I was coming home from Wilmington recently and came upon David’s Drive, a newer road that leads over to the north side of Wilmington Air Park. So, I turned right to see what I could see.
Once the road reaches the airpark it takes a hard right and parallels the facility for some distance. The first thing that caught my eye was a large plane sporting the words Prime Air sitting beside a large building bearing a number of Amazon phallic trademarks (Yeah, you’ve seen those boxes and thought the same thing, haven’t you?).
I couldn’t get close enough from David’s Dr so I decided to go around and take the road on the south side of the complex, Airborne Rd. I didn’t know how close I could get before being arrested for being a terrorist threat but amazingly it was no problem getting up to the fences and gates. At Amazon, I didn’t see anyone in the guardhouse so I could have probably gotten closer.
I was surprised to see the Amazon facility and along with some of their aircraft. I was under the impression they had decided to operate out of Boone County Airport in Northern Kentucky. I saw lots of loading docks with a number of semi-trailers sitting at them so I assume Amazon is running some level of sorting facility there.
You still see the name Airborne but today I think their business is servicing and maintaining other company’s aircraft. My last stop was the campus of Laurel Oaks Vocational School and it is nothing like I remembered it. All their buildings appear to be fairly new and there are no signs of the old wooden Air Force buildings they began in. As a matter of fact, I saw no evidence of what was once Clinton County AFB.
I don’t know to what degree the Air Park has recovered since DHL flew the coup but there are certainly signs of people working and jobs returning. My guess is that they are mostly not the semi and unskilled jobs that once existed, however.
Well, that’s my hour spent nosing around. If any of you can add to what I think I saw, or correct any assumptions I have made, please feel free to do so.
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