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Aeronautical Facts
Aeronautical Facts
- First scheduled passenger airline service in the state was Stout Air (Detroit to Grand Rapids) in 1926.
- The nation's first aircraft show attracted 40 exhibitors and was held in Detroit in 1928.
- 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.
- The first county airport to be dedicated by the State Aeronautics Commission was Emmett County Airport in 1929.
- The first licensed municipal airport in Michigan was the Kalamazoo Municipal Airport in December 1929.
- 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.
- Michigan has 235 airports open to public use, of which 129 are publicly owned and 106 are privately owned.
- Nineteen Michigan airports have scheduled passenger service.
- Michigan's commercial airports handle more than 20 million passengers per year.
- Kim Sigler became the first Michigan governor to hold a pilot's license in 1947.
- Michigan's first rooftop heliport was located on the Lumberman's Bank Building in Muskegon in 1965.