Felts Field

Felts Field
Felts Field looking west
IATA: SFF ICAO: KSFF FAA LID: SFF
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Spokane City-County
Serves	Spokane, Washington
Elevation AMSL	1,957 ft / 596 m
Coordinates	47°40′59″N 117°19′21″W / 47.68306°N 117.32250°W / 47.68306; -117.32250Coordinates: 47°40′59″N 117°19′21″W / 47.68306°N 117.32250°W / 47.68306; -117.32250
Website	www.feltsfield.com
Map
SFF Show map of Washington (state) SFF Show map of the US Location of airport in Washington / United States
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 4L/22R 4,499 1,371 Concrete 4R/22L 2,650 808 Asphalt
Statistics (2009)
Aircraft operations 75,124 Based aircraft 163
Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Felts Field (IATA: SFF, ICAO: KSFF, FAA LID: SFF) is a public airport five miles northeast of downtown Spokane, in Spokane County, Washington. It is owned by Spokane City-County.

The airport has two hard surface runways. Felts Field is used for general aviation now, but it was Spokane's airline airport before the opening of Spokane International Airport.

Felts Field, Spokane's historic airfield, is on the south bank of the Spokane River east of Spokane. Aviation activities began in 1913. In 1920 the field, then called the Parkwater airstrip, was designated a municipal flying field at the instigation of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce. In 1926, the United States Department of Commerce officially recognized Parkwater as an airport, one of the first in the West. In September 1927, in conjunction with Spokane’s National Air Derby and Air Races, the airport was renamed Felts Field for James Buell Felts (1898–1927), a Washington Air National Guard aviator killed in a crash that May. Parkwater Aviation Field, later Felts Field, was the location for flight instruction, charter service, airplane repair, aerial photography, headquarters of the 116th Observation Squadron of the Washington Air National Guard, and eventually the first airmail and commercial flights in and out of Spokane. After World War II, commercial air traffic moved to Geiger Field (later Spokane International Airport). Felts Field remains a busy regional hub for private and small-plane aviation and related businesses and services. In 1991 it was designated Felts Field Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.