Program

Historic Transportation

Subject

Site, Transportation

Location

530 Heath Rd, Heath, OH 43056, USA

Lat/Long

40.022553, -82.464193

Grant Recipient

Licking County Regional Airport Authority

An airport located just to the south of the city of Newark, Ohio was opened in 1930 as part of a transcontinental airmail route established by the U.S. Government. The Newark airport was installed and paid for by the federal government. However, an agreement had been made with the city of Newark so that it could be managed as a municipal airport through a lease agreement with the government. The government maintained the airport’s beacon light to assure a permanent signal for mail planes.

According to a 2018 report of the Historian of the United States Postal Service, the first regularly scheduled airmail route operated by the Post Office Department was a 218-mile route between New York City and Washington, D.C. established in 1918. The first transcontinental airmail route from New York City to San Francisco was completed in 1920. Mail would be flown by day and carried by train at night. By 1924, airmail was carried by plane through the day and night. Until 1927, the Post Office Department operated the transcontinental airmail route. The Air Mail Act of 1925 authorized the Post Office to award contracts to private companies for airmail. After this, the transcontinental route was operated by contractors paid for by the federal government.

The Newark, Ohio airport was opened as part of a new transcontinental airmail route established by the U.S. Government between Columbus and Philadelphia, through Pittsburgh. From Columbus, the route went west through Kansas City, Wichita, Albuquerque, all the way to Los Angeles. Pilots traveling along the route relied on beacons that would flash a green light to signal the course. For daytime navigation, the airport had large black letters on the roof of the equipment shed beside the beacon light tower and a large cement arrow pointing east on the ground at the base of the tower.

According to United States Postal Service Historian, almost all airmail routes carried both mail and passengers. At first, airmail was a distinct service from regular mail. By 1975, the Postal Service handled all domestic First-Class Mail the same as airmail and airmail as a separate service was discontinued in 1977.

In 1967, the airport in Newark, Ohio was transferred to the Licking County Regional Airport Authority. As of 2025, it remains in operation as a public airport.