ONE OF RUSSIA'S LARGEST MADE AIRCRAFT LANDS AT CRESTVIEW INDUSTRIAL AIRPARK

Okay folks. This is some of the news, I spoke about the last few weeks coming to Crestview. This is just another step of many being taken, which has placed the Crestview Industrial Airpark at the forefront of the Aerospace Industry. With the arrival of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program, which will train Navy, Air Force, and Marines of the U.S., and over 12 NATO Countries and the Isrealis, this area and specifically Crestview Airpark, will place Crestview in the cross hairs for aerospace growth. The capabilities of this Airport, which is adjacent to the World's Largest Air Forces Base, will lend itself to a number of programs and projects to benefit the military and civilian, alike. I hope you are getting the picture.

October 12, 2010 5:50 PM
Brian Hughes
When a Volga-Dnepr airlines Antonov An-124 landed at Crestview’s Bob Sikes Airport around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 7, it did much more than drop off a hush-hush cargo for one of the airport’s defense contractor tenants. It demonstrated to a world aviation audience the local airport’s abilities to accommodate the world’s biggest aircraft. “What this means to our community is access to the world,” Okaloosa County Airports Director Bob Donovan said. “Once you get on the radar with international operators, that’s proof of our abilities here in Crestview.” The Russian-made and Russian-crewed four-engine cargo jet, described by airport officials as the world’s third-largest aircraft, was in town only about 13 hours before departing shortly after sunrise Friday morning. The mission had been in the planning stage for more than eight months.
“What it does is prove the viability of having such a long runway and a good airfield,” Donovan said. The massive An-124, supported on the ground by 10 sets of dual wheels in its center landing gear and two sets of two wheels each forward, is surpassed in size only by the Airbus A380 and the Antonov’s larger sister, the six-engine An-224. The plane that landed at Crestview is one of 10 An-124’s owned by Volga-Dnepr’s cargo arm. Its cavernous cargo bay is so huge it can easily carry other aircraft. “They have hauled trains in those,” said Brad Hall, Emerald Coast Aviation’s vice president and director of maintenance. “It’s a very neat airplane.”
While the airport’s taxiways proved a little tight for such a large plane, Emerald Coast, the airport’s fixed-base operator, was on hand to help the plane into position at L3 Crestview Aerospace’s parking strip. Driving a 53,000 - pound aircraft “tug,” Hall neatly guided the An-124 off the runway Thursday night and into position for take-off Friday morning. The airport is addressing the taxiway’s tight radiuses, Donovan said. “We’re working very hard with the FAA and the FDOT to get the funding necessary to rebuild some of the taxiways so the aircraft can taxi on its own power,” Donovan said. “But the runway can accommodate the world’s largest aircraft.” After the An-124 took off Friday morning, Hall, Emerald Coast lead mechanic Bob Kilbourne and airframe and power plant mechanic Mace Livingston joined their boss, Emerald Coast Aviation President Jonathan Dunn, for celebratory sausage biscuits and coffee back at their office. Livingston, who had assisted Hall in the tug, compared the scale of the Antonov to the planes he typically services. “After you’ve towed the third-largest aircraft in the world at 6:30 in the morning, working on a Cessna 150 is going to be a let-down,” joked Livingston. “It’s pretty much the tiniest aircraft out here.” Hall said pushing and pulling the cargo jet with the tiny tug was an adrenaline rush. “It was pretty awesome!” he said. “It was enormous. To tow something and move something that weighs that much was neat. I hope we get to do it again.”
Dunn said the nearly nine months of planning for the Antonov’s visit was worth it. “Well, nine months, no sleep for a week, lost 20 pounds — I’ll try to do it again next week,” he laughed. “They’re moving one from Houston to Ghana next week and want to do a fuel stop in Birmingham. I’m trying to persuade them to come here.”