Cincinnati–Blue Ash Airport

Blue Ash Airport , also known as Cincinnati–Blue Ash Airport, was a public airport located in Blue Ash, Ohio, United States, but owned by the City of Cincinnati. Located northeast of downtown Cincinnati, it served as a general aviation reliever for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Established in 1921, the airfield was one of the first in operation in the United States, and it became Ohio's first municipal airport when Cincinnati purchased it in 1946. For decades, it was eyed as a potential future site for Cincinnati's primary commercial airport, spurring construction of Cross County Highway, but efforts to develop the site repeatedly failed. In the 1970s, much of the property around the airfield was converted into an industrial park and golf course. Cincinnati eventually sold about half of the remaining airfield to the City of Blue Ash and permanently closed the facility on August 29, 2012, despite local efforts to keep it operational. In 2017, Cincinnati sold the remaining land and runway to Al. Neyer, which is building a mixed-use development on the site. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Blue Ash Airport was assigned I77 and later ISZ by the FAA but had no designation from the IATA. Blue Ash Airport's history began in 1921 with a dirt runway located off Cooper Road, in then-unincorporated Sycamore Township, on land that has since been converted into an industrial park. The first Cincinnati–Chicago airmail flight took off from this field. On August 5, 1922, it was dedicated as Grisard Field, after Cincinnati-area pilot Lt. John K. Grisard, who was shot down in France during World War I. The following year, the Grisard Field Company leased the field to Maj. Hugh Watson, a barnstormer and former Army flight instructor, and his brother Parks. They were joined by John Paul Riddle and, in 1924, T. Higbee Embry. The company owned two Curtiss JN-4 biplanes. In its early days, the airfield's grass runways served general aviation, airmail operations, and the 359th Army Reserve Observation Squadron.