take over barracks facilities from the closed naval air station for winter and spring training.
[8]
The Dodgers liked the area so much that
Dodgertown
was born, a 110-acre (0.45 km
2
) tract next to the airport, as their training grounds.
[9]
The Dodgers continued to use the facility even after becoming the
Los Angeles Dodgers
until they moved to a new facility in
Glendale, Arizona
in 2008.
[10]
In 1957
Piper Aircraft
selected Vero Beach for a research and development center at the former naval air station; in 1961 Piper moved administrative and manufacturing operations here. By 1967 Piper had expanded its facility to 11 acres (45,000 m
2
) and its workforce to over 2,000.
[11]
Manufacturing of Piper Aircraft at the Vero Beach facility ceased in the mid-1980s when increasing product liability insurance premiums made continued operation financially impossible. Upon limitation of liability by new legislation by
United States Congress
in the early 1990s, manufacturing began again in 1995.
Skyborne Airline Academy, a leading flight training school, is also based at Vero Beach Regional Airport. The company purchased and rebranded the FlightSafety Academy in 2021 in order to expand its flight training to the United States.
[12]
The flight school's focus is to provide a dynamic, engaging, and welcoming flight training environment.
[13]
Today, Vero Beach Regional Airport is a 1,707-acre (6.91 km
2
) tower-controlled facility with an FAR Part 139 operating certificate.
[1]
The airport has seen commercial passenger service from mainly regional airlines in the past including USAir Express flights to Melbourne and Orlando in the 1990's.
[14]
However, commercial service ended for nearly two decades when
American Eagle
flew its last flight to Miami in February 1996.
Elite Airways
began operating flights from the airport in 2015 but stopped indefinitely in 2022.
[4]
The airport currently has scheduled non-stop service on
Breeze Airways
to
Hartford
,
Providence
, Long Island and
White Plains
.
[15]
[16]
Vero Beach is one of the few commercial airports in the United States to offer free long-term parking for up to 21 days.
[17]
Airline and destinations
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
FAA Airport Form 5010 for VRB
PDF
, effective 2023-7-13
- ^
a
b
c
Stanbridge, Ruth (January 13, 2022).
"Local history: Vero Beach Regional Airport"
.
TC Palm
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
.
- ^
"Sun Aviation Buys Assets Of Vero Beach Avionics | Aero-News Network"
.
www.aero-news.net
. Retrieved
2016-05-18
.
- ^
a
b
Smith, Cheryl (6 February 2023).
"Vero Beach: From Eastern to Elite to Breeze, here's a short history of a small airport"
.
TC Palm
. Retrieved
19 February
2023
.
- ^
"History of Vero Beach, Sebastian & Indian River County"
.
www.verobeach.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-05-07
. Retrieved
2016-05-18
.
- ^
"NAS Vero Beach: VERO BEACH MUNICIPAL AIRPORT"
.
Museum of Florida History
. Retrieved
17 February
2023
.
- ^
"A Guide to the U. S. Naval Air Station at Vero Beach"
(PDF)
.
Indian River County Main Library
. 3 August 2011.
- ^
Wixon, Colleen (February 27, 2019).
"Vero Beach Centennial: City needed the Dodgers as a revenue source to maintain the airport"
.
TC Palm
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
Beagan, Ginny (April 2, 2019).
"Dodgertown baseball stadium timeline: Spring training home of the Dodgers, ownership changes"
.
TC Palm
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
"Dodgers officially say goodbye to Vero Beach, will train in Arizona in '09"
.
Associated Press
. July 14, 2008
. Retrieved
31 July
2023
.
- ^
"Grace Baptist - Vero Beach"
.
www.gracebaptistverobeach.com
. Archived from
the original
on May 13, 2009
. Retrieved
2016-05-18
.
- ^
Rosenberg, Arnie.
"British aviation school to buy its first flight school here, rename it Skyborne Airline Academy Vero Beach"
.
TCPalm
. Retrieved
30 September
2023
.
- ^
"About Skyborne"
.
Skyborne
. Retrieved
30 September
2023
.
- ^
"Airport Code info"
.
www.airportcode.info
. Retrieved
2016-05-18
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
Weber, Thomas (2 February 2023).
"Breeze Airways inaugurates Vero Beach passenger service with first flight Thursday evening"
.
TC Palm
. Retrieved
16 February
2023
.
- ^
Parker, Paul.
"Breeze Airways adds two Florida destinations from T.F. Green. Here's where they're flying"
.
The Providence Journal
. Retrieved
30 September
2023
.
- ^
"Parking"
.
Vero Beach Airport
. Retrieved
17 February
2023
.
- ^
"Breeze Airways"
.
www.flybreeze.com
. Retrieved
December 19,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]
- Resources for this airport:
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Primary
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Reliever
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General
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Public use
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Private use
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Military
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Defunct
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