The county will assume control of the airport at the former Martha’s Vineyard N.A.A.S. tomorrow, Saturday, June 29, and the field will hereafter serve air lines, private and charter planes, and instructors, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the county.

 

As announced in the Gazette last week, Burnham Litchfield of Edgartown will be manager of the airport, and has already assumed his duties. Robert W. Burton, in charge of maintenance under the Navy regime, will continue to have this responsibility, and William P. Horne of Oak Bluffs has been appointed electrician.

 

The Navy Department has granted the necessary permission for the county to occupy and exercise full responsibility for the airport. This permission is at present in the form of a temporary permit, which is to be confirmed at an early date.

 

 

The House naval committee recently approved authorization for the Navy to turn sixty-four Navy air fields over to the War Assets Administration for disposal, and similar action by the Senate naval committee was expected this week. There will be a provision whereby the government may repossess the fields in the case of war. The Vineyard N.A.A.S. is included in the sixty-four.

 

Those familiar with the project now successfully established were enthusiastic over the demonstration of what could be done by the Island working as a unit and its interests represented as a unit. It was pointed out that in this instance, for the first time, the county has acted as a single effective agency in something affecting the individual towns, and with conspicuous success.

 

This was made possible by the bill enacted a year and a half ago, which, as it turned out, gave the Vineyard a marked advantage in accomplishing what had to be done.

 

A patter of approach and departure for planes of all sorts using the field has already been drawn up and has been filed so that pilots will be familiar with it. This is expected to reduce the amount of flying over the towns, and to avoid many of the complaints which otherwise might be anticipated.

 

The county will derive revenue from the field through land and hangar fees, and from the sale of fuel and other services to be handled through concessions.