Columbia Owens Downtown Airport – Columbia, South Carolina

The Columbia Owens Downtown Airport (sometimes called Owens Field) was built in 1929 and served as the area’s primary operating terminal until the 60s. Located in the heart of Columbia‘s historic Rosewood neighborhood, the airport still serves private, business, and military flights.

Pictured above is a fully-restored B-25 bomber outside the famous Curtiss-Wright Hangar. This hangar was the first constructed at the airport and has welcomed many notable visitors to South Carolina including Amelia Earhart and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was added to South Carolina’s National Register of Historic Places on April 30, 1998.

SCIWAY thanks Ann Helms of Spartanburg for this photo. Ann writes, “This B-25 was flown by student pilot Col. Dan Rossman in June 1944 when it crashed into Lake Greenwood. It was pulled out of the lake in 1983 and restored. It has been on display at the Curtiss-Wright Hangar ever since. The hangar and other B-25′s were used for training by Lt. Col. James Doolittle and his ‘Raiders’ prior to the bombing raid over Japan in early 1942 following Pearl Harbor.”