About 200 people assembled on a windy Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the groundbreaking of Winchester Regional Airport’s new terminal building. With a golden shovel and a white hard hat, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears dug into the soft dirt and tossed it aside with hearty laugh. She was one of several prominent officials who participated in the ceremony on March 1st.

The Lt. Governor harkened back to the past to stress the importance of the new terminal building: “This is what we need here. We need every hand to the plow to get things done… This airport certainly is what we might call new technology. Why? Because, in the past we all wanted the railroads… When the railroads came to town you had a town.”

Since the dawn of aviation, the land around Winchester Regional Airport has been a witness to history. Proudly displayed in the foyer of the terminal is a scale model of the first aircraft to fly in the area – a Curtiss Model D. This early biplane was built from wood and fabric and more closely resembles a box kite than an aircraft. The airport, known in the aviation world as OKV, was first granted a state license in 1937. The airport is run by the Winchester Regional Airport Authority with board members from the City of Winchester and the counties of Frederick, Shenandoah, Clarke and Warren.

In addition to the groundbreaking ceremony, children from the Clarke County School system visited the airport for a lesson in the Virginia Department of Aviation’s (DOAV) ICON A5 aircraft. The students investigated the unique design elements of the amphibious, pusher-propelled aircraft with the educators of the DOAV. As a parting gift, they also received balsa wood gliders to investigate the science of flight on their own.

Winchester Regional Airport’s new “terminal of the future” is slated to be completed in 2025.