Airborne Facts

1. First scheduled passenger airline service in the state was Stout Air (Detroit to Grand Rapids)  1926.
2. The nation's first aircraft show attracted 40 exhibitors and was held in Detroit   1928.
3. The first pilot to transport merchandise, drop live bombs from a plane, and search for criminals from the air was Michigan-born Phillip Orin Parmalee of Matherton, Mich. (He died in a flying exhibition at Yakima, Wash., in1912. He also held several world aviation speed and altitude records at the time of his death.)
4. The first county airport to be dedicated by the State Aeronautics Commission was Emmett County Airport   1929.
5. The first licensed municipal airport in Michigan was the Kalamazoo Municipal Airport in December - 1929.
6. The busiest airport in Michigan is Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, in Romulus. It handles more than a half million takeoffs and landings every year.
7. Michigan has 235 airports open to public use, of which 129 are publicly owned and 106 are privately owned.
8. Nineteen Michigan airports have scheduled passenger service.
9. Michigan's commercial airports handle more than 20 million passengers per year.
10. Kim Sigler became the first Michigan governor to hold a pilot's license in 1947. (He died in a plane crash in 1953.)
11. Michigan's first rooftop heliport was located on the Lumberman's Bank Building in Muskegon - 1965.