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Currituck County Regional Airport (KONX) is a county-owned general aviation field at Maple, North Carolina, on the mainland just inland of the Currituck Sound and the Outer Banks. Built during the Second World War as an emergency military landing strip, it has grown into a busy single-runway airfield serving local flying clubs, based aircraft and tow-plane hang gliding operations with sweeping views of the Atlantic coast.
Currituck County Regional Airport is a publicly owned general aviation airport at Maple, North Carolina, operated by Currituck County. It sits a short distance inland from the Currituck Sound and the northern Outer Banks, making it a convenient staging point for pilots visiting the coast, and its long single hard runway and lack of a control tower make it an easy and interesting stop for visiting VFR traffic.
The airport lies in Crawford Township, Currituck County, North Carolina, about four nautical miles south of the town of Currituck's central business district, roughly 46 miles south of the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and about 25 miles northeast of Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It is an uncontrolled field; the listed approach/departure frequency is provided by Oceana Approach, reflecting the airport's position within reach of military-related air traffic control services in the region.
The airfield has a single physical runway, 05/23, oriented northeast-southwest. It is 5,462 feet long, has a hard surface, and is lit for night operations. There is no ILS approach.
Pilots should monitor the CTAF on 122.9 MHz for traffic advisories, since the field has no operating control tower. An AWOS-3 automated weather observation is available on 119.775 MHz. An approach/departure frequency of 124.825 MHz is listed for Oceana Approach/Departure, relevant for pilots receiving services in the surrounding airspace.
The airfield is located close to the Currituck Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, with the Outer Banks visible to the east; these large bodies of water and the coastline are useful landmarks for pilots approaching from the north or east. The town of Currituck lies a few miles to the north.
The airfield originated around 1942 as Barco Flight Strip, built by the United States Army Air Forces as an emergency landing field for military training flights. It was closed after the Second World War and passed to local government use via the War Assets Administration. Between 1955 and 1959, under the name Maple Airstrip, it hosted drag races, some sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association, until a fatal crash on 22 February 1959, in which driver Earl Layden lost control and struck spectators, killing himself and a bystander and injuring several others; the resulting lawsuit led to the racing lease being terminated. Currituck County subsequently took over airport operations, and the field grew steadily from a handful of based aircraft in the 1960s as the county itself expanded. A twenty-year Airport Improvement Program launched in 2000 extended the runway to its current 5,500-foot length (as built), cleared approach obstructions and added a new terminal building.
Currituck County Regional Airport remains a general aviation field owned and operated by the county, open to the public. As of a 2011 survey it had 37 based aircraft, predominantly single-engine types, with around 25,000 annual aircraft operations split mainly between general aviation and military users. Facilities include self-service fuel and paved tie-downs. The airport terminal has published hours of Monday to Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tow-plane hang gliding flights, operated in association with Kitty Hawk Kites, fly from the field up to around 2,000 feet, giving passengers views over the Currituck Sound, the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding countryside.
