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Essex County Airport
IATA: CDW - ICAO: KCDW - FAA: CDW
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Essex County Improvement Authority
Serves		Fairfield, New Jersey
Elevation AMSL		173 ft (52.7 m)
Coordinates		40°52′31″N, 074°16′53″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
4/22	4,553	1,388	Asphalt
9/27	3,721	1,134	Asphalt

Essex County Airport (IATA: CDW, ICAO: KCDW, FAA LID: CDW) is a public airport located two miles (3 km) north of the central business district (CBD) of Caldwell, a borough located in northwestern Essex County, New Jersey. It is a popular general aviation airport for aircraft traveling to New York City and northern New Jersey.

Although the FAA officially lists the airport's location as Caldwell and the FAA/IATA identifier "CDW" is an abbreviation of that name, the airport buildings and the larger part of the airport grounds are located in town of Fairfield.

Early Days (1929-1932)

The property that would eventually become the airport was originally occupied by the Fairfield Dairy Company, owned by Stephen Francisco.

In April 1929 Essex Airport Corporation was formed by Walter Marvin and six other individuals. The intention of the company was to open an airport to serve Montclair, New Jersey, a town seven miles away. The tract of land that Essex Airport Corporation intended for the airport was the Fairfield Dairy Company land that had also been used during WWI as a temporary airfield for the Naval Rifle Range which had been located along the Passaic River in Pine Brook. Some of the early references to airport have the designation “Marvin Airport”, named after Walter Marvin.

In May 1929, soon after the creation of Essex Airport Corporation, Curtiss Airports Corporation acquired Essex Airport Corporation. Since Walter Marvin was also president of Curtiss Airports Corporation at the time, this rapid acquisition was most likely the original intention.

In Sept of 1929 Curtiss-Wright Airport was open to flight operations, and in Oct 1930 a “Grand Opening” air show at the Curtiss-Wright Airport was held.

Caldwell-Wright (1932-1973)

In Sept 1932 Curtiss Airport Corp and Curtiss-Wright Flying Service are shut down and sometime between late 1932 and early 1933 the name of the airport was changed to Caldwell-Wright reflecting the separation of airport operations from the other entities of the corporation. The use of Caldwell within the airport’s name is due to the location of the airport within Caldwell Township. It was not until the early 1950s, that Caldwell Township changed its name to Fairfield in order to avoid being confused with the near-by Caldwell Borough. The reference to “Caldwell Airport” continues to present day and is consistently used by pilots and FAA tower controllers during radio communications.

From Sept 1932 to Jan 1942 White Flying Service was active at airport, providing flight services.

With the impending military buildup prior to America’s entrance to WWII, the demand for aircraft increased, prompting a major expansion of the entire aviation industry. With the formation of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation in July of 1929, the corporation was comprised of three principal divisions; one of the three, the Propeller Division, (originator of the Electric Propeller) was ultimately headquartered at Caldwell-Wright Airport. The Caldwell Plant and headquarter offices of the Propeller Division was opened on April 19, 1941, just 96 days after the groundbreaking. The first 300 men waited as their machines were placed in the factory, so that as soon as the installation was complete, the men could begin work. The Caldwell plant was huge, it covered 380,000 square feet, and was built with the most modern industrial designs available at the time. The entire production area employed 16,950 square feet of actinic glass (tinted glass which absorbs a high percentage of solar radiation) to assure maximum use of sunlight. The air circulation system was capable of a complete change of air every five minutes. During WWII employment at the Caldwell plant grew to approximately 6,000. The rapid expansion of the Propeller Division was seen in the building of the Caldwell plant. Where the plant was originally designed to occupy a floor area of 270,000 square feet, the factory was increased to its final size of 380,000 square feet even before the plant was competed in record time.

In addition to the building of the propeller plant, the airport was expanded to allow for much larger planes to land by enlarging the runways to 4,500 feet. In total Curtiss-Wright supplied 85 percent of the propellers for U.S. aircraft in World War II.

Curtiss-Wright opened the airport for public use in 1965. Originally the tract owned by Curtiss-Wright was in excess of 650 acres. The company gradually began selling parcels of the land for industrial development and by 1973 the airport land remaining was reduced down to 278 acres.

Essex County Airport (1973-present)

Fairfield's largely agricultural community began to change in the 1950's and 1960's with the post war boom and construction of major highways nearby. Development of large residential tracts and a modest amount of single-story industrial space followed. It was in these two decades that Fairfield's development pace had quickened, especially along Route 46 and around the airport. The airport itself, however, did not benefit from that development and was ready to be sold by Curtiss-Wright Corporation in June of 1972 for residential units or industrial development. For the past several years while the land value was appreciating, Curtiss-Wright had been leasing the airport to Fairfield Aviation, who operated the airport. Now that the land value grew, Curtiss-Wright decided to sell off the airport property for $6.5 million.

John Clarey, of Fairfield Aviation (Also President of Aviation Advisory Council of New Jersey) and Harry Hamlen, who was the editor and publisher of Air-List-Ads aviation magazine, and director of the Aviation Advisory Council of New Jersey, were responsible for keeping airport from becoming redeveloped. Hamlen and Clarey were the main drivers in persuading the Essex County Improvement Authority (ECIA) to purchase the airport in 1973.

John Clarey retired as president of Fairfield Aviation in New Jersey in 1978 In December 1983 construction began on the first of two four-story, 80,000-square-foot office buildings located on the east side of the airport.

The ECIA originally had great plans for mixed office and industrial development of the airport's perimeter as well as general overhaul of all runways, hangars and control equipment. However the plans of industrial development had to be abandoned due to wetlands and other environmental issues. A restaurant with an aeronautical theme (94th Bomb Group Restaurant) was built in 1986. This restaurant was very popular up until March 2006 when it closed was torn down. The ECIA has not yet realesed details on what will replace the restaurant, but it will most likely be new airport buildings.

The Essex County Airport gained notoriety when John F. Kennedy, Jr., who based his private aircraft there, crashed after departing the airport en route for Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999.

Now the Airport is under the management of retired Air Force veteran Tom Gomez, and is still operated by the ECIA. The airport has completed a big list of new projects including new hangers, high intensity pilot controlled lighting, PAPI, Rwy 22 repaved and restripped, and many more upgrades to operational status. Taxiways P, D, G, and B have all also been repaved. Future projects for the airport have been yet to be released by airport officals

Currently the airport has three flight schools, two fixed based operators, one aircraft sales company, and several certified service centers for Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft. The FAA Control Tower at Caldwell handles mostly training flights during basic operating hours, however the traffic also includes light and medium jets, helicopters, and private government flights.

Caldwell/Essex County Airport is very likely to be effected by increase in VLJ traffic due to begin in late 2007. The airport is the nearest field to NYC with a runway of 4,553 ft with minimal jet traffic, and no commercial traffic. A direct link to transit makes it the perfect choice for jets traveling to the New York City area, without the delays of larger airports.

Essex County Airport covers 275 acres and has two runways:

• Runway 4/22: 4,553 x 80 ft. (1,388 x 24 m), Surface: Asphalt
• Runway 9/27: 3,721 x 75 ft. (1,134 x 23 m), Surface: Asphalt

Mac Dan Aviation (973)227-1180

Caldwell Air Service (973)808-9047

Located on Wright Way near the north side of the field near both of the FBOs. Hours of operation 0700-2200 (973)575-6448

     119.8 (Tower)
     121.9 (Ground)
     121.5 (Clearance)

Airport Operations 24/7 Main Phone Number: (973)227-4567 Unicom Freq. 122.95 Manager: Thomas R. Gomez

• Transportation in New York City
• List of airports in the New York City area
• Century Air Flight Academy

• FAA Airport Master Record for CDW (Form 5010 PDF)

• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF)
• Essex County Airport at WikiMapia

• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KCDW
  • ASN Accident history for KCDW
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KCDW