Davis Airport (Michigan)

Davis Airport was a general aviation airport located 0.5 mi north of East Lansing, in DeWitt Township, Michigan, United States.

Facilities
Davis Airport was situated at an elevation of 845 ft above mean sea level northwest of the intersection of Coleman Road and Chandler Road in southeast Clinton County. The airport had five hangars at the east end of the airfield.

Runways
Davis Airport had three runways.


 * Runway 9/27: 2550 ft, surface: turf
 * Runway 16/34: 2460 ft, surface: turf
 * Runway 4/22: 2025 ft, surface: turf

History
Davis Airport is named after Major Arthur J. Davis, a Lansing aviator during the 1920s and 1930s, who operated Michigan Airways, Inc. from a field in East Lansing and at Capital City Airport.

Davis was an original "barnstorming" pilot prior to the war and a few who had the opportunity to fly with him in his "taper wing" Waco F series biplane in the years following the War cherish those memories.

After World War II Davis opened the airport, then located 2.5 mi north of East Lansing, at the location of Chandler's Marsh. One of the earliest records of the airport is from the November 1954 Milwaukee Sectional Chart, which then depicted Davis Airport as having a 2100 ft unpaved runway.

The airport was the home to many local pilots for years. Many pilots learned to fly at the airport under the instruction of Harold D. Coakley, who became a flight instructor upon the close of WWII after serving in the Army Air Corps.

The airport was managed by Dale H. Sheren for many years, who was a close friend of Art Davis. Sheren managed the airport until his death in 1976.

In January 1992, three man faced five felony charges for larceny, malicious destruction, and breaking into airplanes and a van at the airport. On August 6, 1992, a small plane skidded past a runway, hit an embankment, and flipped over Chandler Road, landing upside down in a ditch.

In 1999 approximately 20 aircraft were based at the airport.

The airport closed on May 5, 2000, and was developed into apartment buildings.