Hillsboro Airport
Hillsboro Airport (IATA: HIO, ICAO: KHIO), also known as Portland–Hillsboro Airport, is a corporate, general aviation and flight-training airport serving the city of Hillsboro, in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is one of three airports in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area owned and operated by the Port of Portland. Established in 1928, it is Oregon's second busiest airport (in terms of total aircraft operations) at over 200,000 operations annually.
Located in the north-central area of Hillsboro, and west of Portland, it hosts the annual Oregon International Air Show. The airport includes a Federal Aviation Administration control tower, three paved runways, hangars, fueling facilities, and a small passenger terminal. Hillsboro Airport is also a port of entry, with a single-person U.S. Customs and Border Protection office.
Hillsboro airport goes back to 1928.[2] Dr. Elmer H. Smith purchased 100 acres (40 ha) of land near the town to use as an airport, as he owned the first airplane in town. In the early 1930s, after Smith died, the city purchased the airport for $7,500 and received a federal grant to improve the facilities.[2] They built two runways, one 3,000 feet (910 m) long and the other 2,800 feet (850 m).
In July 1936, Richard Evelyn Byrd's "Stars And Stripes" Fairchild FC-2 aircraft used to explore the South Pole was displayed at the airport.[3]
With the outbreak of World War II in 1941, the city received federal money again, and the city approved local financing to improve the airport again, with the costs of the improvements totaling around $600,000.[2]
During and after flooding along the Columbia River in 1948, the Hillsboro facility was used by some commercial operators due to the closure of then Portland-Columbia Airport (now Portland International), which lies along the river. The three commercial carriers at Hillsboro were Coastal Airways, Columbia Air Cargo, and General Air Cargo.[2] This was the flooding that wiped out the city of Vanport,[2] and due to that disaster relief supplies were flown into the Portland area by the United States Air Force using the Hillsboro Airport.[4]
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