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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Dothan Regional Airport

airport in Alabama, United States of America

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1656166 ↗
Source-derived summary

Dothan Regional Airport (IATA: DHN, ICAO: KDHN, FAA LID: DHN) is a public airport in Dale County, Alabama, United States, seven miles northwest of Dothan, a city mostly in Houston County.

The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 called it a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year). Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 47,859 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2008, 42,071 in 2009 and 41,453 in 2010.

The only commercial airline service is provided by three times daily Delta Connection flights to Atlanta using CRJ-700 and CRJ-900 aircraft. Over 50% of Dothan's flights are military training operations from nearby Fort Rucker, NAS Whiting Field, and NAS Pensacola, while just under 40% are general aviation.

History

In 1941 the United States Army Air Corps built Napier Field, named in honor of Major Edward L. Napier of Union Springs, Alabama. One of the Army's first flight surgeons, he was killed in the crash of a Fokker D.VII, AS-5382, at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, on 15 September 1923. He had been a Medical Corps Officer in World War I and had transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was receiving training as a flight surgeon at the time of his death. The official report states that he was piloting the plane himself and there was a structural failure of a wing.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Dothan Regional Airport” as airport in Alabama, United States of America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 2015, 2008, 2009—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Dothan, Regional and Airport can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as airport in Alabama, United States of America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1656166. Authority coordinates are 31.321, -85.449. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2015, 2008 and 2009.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dothan Regional Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dothan Regional Airport primary sources, Dothan Regional Airport archive and Dothan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Dothan Regional Airport”?
  2. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Dothan Regional Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.