Burnet adding hangar for bigger aircraft
Officials dig in during a groundbreaking ceremony at the Burnet Municipal Airport for the Airport Hangar Project on April 23, 2024. From left are Fixed Base Operations staff member Cody Faught, Burnet Airport Advisory Board members Bob Vossman and Charles Deiterich, airport manager Adrienne Feild, and FBO staff members Brenda Henson, Cleve Schuetzeberg, Nicholas Bownds, and Seth Bechler. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
The city of Burnet broke out the traditional golden shovels on April 23 to break ground on an almost 12,000-square-foot airport hangar. Construction at the Burnet Municipal Airport, 2302 U.S. 281 South, will begin immediately. The project is scheduled to be completed within the next nine to 12 months.
The $1.8 million Airport Hangar Project will cost the city $1.1 million, said City Manager David Vaughn.
“We have some federal money to help build it,” Vaughn told DailyTrib.com after the Tuesday ceremony. “We couldn’t afford it without $700,000 from the federal government.”
The airport needs the additional hangar space to grow, said airport manager Adrienne Feild.
“We don’t have any other hanger space that can house big planes like jets or bigger helicopters,” she said. “This is for a different classification of aircraft.”
Bids for proposals will be issued soon, Feild continued.
“We don’t know what’s going to go in it yet,” she said.
Crosby Flying Services, which manages the Fixed Base Operations at the Burnet airport, has some ideas on how to use the space.
“Crosby’s hope is to work out of it and facilitate maintenance and storage,” said Nicholas Bownds, the FBO maintenance manager. “The city’s hope may be different. Various people will be bidding on it for storage for their own personal aircraft.”
Kirk Noaker, colonel of the Highland Lakes Squadron of the Commemorative Air Force, is excited about the new addition to Kate Craddock Field. CAF houses its planes at the airport, which is also home to the annual Bluebonnet Airshow.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to monetize a public asset,” he said.
The only downside that Noaker, Bownds, and Vaughn can see is that around six old, large oak trees will have to be razed to make way for the added wingspan needed for the bigger aircraft.
“We originally designed it so it didn’t have to happen that way,” Vaughn said of the doomed trees. “But these bigger planes need their own apron space. There was no way to save the trees.”