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Reading Regional Airport Carl A. Spaatz Field Reading Army Air Field
2006 aerial photo of Reading Regional Airport
IATA: RDG ICAO: KRDG FAA LID: RDG
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Reading Regional Airport Authority
Serves	Reading, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Location	Bern Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Elevation AMSL	344 ft / 105 m
Coordinates	40°22′43″N 075°57′55″W / 40.37861°N 75.96528°W / 40.37861; -75.96528
Website	www.ReadingAirport.org
Map
RDGLocation of Reading Regional AirportShow map of PennsylvaniaRDGRDG (the United States)Show map of the United States
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 13/31 6,350 1,935 Asphalt 18/36 5,151 1,570 Asphalt
Statistics (2022)
Aircraft operations 38.139 Based aircraft 115 Passenger boardings (2006) 2,268
Source: FAA and airport web site

Reading Regional Airport (IATA: RDG, ICAO: KRDG, FAA LID: RDG), also known as Carl A. Spaatz Field, is a public airport three miles (5 km) northwest of Reading, in Bern Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. It is owned by the Reading Regional Airport Authority.

Federal Aviation Administration records indicate the airport had 2,268 passenger boardings in calendar year 2006, 2,445 in 2005, and 9,288 in 2004. The airport had scheduled flights on US Airways Express carrier Air Midwest, which ended on September 3, 2004. The airport is now served by three charter airlines.

History

Opened as a civil airport in April 1938, Reading Airport was used by the United States Army Air Forces First Air Force as a training airfield during World War II.

Reading Army Air Field opened on June 1, 1943, with the 309th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron as its host unit. The mission was to train tactical reconnaissance units. The 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Group was activated on the airfield the same date, with the 37th, 39th, 40th, and 91st Photo Reconnaissance Squadrons.

Aircraft used for training were the Curtiss O-52 Owl; Douglas O-53 Havoc; Douglas O-46, and the Stinson O-49 Vigilant. The 72d Liaison Squadron, flying the Aeronca O-58 Grasshopper arrived on June 7, and remained assigned to the station until July 29, 1943 when it was assigned to Camp Mackall in North Carolina.

On November 11, 1943, the 26th was reassigned to Camp Campbell, Kentucky to train with the 101st Airborne Division before deploying to England, and engaging in combat operations as part of Ninth Air Force. It was replaced by the 11th Photographic Group on 1 December 1943. The 11th Photo Group used Reading as its worldwide headquarters, as its reconnaissance and photo squadrons were deployed to various parts of the world.

On January 1, 1944, Reading AAF was reassigned to Air Technical Service Command and became a sub-base of the Middletown Air Depot near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The mission of the station became to repair and overhaul aircraft and return them to active service. The 11th Photo Group moved out to MacDill Field, Florida.

On June 1, 1944, the 309th Air Base Squadron was disbanded and replaced by the 4109th Army Air Forces Base Unit. Activity at Reading was phased down in summer 1945, and with the war ending it was inactivated as an active military airfield on 26 February 1946 and designated as an Air Force Reserve base. On that date the field was turned over to Air Defense Command, Eleventh Air Force as a reserve airfield, and the 438th AAF Base Unit (Reserve Training) (later the 2237th Air Force Reserve Training Center) was organized to coordinate reserve training. On 1 January 1948 jurisdiction was transferred to the ADC First Air Force.

During the late 1940s, a series of reserve bombardment groups were assigned to the airport:

• On 24 May 1946 the 148th Fighter Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard was assigned to the Airport. It was formerly the Twelfth Air Force 347th Fighter Squadron which was inactivated on 7 November 1945 prior to being re designated and turned over to the Air National Guard. The squadron was activated at the airport on 22 April 1947 with P (later F-47) Thunderbolts under the 112th Fighter Group at Pittsburgh Airport. On 10 February 1951 the squadron was federalized due to the Korean War and brought to active duty at Dover AFB, Delaware. It was released from active duty on 1 November 1952 and was re-equipped with the P-51 Mustang for interceptor duty. In 1956, as propeller driven F-51 Mustang fighters faded into history, the unit was re-designated the 140th Aeromedical Transport Squadron, flying the C-46 Commando and later the C-119 Flying Boxcar. In 1964, the unit relocated to its current location at Olmsted Air National Guard Base (present day Harrisburg International Airport)
• 322d Bombardment Group (Light), 9 August 1947 – 27 June 1949, Flew the A-26 Invader

59th, 451st and 452d Bombardment Squadrons. Also had the 55th Troop Carrier Group assigned, but never equipped.

• 319th Bombardment Group (Light), 27 June-2 September 1949, Flew the A-26 Invader

49th and 51st Bombardment Squadrons

• 512th Troop Carrier Group (Combat Cargo), 2 September 1949 – 1 May 1950, Flew the C-46 Commando

1st, 2d, 3d and 4th Combat Cargo Squadrons

Due to budgetary cutbacks the Reserve Training Center at Reading was inactivated on 1 May 1950 and reassigned to New Castle County Airport, Delaware. The Air Force closed its facilities at Reading airport and it returned to civil control.

In the 1950s, Reading Air Services sponsored the National Maintenance & Operations Meeting, better known as the Reading Airshow, and later Reading Aerofest. The annual airshow was one of the largest in the United States through the sixties and seventies peaking at 100,000 in attendance in 1976. The show expanded to a week long trade and airshow, then declined and ended in 1980 as infrastructure was overwhelmed and prices escalated. It was revived again in 1985 as a smaller airshow, the Reading Aerofest, ending in 1998.

Since the 1950s, the airport has been home to the Reading Composite Squadron (Pennsylvania Wing designation Squadron 811) of the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

In the 1950s, TWA, Capital and Colonial (then Eastern) stopped at Reading. Allegheny replaced Capital in 1960, TWA left in late 1962, Eastern left in 1969, and Reading dropped out of the OAG in 2004. It may never have had a scheduled jet.

On December 5, 1984, Reading Airport was dedicated as Carl Andrew Spaatz Field. Carl Spaatz was a nearby Boyertown, Pennsylvania native and a World War II General. General Spaatz was the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.

Facilities

The airport covers 888 acres (359 ha) and has two asphalt runways: 13/31 is 6,350 x 150 ft (1,935 x 46 m) and 18/36 is 5,151 x 150 ft (1,570 x 46 m).

As of 2022, the airport had 38,139 aircraft operations, average 104 per day: 85% general aviation, 12% air taxi, 3% military, and <1% scheduled commercial. 115 aircraft were based at the airport: 77 single-engine, 19 multi-engine, 14 jet, 4 helicopter, and 1 glider.

Mid-Atlantic Air Museum

The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum is located at Reading Airport. It collects and actively restores historic war planes and classic airliners as well as rare civilian and military aircraft, with large number of historic aircraft on display to the public. It has also embarked on a project to restore its P-61B-1-NO Black Widow, recovered from New Guinea in 1989, to flying condition.

Airlines and destinations

Charter airlines

• Millennium Aviation
• Southwest Airlines (Orlando), chartered by Boscov's Travel

Cargo

Accidents

• On July 11, 1946, TWA Flight 513, a Lockheed L-049 Constellation on a training flight crashed 2.8 miles NW of RDG due to a fire in the forward baggage hold. Five out of the 6 occupants were killed.
• On April 9, 1977, an Altair Airlines Aérospatiale N 262 collided with a Cessna 195 at 4,500 feet AGL after being cleared for a left downwind approach to runway 31 and crashed 6.8 miles S of RDG. All 3 crew in the N262 were killed as well as the pilot of the Cessna.

See also

• List of airports in Pennsylvania
• Pennsylvania World War II Army Airfields

References

Notes

1. ^ FAA Airport Form 5010 for RDG PDF, effective 2023-7-13
2. Reading Regional Airport, official web site
3. FAA Passenger Boarding and All-Cargo Data
4. "Flying Magazine". August 1991. p. 20.
5. Roger Mola (September 2001). "That '70s Airshow Business, babes, and barnstormers. For awhile, Reading, Pennsylvania, had it all". Air & Space Magazine.
6. "Boscov's Travel". www.boscovstravel.com.
7. "Washington Post: To test during a pandemic, it takes an airline 20 June 2020". YouTube.
8. "LBQ825 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History 09-Jun-2021 (KHEF-KRDG)".
9. "LBQ791 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History".
10. "LBQ825 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History 09-Jun-2021 (KRDG-KRDU)".
11. "LBQ790 Quest Diagnostics Flight Tracking and History 08-Jun-2021 (KTEB-KRDG)".
12. "CAB accident report for NC86513". rosap.ntl.bts.gov. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
13. Accident description for N7886A at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on August 4, 2023.

Bibliography

• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
• Maurer, Maurer (1969), Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II, Air Force Historical Studies Office, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. ISBN 0-89201-097-5
• Air Force Historical Research Agency records search, Reading Army Airfield
• Mid Atlantic Air Museum

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

External links

• Official website
• Reading Regional Airport at Pennsylvania Bureau of Aviation
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective November 28, 2024
• FAA Terminal Procedures for RDG, effective November 28, 2024
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KRDG
  • ASN accident history for RDG
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS weather observations: current, past three days
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KRDG
  • FAA current RDG delay information

v t e USAAF First Air Force in World War II
Airfields	First Air Force Group Training Stations First Air Force Replacement Training Stations First Air Force Tactical Airfields Freeman Army Airfield Godman Army Airfield Selfridge Field
Units	Commands I Bomber Command I Fighter Command I Ground Air Support Command Wings 25th Antisubmarine 50th Troop Carrier 52d Troop Carrier 53d Troop Carrier 60th Troop Carrier 61st Troop Carrier Boston Fighter New York Fighter Norfolk Fighter Philadelphia Fighter Groups Bombardment 2d Bombardment 13th Bombardment 22d Bombardment 34th Bombardment 43d Bombardment 45th Bombardment 301st Bombardment 302d Bombardment 400th Bombardment 402d Bombardment 455th Bombardment 459th Bombardment 460th Bombardment 471st Bombardment Combat Cargo 1st Combat Cargo 2d Combat Cargo 4th Combat Cargo Fighter 8th Fighter 31st Fighter 33d Fighter 52d Fighter 56th Fighter 57th Fighter 58th Fighter 59th Fighter 79th Fighter 80th Fighter 83d Fighter 87th Fighter 324th Fighter 325th Fighter 326th Fighter 327th Fighter 332d Fighter 348th Fighter 352d Fighter 353d Fighter 355th Fighter 356th Fighter 358th Fighter 359th Fighter 361st Fighter 362d Fighter 365th Fighter 366th Fighter 368th Fighter 370th Fighter 371st Fighter 373d Fighter 402d Fighter 413th Fighter 476th Fighter Reconnaissance 26th Reconnaissance 73d Reconnaissance Troop Carrier 10th Troop Carrier 60th Troop Carrier 61st Troop Carrier 62d Troop Carrier 63d Troop Carrier 89th Troop Carrier 313th Troop Carrier 314th Troop Carrier 315th Troop Carrier 316th Troop Carrier 317th Troop Carrier 349th Troop Carrier 375th Troop Carrier 403d Troop Carrier 433d Troop Carrier 434th Troop Carrier 435th Troop Carrier 436th Troop Carrier 437th Troop Carrier 438th Troop Carrier 439th Troop Carrier 440th Troop Carrier 441st Troop Carrier 442d Troop Carrier Other 1st Search Attack 477th Composite Incidents Freeman Field Mutiny
United States Army Air Forces First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth Tenth Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Fourteenth Fifteenth Twentieth

• Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Pennsylvania
• Airports established in 1938
• Airports in Pennsylvania
• Transportation buildings and structures in Berks County, Pennsylvania