Blacksburg in Montgomery County, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)

Virginia Tech Airport

Photographed By Bernard Fisher, April 3, 2011

1. Virginia Tech Airport Marker

Inscription.
The airport was founded in 1931 as a college-owned facility. School funds and a grant from the Works Progress Administration in the early 1940s paid for paving a runway and building a hangar. Two training programs offered here made the airport important during World War II. The Civilian Pilot Training Program taught selected cadets at VPI and other colleges around the country how to fly airplanes. An aircraft mechanics training program, operated under the National Youth Administration, trained hundreds of high school graduates as mechanics. Students lived at a facility just northwest of here.

Erected 2005 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number I-23.)

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Air & Space • Education • War, World II. In addition, it is included in the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects series lists. A significant historical year for this entry is 1931.

Location. 37° 12.318′ N, 80° 24.518′ W. Marker is in Blacksburg, Virginia, in Montgomery County. Marker is on Tech Center Drive, 0.1 miles east of Kraft Drive, on the right when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Blacksburg VA 24060, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other

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markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies. Smithfield (approx. one mile away); Founding of the Future Farmers of Virginia (approx. one mile away); Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (approx. one mile away); Eastern Continental Divide & 1763 Proclamation Line (approx. 1.2 miles away); Cemetery Landscape (approx. 1.3 miles away); Preston Cemetery (approx. 1.3 miles away); Blacksburg Motor Company Building 1924 (approx. 1½ miles away); Five Chimneys (approx. 1½ miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Blacksburg.

Also see . . . Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport. Wikipedia entry (Submitted on November 10, 2021.)

Photographed By Bernard Fisher, April 3, 2011

2. Virginia Tech Airport Marker

History of the Virginia Tech Airport image. Click for more information.

via Virginia Tech Airport, unknown

3. History of the Virginia Tech Airport

Airport website entry
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Credits. This page was last revised on May 1, 2022. It was originally submitted on April 4, 2011, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia. This page has been viewed 631 times since then and 27 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on April 4, 2011, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia. 3. submitted on March 14, 2022, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.