Although this campaign has concluded, it's easy to give to Ohio University and support the Airport fund.
→ The deadline for this project has been extended from 8/26 to 9/3
In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the National Aviation Day holiday to celebrate the August 19 birth date of civil aviation pioneer Orville Wright. We are also proud of another milestone from 1939: the Ohio University airport started training pilots!
Today, our aviation students train in state-of-the-art aircraft to obtain their private pilot license and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aviation Science. Ohio University's Avionics Engineering Center — the only facility of its kind in the United States — is also a heavy user of the airfield. The Avionics Center specializes in the research, development, and evaluation of electronic navigation and communication.
The Gordon K. Bush Ohio University Airport (KUNI) is an active general aviation airport in southeast Ohio which provides a valuable service to the University’s mission of higher education and research. It also serves as a general aviation hub for economic activity to a multi-county Appalachian region of Ohio. The airport is attended 24/7 making it attractive to students and the general public who need to make those early, late or weekend flights.
The airport is home to 17 OHIO-owned aircraft that are used as part of their flight training program. The University also operates six other aircraft from the airport.
The University has a flight maintenance facility to serve OHIO-owned aircraft as well as private aircraft. It is a Certified FAA Repair Station that offers aircraft maintenance and preventive maintenance, inspections, and minor/major repairs.
A gift from you in honor of National Aviation Day will help continue this viable mission of Ohio University ensuring OU stays in the top of Avionics research and continues to place the best of the best in the cockpit.
The Ohio University Airport has existed at its present location in Albany, Ohio, since 1972. Since that time, it has served both the university community and the public by offering flight training, fuel sales, and aircraft maintenance services, all at an airport with the best instrument approach systems and terminal facilities in Southeastern Ohio.
Several of the buildings have been here since the early 1970s. The largest storage hangar, dubbed Zero Hangar, was moved from its original location at the old Athens Airport on East State Street. The oldest set of T Hangars were purchased from another airport and erected at the Albany site around the same time. Both structures are showing their age and are in dire need of repair and improvements.
Many of the projects that the airport has successfully completed were done in conjunction with state and federal funds under the Airport Improvement Program (AIP). However, there are certain projects that cannot be funded using AIP monies. Capital improvements are an example of such restrictions.
Funding is needed to cover repairs to both Zero Hangar and the T Hangars, such as the roofs, sidewalls, door systems, and floors. Improving upon and upgrading each buildings electrical service, insulation, and lighting systems are other areas to focus funding as well. Additional funding would be used to repair and replace aging equipment like our aircraft tug and mowers.
Frank van Graas has been involved with satellite-based navigation research since 1984, in addition to many other positioning and timing technologies. He is a principal investigator with OHIO's Avionics Engineering Center, director of the Consortium of Ohio Universities on Navigation and Timekeeping (COUNT), a past president of the US Institute of Navigation (ION), and a fellow of the ION.
Joan E. Mace, AA ’73, BGS ’78 began her career in aviation in 1942 building Helldiver aircraft for the Navy during World War II. Pursuing her passion for flying, she became one of the first instructors for Ohio University’s flight instruction program in 1963. Twenty years later, she was named department chair, becoming the first woman to head the aviation department.
The Ohio University Airport was named in honor of Gordon K. Bush, a pioneer in Athens aviation, who served six terms as a member of the board of trustees of Ohio University (1930-1963), and was publisher of the Athens Messenger (1929-1965).