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Witham Field is a busy general-aviation airport on Florida's Treasure Coast, sitting a mile or so southeast of downtown Stuart in Martin County. Once a wartime naval auxiliary air station, it now serves corporate, training and personal aircraft with a control tower and three paved runways. Its compact circuit, uncontrolled-airspace surroundings and coastal position make it a straightforward but interesting VFR destination.
Witham Field, also known as Martin County Airport, lies on Florida's east coast in the city of Stuart. It is a publicly owned, county-operated general aviation airport with no scheduled airline service, hosting corporate aviation, flight training, medical flights and other general aviation activity. The field is notable for its wartime naval history, its later role as a Grumman flight-test and manufacturing site, and its continuing status as home to two fixed-base operators and more than 200 based aircraft, making it a lively but manageable field for the visiting VFR pilot.
Witham Field is located in Martin County, Florida, about one mile southeast of the central business district of Stuart. Approach and departure control in the vicinity is provided by Palm Beach Approach/Departure on 128.3 MHz. The airport has an operating air traffic control tower, so arriving pilots should expect to be worked into controlled aerodrome traffic rather than a purely uncontrolled pattern.
Witham Field has three paved, lit runways. Runway 12/30 is the main runway, with the 30 threshold giving 5,815 feet available and the 12 threshold 5,356 feet, both hard-surfaced. Runway 07/25 offers 4,648 feet in each direction, also hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 16/34 is the shortest, with 4,665 feet available from the 16 threshold and 4,120 feet from the 34 threshold, hard-surfaced; unlike the other two runways it is not noted as lit. There is no ILS at the field. Field elevation is 10 feet.
Stuart Tower provides tower service on 126.6 MHz, which also serves as the CTAF. Ground movements are handled on 121.7 MHz. The airport's ATIS broadcasts on 134.475 MHz, and Palm Beach Approach/Departure works arrivals and departures on 128.3 MHz. There is no ILS approach published for the field.
As a tower-controlled airport, pilots should contact Stuart Tower on 126.6 MHz before entering the traffic pattern, having first obtained the ATIS on 134.475 MHz. Noise has historically been a sensitive issue around Witham Field, and a Noise Abatement Departure Profile has been developed for the airport; visiting pilots should be mindful of overflying residential areas, particularly on departure.
Witham Field lies close to the city of Stuart, on Florida's Treasure Coast, providing a readily identifiable coastal reference for pilots approaching from over the Atlantic or the Indian River Lagoon area. No specific published visual reporting points are detailed in available sources.
The airport's origins lie in the early build-up to the Second World War, when private landowners offered land to Martin County to establish an airfield, originally known as MacArthur Field. It was later renamed Witham Field in honour of enlisted Naval Aviation Pilot First Class Paul "Homer" Witham, the first Naval Aviator from Stuart to be killed in the war. In October 1942 Martin County leased the 900-acre site to the federal government, and the US Navy took over operation as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Witham Field, investing some 10 million dollars to build a modern naval air station serving as an auxiliary training field to Naval Air Station Vero Beach for Navy and Marine Corps aviators flying carrier-based and land-based fighters and light bombers. The Navy decommissioned the station on 1 July 1947 and returned the property to the county. During the 1950s and 1960s Grumman Aircraft Corporation leased much of the site as "Plant 77", using it for flight-testing and manufacture of parts for aircraft including the Army's OV-1 Mohawk and various Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard types. Grumman scaled back its presence in 1994, returning most of the property, including responsibility for the control tower, to Martin County. The airport also once had scheduled passenger service, with Air Florida operating flights to West Palm Beach and, via a one-stop routing, Miami in the mid-1980s.
Witham Field is now operated by Martin County as a general aviation airport supporting corporate aviation, flight training, medical flights and other general aviation activity, with no scheduled airline service. It retains an operational air traffic control tower and is home to two fixed-base operators and more than 200 based private and business aircraft. The field hosts the annual Stuart Air Show each November. An engineered materials arresting system has been under installation at the end of the main runway, 12/30, to help prevent overruns. Given the level of activity and any local procedures in force, prior permission may be required for some operations; pilots should confirm requirements before arrival.
