John Wayne Airport's general aviation roots date back to the barnstorming days of 1923, when Eddie Martin used to land his Jenny biplane on a desolate stretch of salt grass on Irvine Ranch, near what is now South Main Street and the 55.
As recently as 1990, small planes were the airport's mainstay, making up nearly 90 percent of John Wayne's 523,000 takeoffs and landings that year.
That made John Wayne the third most active general aviation airfield in the country, reports ...
Story, Video and Photo Gallery: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/airport-532172-pilots-aviation.html
A long history with small planes
1923: Eddie Martin opens Eddie Martin Airport and starts a flying school on Irvine Ranch property.
1939: Orange County buys Eddie Martin Airport and the FAA gives it the designator SNA for Santa Ana, the closest big city at the time.
1941: The county completes a new 2,500-foot runway and taxi strip one mile south of Martin's Airport. Eddie Martin moves to the new facility.
1952: Arizona-based Bonanza Airlines begins the first regular passenger service, on DC-3s.
1967: The county opens a new terminal to handle 360,000 passengers a year.
1979: The Board of Supervisors renames the airport for actor John Wayne, a longtime Newport Beach resident who died earlier that year.
1990: The Thomas F. Riley Terminal opens. General aviation accounts for nearly 90 percent of the airport's 523,000 takeoffs and landings.
1994: The Eddie Martin Terminal is demolished.
2011: John Wayne unveils Terminal C as part of a $543 million airport expansion. The airport serves 8.6 million passengers. General aviation falls to a modern-day low of 179,160 takeoffs and landings.
2013: Only 285 tenants occupy the airport's 380 general aviation parking spaces.
Source: John Wayne Airport
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