CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia International Yeager Airport (CRW) is once again welcoming military aircraft to refuel by rapid or “hot” refueling.
The return is part of CRW’s Home Base Program, which attracted over 150 military units from around the country to the airport to fuel in 2021.
Hot refueling is the process of refueling an aircraft while at least one engine is still running, or in a helicopter while the rotors are turning. The Marine Corps. and Navy have been the biggest users of hot refueling in the past, the airport said.
Nick Keller, the director and CEO of CRW told MetroNews said its advantageous to everyone involved.
“They don’t have to shut down and get back in the air quickly. For instance, some aircraft if they have to shut down could take one hour to do a cold refueling. Whereas a hot refuel could take 20 minutes,” Keller said.
Hot refueling stopped at CRW 18 months ago, Keller added. A contract extension was recently approved by the Defense Logistics Agency as hot refueling is heavily regulated.
As a result of the extension, Keller said he hopes to increase the number of units seen in 2022 through the Home Base Program. The public may notice additional military air traffic in the area in the coming months
“We have a good asset at the airport. We want to make sure the asset brings in more revenue, more jobs, more economic impact. As we sell more fuel at the airport, that allows us to hire more employees, that allows more military units to come in,” Keller said.
Keller discussed the hot refueling at the most recent CRW board meeting. He also spoke about the airport working on a United States Economic Development Agency (USEDA) grant application for rehabilitation of a hangar for an aircraft paint shop.
Keller said there has been a preliminary engineering report done to get a cost estimate to retrofit the hangar. He said a possible tenant has already been identified and the funding decision could come in March.
He believed the grant would be for $2 million, which would go towards a new roof for the 22,000 square foot hangar, lighting and office space. The paint shop would provide 27 new full-time jobs within two years of operating and expected to bring in 100 aircraft per year to get painted, Keller added.
“If somebody is having aircraft repaired, they could also have it get painted here. I think that’ll help attract other businesses. We would like to see a company come here that does interiors of aircraft,” Keller said.
Board meeting note: Keller said CRW expects to have an unveil a rebrand of its West Virginia International Airport name and logo in late February.