Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport K. W. Scholter Field, Butler County Airport |
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Terminal Building
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
Owner | Butler County Airport Authority | ||||||||||
Serves | Butler, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||
Location | Penn Township, Pennsylvania | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 1,248 ft / 380 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 40°46′37″N 079°56′59″W / 40.77694°N 79.94972°W | ||||||||||
Website | Regional Airport | ||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||
Location of airport in Pennsylvania / United States | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Statistics (2007) | |||||||||||
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Source: Federal Aviation Administration
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Aircraft operations | 62,685 |
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Based aircraft | 132 |
Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport (IATA: BTP, ICAO: KBTP, FAA LID: BTP), also known as the Butler County Airport or K. W. Scholter Field, is a public airport 5 miles (8 km) southwest of the central business district of Butler, the county seat of Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The airport serves the northern suburbs of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It is owned by the Butler County Airport Authority.
Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, formerly Butler County Airport, opened as the Pittsburgh-Butler Airport on September 27 and 28, 1929, with much fanfare and aircraft demonstrations. It was later named the Butler-Graham Airport. For more than 20 years the Butler airfield was one of the primary airports servicing the city of Pittsburgh until Pittsburgh International Airport was completed in the early 1950s. During its early years, the airport served as an important training area for potential pilots. One notable trainee was Amelia Earhart who received her instrument flight certificate there while practicing for her solo flight over the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. It was also at the airport that Earhart had the long-range fuel tanks installed on her Lockheed Vega. Another notable aviator was C.G. Taylor, who in 1935 moved his Taylorcraft Aircraft company to Butler. His new planes were tested at the airport and his Taylorcraft B model was introduced here. During World War II the airport served as a training ground for fighter pilots. By the late 1990s, the airport was getting too small to handle the amount of aircraft coming in so plans were made to extend the runway by 800 feet (240 m). The extension of the single runway was completed in 2004.