BAY BRIDGE AIRPORT
Jim Cannon was a local pilot who hung out at the Bay Bridge
Airport. Few visitors knew his background. They may have known
he was a civil engineer and architect, and provided the plans for
a new pilot lounge. But few could guess where he was on December
7, 1941.
The Japanese were busy that Sunday morning, making a surprise visit to Pearl Harbor, where the fleet was at anchor. Jim Cannon was ferrying a four-engine, Boeing B-17 heavy bomber from the United States to the Philippines. He was scheduled to make a stopover in Hawaii.
"Might as well land," Jim said. He did land, right in the middle of the attack.
Jim Cannon flew a total of 132 missions during World War Two. He was in the first wave of B-17s over Normandy on D-day. Jim was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Sliver Star, and the Distinguished Flying Cross (three times).
The Chesapeake Pilots Association hosted a pancake breakfast at Bay Bridge Airport in October 1995, when the new pilot lounge was dedicated to Jim Cannon. Dick Applegate, President of the Chesapeake Pilots Association, presented a framed memento honoring Jim Cannon to John Pepe, airport manager.
Queen Anne's County Commissioners attended the dedication ceremony. Present were Mark Belton, Commission President, and members George O'Donnell and Mike Zimmer.
The new pilot lounge is only a small part of recent improvements to this vitally important link between local business and the nation's economy.
Airline deregulation and expansion in the 1980s resulted in overcrowding at BWI. Small airplanes do not mix well with large airliners. The Maryland State Aviation Administration began immediately to consider the Bay Bridge Airport as an ideal reliever airport.
The first thing you see when you cross Chesapeake Bay bridge on the way to the beaches is a lovely marina. You will also see small airplanes just beyond it. Mr. Nathan (Bill) Morris is a local land developer. He started building the marina and Bay Bridge Airport in the 1960s to serve a nearby business park.
Mr. Morris is retired now and spends his time setting long- distance flying records. That is a fitting thing for a man whose vision created a business park, airport, and marina where the Chesapeake Bay Bridge joins the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Bay Bridge Airport had a rocky history. Several people tried and failed to succeed at operating the airport. Today the property appears fresh, new and prosperous after twenty years of struggle and doubt.
Things are looking good at this airport. There are blue skies ahead. This operation is now being studied by other county governments, to learn the secret of Bay Bridge Airport's success. It may well serve as the model for other county airports in the future. It all began with a fresh outlook by the County Commissioners, and especially the efforts of an enthusiastic airport manager.
John Pepe has managed Bay Bridge Airport since 1990, when matching funds from the Federal Aviation Administration paid for a large share of improvements to the property. He supervises fuel sales and the operation of two companies that provide aircraft service and pilot training.
"Since 1990, there has been a steadily increasing stream of revenue to the county," Mr. Pepe says. "They have never lost money from the operation of Bay Bridge Airport."
More than sixty airplanes are based at the airport. It is a very active place.
Mr. Pepe continued, "There are 14,000 takeoffs and landings per year. That is up by 1,500 per year since 1990."
Aircraft maintenance and inspection are performed by Safe Flight, Inc. Ray Groff is Chief Inspector and president of Safe Flight.
Three or four mechanics are always busy in the hangar. Ray Groff says, "We have processed over two thousand, one hundred work-orders since 1990." He thought for a minute and added, "That's an average of thirty-five airplanes a month. I guess we're doing just fine."
Aero Source, Inc., operates a flight school on the airport and does aerial survey work, using cameras and other sensing equipment. The company has a customer base of two hundred active pilots. Thirty are being trained by flight instructors, working on ratings from private pilot through the airline transport rating.
These flight school aircraft also perform ozone sampling missions for the University of Maryland and the Environmental Protection Agency. Airborne crop surveys are done for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Atmospheric sampling missions for NASA are related to the space shuttle.
John Kirby, company president, says, "As you know, the NASA details are purposefully vague and probably classified."
The airport occupies one-hundred and twenty-five acres. It has expanded just about as much as it can, due to environmental constraints.
"The nature of this land limits the number of septic systems," John Pepe says. "And we have to coordinate with other agencies, especially regarding archeological things we might dig up. I would say, building more hangars could take awhile."
The Maryland Aviation Administration is still pursuing the goal of having nearby airports to relieve the traffic burden into BWI. Mixing small airplanes with airliners is not a happy condition.
John Kirby makes a profound point with a simple statement, "Those big airplanes are too fast. Our trainers don't fit in with them."
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