Business View Magazine - Dec 2023

(quintessential New England, nestled along the New Hampshire/Vermont border). We recently spoke with Lebanon Municipal Airport Manager Carl Gross, and he told us all about his job and the airport he proudly serves. Gross explained that during World War II in 1942, the United States War Department approached the City of Lebanon about purchasing some land to create an airport. This was par for the course during the war, when countless such airports became the training grounds for young pilots preparing to fly missions over Europe and the Pacific. Postwar, the airport was deeded back to the City of Lebanon, as Gross informs. “Since that time,”he adds,“the airport has undergone an expansion of what is now our primary runway. Then the terminal building relocated to the south side of our east-west runway in about 1980.The FBO (fixed-base operator) on the north side was redeveloped just after the terminal relocated. Then, since the 1980’s, we’ve added two banks of T-hangars and developed an additional apron for future hangar development.” Gross continues that there’s also a business park. Currently the majority of the structures are privately owned. In 2022, the airport expanded the access road to the business park to City property. There are about eight acres of land - available for development for light industrial use. Gross adds that the airport sees about 30,000 operations a year. An on-site flying club, the Upper Valley Flying Club, provides flight training. Some transient military aircraft come through as well, in particular with regard to Vermont and New Hampshire National Guard units and their helicopters. The airport features two asphalt runways of 5,496 feet and 5,200 feet in length. He reveals that an ongoing multi-year project, when it comes to fruition, will expand the shorter runway to 5,400 feet. A parallel taxiway will also be completed there, and the localizer will be relocated. A localizer is a device that transmits VHF signals to provide aircraft with lateral guidance, thus allowing pilots to ensure that their planes are properly aligned with the center of the runway during the approach and landing phases of their flights. Cape Air flies from LEB to Boston-Logan International Airport four times a day, as Gross points out. LEB can accommodate such planes that 351 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 12 LEBANON (N.H. ) MUNICI PAL AI RPORT