Moraine Airpark
The Moraine Airpark was called South Dayton Airport which was originally located on Stroop Road and Lamme Road from 1941-1954. The hangars that are directly behind the Moraine Airpark office were relocated from the South Dayton Airport. The airport moved to its current location in 1955. It was incorporated and called Moraine Airpark in 1970. The year 2025 celebrates the 70th Anniversary of the Moraine Airpark. The Airpark is a public use, privately owned, airport offering aviation fuel, aircraft parking, flight training, simulator training, aircraft rental, aircraft maintenance and aerial tours.
The Moraine Airpark is noted for several world record accomplishments.
The EAA Chapter 48 Sunday Funday Fly-In, now held on the first Sunday in May, began in 1959 making it the nation’s longest running same day EAA Chapter fly-in at the same location in EAA History. Over 4,000 people attended the 1959 event. The event offers food, aviation related booths and a large assortment of homebuilt, classic, and vintage airplanes.
Former Mayor of Moraine and Moraine Airpark Manager, Harold Johnson, and his red 1934 UMF-3 WACO biplane have two significant world records. Johnson set the record for the longest continuous airshow flights as he flew at the Kings Island Amusement Park in Mason seven nights a week for seven straight years – that’s 2,557 shows from 1974 to 1981. Johnson performed in a mock Red Baron and Snoopy dogfight airshow. Piloting a black 1940 UPF-7 WACO were either Bobby Wagner, Mike Brown, Steve Duncan or Darrell Montgomery.
Johnson’s WACO plane also has the most flight time than any other WACO biplane in existence with over 14,000 hours in the air. Johnson’s biplane is now on display at the WACO Air Museum in Troy, Ohio.
Miami River flooding was always a risk in the Miami Shores neighborhood. In 1959, fifty inches of water covered the airpark’s grass runway and hangars. When the river eventually receded, it left behind large amounts of mud. A levy was soon built along the river in Moraine and West Carrollton that surrounds three sides of the airpark and protects it from future flooding.