Roswell Wins Air Races
Roswell, New Mexico, was chosen to host the National Championship Air Races starting in 2025. The races will be held at the Roswell Air Center, once at the center of UFO conspiracy theories. The airport is mainly known for its vast boneyard of hundreds of airliners and other aircraft, which included Elvis Presley’s Lockheed Jetstar until 2017. The Jetstar is now being turned into an RV. The Reno (now Roswell?) Air Racing Association (RARA) said one of the reasons Roswell was chosen over Casper, Wyoming and Pueblo, Colorado was because of the variety of attractions in the area.
Congress Allows Airport Closure
A rare congressional order paved the way for Banning, California, to close its municipal airport. The measure, included in the recently-passed 2024 FAA Reauthorization Bill, absolves the city of its FAA obligations to maintain the facility but there are some conditions. It must repay the grant money that hasn’t been fully amortized and repay the agency for 20 acres of land bought with FAA money in 1983. AOPA and the FAA both opposed the move citing the airport’s strategic location in the San Gorgonio Pass and its frequent use by firefighting aircraft. The city has been trying to close the airport for eight years saying it’s a financial millstone for the community. “We will be working with the current tenants of hangars to ensure that there is a relocation assistance plan, most likely at one of the 14 nearby airports,” Mayor Alberto Sanchez said.
