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Walt Disney World Airport, also known as Lake Buena Vista Airport and Lake Buena Vista STOLport (IATA: DWS), is a former small airfield owned by The Walt Disney Company, located within the Walt Disney World Resort, just east of the former Walt Disney World Speedway, in Bay Lake in Orange County, Florida, United States No longer registered as an active airport by the FAA, ICAO and IATA, the location now serves Walt Disney World as a parking and storage lot.[1]
History[]
Lake Buena Vista Airport was built in 1971 to serve as a STOL airfield for Walt Disney World guests and employees. Additionally, scheduled passenger airline service to Orlando International Airport and Tampa International Airport was provided by Shawnee Airlines, using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft which were STOL capable.[2] Another commuter air carrier which operated scheduled DHC-6 Twin Otter passenger service into the airport was Executive Airlines.[3]The airport was never large, with only enough ramp space at the passenger terminal to accommodate four aircraft at a time; no hangar space was ever built. This STOL airfield was intended as a proof-of-concept for a planned, but was ultimately rejected in favor of a vision for a larger, full-service airport within Walt Disney World itself.[4] All passenger service was discontinued by the 1980s, largely due to extensions of the Walt Disney World Monorail System on either side. As of 2009, flight operations are prohibited by a no-fly zone in place since 2003; however, the runway is fully intact and may be visible to motorists traveling along World Drive toward the Transportation and Ticket Center, as well as by passengers on the monorail.
"The Singing Airport"[]
Originally used to surprise the airplane passengers, the runway featured a set of grooves, like those on the side of a highway, that played "When You Wish Upon a Star" when driven over at roughly 45 miles per hour.[5]
See also[]
References[]
- ↑ "Lake Buena Vista Stolport". Google Maps.
- ↑ "Shawnee Airlines". SunshineSkies.com.
- ↑ "Executive Airlines". SunshineSkies.com.
- ↑ "Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Florida: Southwestern Orlando area". airfields-freeman.com. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
- ↑ ""Singing Runway" at the Abandoned Disney World Airport". Atlas Obscura.
External links[]
- DWS at Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields
- "The short, short life of Disney World's STOLport", Jim Hill
- Yesterland: This Week at Walt Disney World, Summer 1972
- DWS on WikiMapia
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Walt Disney World Airport. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |
