Reading Regional Airport (IATA: RDG, ICAO: KRDG, FAALID: 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.[1]
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.
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 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:
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.[4][5]
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.
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).[1]
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.[1]
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.
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.[12]
On April 9, 1977, an Altair AirlinesAérospatiale 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.[13]