Originally published at: Local Control Over Public-Use Airports Tested in Lawsuit
New Jersey zoning dispute has implications for general aviation.
Thank you AvWeb for reporting on this issue. The founder of the Solberg airport was Thor Solberg. He was the first to fly from NY to Norway (1935). Solberg’s airfield was out in NJ’s farmland. Solberg-Hunterdon became an airport officially in 1941 and during WW2 it was a training field for U.S. military flyers. A vision of Mr. Solberg’s that was never realized was the development of N51 into a reliever airport for Newark, and possibly others. This history may have little bearing on current regulatory challenges, but residential opponents of the airport should be mindful of how N51 was an active airport for many decades before the area became enveloped by NJ’s rural suburbs!