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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Macon Downtown Airport

airport in Macon, Georgia, 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 revisionJul 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ6724863 ↗
Source-derived summary

Macon Downtown Airport (IATA: MAC, ICAO: KMAC, FAA LID: MAC) is a city-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles (3.5 mi, 5.6 km) southeast of the central business district of Macon, in Bibb County, Georgia, United States. It was formerly named Herbert Smart Downtown Airport. The airport is included in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility. It has no scheduled commercial airline service, though historically it was utilized by Eastern Air Lines and Delta Air Lines before they relocated their point of service for the Macon area to Middle Georgia Regional Airport.

History

Macon Downtown Airport has its origins beginning in World War I as "Camp Wheeler". As early as 1925, Huff Daland Dusters, the precursor of Delta Air Lines, based its crop dusting operation at Camp Wheeler. In 1936 the City of Macon purchased 250 acres (100 ha) of airfield for $107,000 to replace its inadequate "Miller Field" to support Eastern Air Transport's passenger and mail service to Macon. Then the Works Project Administration began a $500,000 project that included a hangar, a 24-foot (7.3 m) by 56 feet (17 m), administration building, and a concrete apron. The new airport was dedicated on November 11, 1937, and named in honor of the mayor, Herbert Smart.

With the defense buildup in 1940 the Army reactivated Camp Wheeler, adjacent to Smart Field, in March 1941.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Macon Downtown Airport” is airport in Macon, Georgia, United States of America. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Macon, Downtown and Airport, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost useful as a place-based finding aid connecting the present description to earlier jurisdictions, maps and built evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2011, 2015, 1925, 1936—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Macon, Downtown and Airport is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “airport in Macon, Georgia, United States of America” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6724863. Authority coordinates are 32.822, -83.562. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011, 2015, 1925 and 1936.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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 “Macon Downtown Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Macon Downtown Airport primary sources, Macon Downtown Airport archive and Macon 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 “Macon Downtown Airport”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Macon Downtown 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.