Floyd Durham (1918-2010)

Floyd Durham (1918-2010). "A Founding Father of Delaware Aviation".

"Floyd Durham has achieved in Delaware what is considered nearly impossible in the entire field of aviation. He built a privately-owned, public use airport, complete with hard-surface runway, taxiway and ramp, instrument approach, operations building, service hangar, storage hangar, and lighting entirely from personal family income, and he survived (to tell about it)." , George J. Frebert, Delaware Aviation History

, Floyd H.L. Durham (1918-2010) created Delaware Airpark. A Lenape Indian, the middle child of seven, he was raised on a tenant farm east of Dover where he learned to be self-sufficient and independent. When a teenager, Floyd saw airplanes flying overhead and fell in love with the dream of owning and flying his own airplane., Unable to pass the physical for the Civilian Pilot Training Programs (CPTP), Floyd learned instead the skills of plumbing, starting a business in a small building in the back yard of the Cheswold family home. In 1950, Floyd passed the civilian pilot physical and earned his pilot's license. Floyd's dream of lying was about to come true. He bought a hangar at the former Sunglo Airfield near Dover, bought an ERCO Ercoupe, and, after only 2½ hours of flying instruction, he soloed his Ercoupe. He soon became part of a group of four Ercoupes that could be seen flying formations over Dover., In 1954, Hurricane Hazel damaged the Sunglo Airfield, collapsing the hangar on Floyd's plane, and permanently closing the airfield. Undaunted, Floyd moved his Ercoupe to his home garage for repairs. At about that time, some land became available adjoining Floyd's Cheswold property, and he purchased it with the intention of clearing the land and creating his own private airstrip., Thus Delaware Airpark had its beginning as a place to support Floyd's love for flying his Ercoupe, but it evolved into much more. The 1,800-foot-long strip was expanded as time and personal funds permitted. Floyd did this while running a one-man plumbing operation, his sole means of income, and raising a family with his schoolteacher wife, Doris. Originally called "Little Acres," the field was private, government funds weren't available, and the Durhams did not have any wealthy family members or friends from whom to borrow., As the airport developed, lending institutions saw its value. Loans became available, but Floyd put up his own assets as collateral. Airpark improvements spelled government reappraisals and higher taxes, but Floyd refused to change landing fees to make up for it. He did his own maintenance, cutting down trees with his own chainsaw, plowing snow off the runway, and offering the services of much larger airfields. He added VOR instruments approach in 1970, a clearance delivery frequency in 1995, and in 1996 the airpark became the first airport in the state to get an FAA-approved GPS approach., Floyd's love of aviation and of the airfield was recognized in 1988 when he received the Air Force Assocaition's "Miss Mary Biggs Award for Excellence in Aviation Community Services." In 2000, recognizing Floyd as one of the "founding fathers of general aviation in Delaware," the Delaware Aviation Hall of Fame made him an inaugural inductee. That same year, Floyd retired when he sold the airfield to the state of Delaware. Floyd Durham passed away at age 92 in 2010. The Quiet Birdsmen and the Federal Aviation Administration honored him by recommending renaming Runway 9 Waypoint, to DURHM.