By Daleen R. Berry

A recent event at Benedum Airport in Bridgeport joined the historical ranks of such famous flights as those of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart on Saturday, May 20. On that date, by coincidence, a record-breaking number of passengers - the largest ever - departed the airport in a Boeing 727 jetliner. The occasion occurred 73 years after Lindberg's flight and 68 years after Earhart's.

Charles Lindbergh was only 25 years old when he took off on his famous transatlantic flight from New York to Paris on May 20, 1927, in The Spirit of Saint Louis, so named for King Saint Louis of France, the patron saint of the Missouri city of the same name. Using only a compass and no other instruments, he flew 3,610 miles, reaching the shores of France just 33 hours and 29 minutes later on May 21.

Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly the Atlantic Ocean in a solo flight when she took off from Newfoundland just five years later, on May 20, 1932. She had already broken one record when she became the first woman passenger to fly across the Atlantic. This was not the ill-fated trip Earhart was eventually lost to, but it still had moments of danger. History reports that Earhart had problems with her altimeter and a broken exhaust ring, which contributed to her landing the Lockheed Vega monoplane in Ireland. Although she failed to reach Paris, as Lindbergh had, Earhart did break a 13-year-old record by making the flight in 13 hours and 30 minutes.

Lindbergh is not unlike Benedum Airport. The airmail carrier was small in stature and was virtually unknown in the field of aviation when he first flew from the West Coast in preparation for that famous 1920 flight. People who heard of his plan to break records by flying non-stop to Paris laughed at him, calling him "the flying fool."

So, too, with Benedum Airport. It's been known as a smaller airport, and although it boasts daily commuter flights on small turboprops such as the Beechcraft 1900, no planes larger than a 727 - carrying a much lighter load - landed there. It's an equally unknown airport, and in the past, many people have chosen to depart from such airports as Yeager International in Charleston, or Pittsburgh International. Aviation officials believe that will all change. Jim Skidmore, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex, was elated at the coincidence of these May 20th events.

"Aviation is a remarkable enterprise from any perspective, but to see something like this happen at MAAC on such an important date as that of the Lindbergh and Earhart flights it great. It adds luster to all of the community efforts to extend the runway and open up new opportunities for West Virginians."

"I hope there will be many more coincidences and occasions like this as MAAC continues to market Benedum Airport to the aviation community and grows its size for hopefully even larger aircraft," Skidmore said.

A total of 136 people - 130 soldiers from the 119th Army National Guard Engineer Company and six crew members from Miami Air - departed the airport about two hours ahead of schedule on a flight headed for San Diego, Calif. By comparison, the largest number of passengers to arrive or leave the airport before this was about 40.

"This wouldn't have been possible without the expansion of the airport," Col. Dave Spencer said.

Benedum Airport's sole runway was lengthened from 5,000 to 7,000 feet - making it almost one and a half miles long - and opened last fall. In addition to the extra length, the runway will now meet the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, and support planes that are 30 percent heavier.

Spencer, who heads Task Force Benedum, the Army National Guard project that was worked on the runway expansion since 1994, said that had it not been for that project, the soldiers would have been bussed to Pennsylvania, where they could have departed from Pittsburgh International Airport.

The soldiers flew from Bridgeport to Louisville, KY, where they changed crews and refueled, before flying onto San Diego. Their efforts in San Diego involved Task Force Grizzly, where they are helping to build new roads and a border fence for the Border Road Project, so the U.S. Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Services can help to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and drug trafficking.

"This is the first time a unit from West Virginia has participated in this project," Spencer said. Task Force Grizzly is one of three large military construction projects in the United States.

"Now that it's possible to leave from here ... it's more conceivable that (the Army units) will do that," Spencer added. As an example, two units of about 150 people each from Massachusetts are scheduled to fly into Benedum. This wasn't possible before the runway expansion.

A great deal of coordination was involved in making this event a reality, and several people worked together to ensure that catering, baggage handling and emergency equipment were in place for the success of the flight. Chuck Koukoulas, president of KCI Aviation, the fixed-base operation that provides fueling and other aviation services to incoming and outgoing aircraft from the airport, said that the Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex helped in this effort.

"Benedum's making aviation history at the same time it's bringing business to the Bridgeport area.. That's what MAAC's all about, to create synergy and put more business here at the airport," Koukoulas said.

Coordinating the May 20 event was Tom Peabody, KCI's flight support manager. "We had to ensure they had everything they needed," he said. This meant not only smaller items like food and baggage, but also ensuring fire fighting equipment from area fire departments was on the site when the airplane landed and took off, in accordance with federal regulations that govern aviation. Peabody worked with Col. Spencer and Miami Air - the airline that chartered the trip - and said everything went off without a hitch.

"The plane showed up two hours early, at 10:35. But we were ready. We just continued to march according to plan." Peabody arranged for three line workers and one mechanic to service the airplane, before it took off again. Like both famous aviators, Benedum's new record has area aviation experts saying this is just the beginning of bigger and better changes at the growing regional airport.

The new runway means "that airplanes like the 727 can operate with a higher payload, and operate air carrier style. It gives the air carriers the runway they need to operate," Koukoulis said. "Since we meet the FAA's requirements now, we have the opportunity to see 727s, MD-80s, and the 737, which is a very popular airliner."

In addition, Koukoulis said Benedum's aviation future includes chartered WVU Athletic Department flights out of the airport for the same reason. Three such flights have already been booked to depart Benedum for next season's away football games.