flight to Stennis Int'l

[nibot]

I went on a great solo cross-country flight this afternoon, to Stennis, just over the border in Kiln, Mississippi (home to the Lazy Magnolia brewery). It was a clear, calm, sunny afternoon, perfect for flying, with a nice view out over the shiny surface of Lake Pontchartrain and the Pearl river, and a nice view of the Stennis Space Center's big rocket-engine testing jig. I now have 43 hours total flying time, and need only 3.4 hours solo time to complete all of the 'aeronautical experience' requirements. Getting close!

I'm not sure what the story is with the Stennis airport. It has a long runway, a control tower, and "international" in its name, but no scheduled commercial service. The control tower guy sounded pretty bored on the radio. Maybe it's connected in some way to the space center?

Comments

[bluepapercup]

All "International" means is that the airport has customs operations, either for cargo or for people. Stennis is owned by the County of Hancock, not the space center or the military. However, based on the composition of the runway (grooved) and the length (~8500ft) it was clearly built to handle very large planes.

FAA statistics indicate that currently 10.5% of traffic at Stennis is military. If I had to guess, I'd hazard that once upon a time there was extensive cargo operation there, probably associated with bringing materials and parts to the space center. So really, it's a hold-over in a lot of ways. I would be very interested in finding out the full history of the field!

Fly there next time, land, and see if you can get the history from someone at the FBO. ;)

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Looks like they get visits from gigantic AN-124 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-124)'s, delivering engines to be tested:

http://www.mscoastmarinescience.com/files/q110_newsletter.pdf

[bluepapercup]

Would be thrilling to be there when one of those comes in!

[vortexshedding.livejournal.com]

I think that is how the Jackson MS airport is "international" -- with cargo.