Cornelia Fort Airpark was a privately owned, public-use airport located five nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Nashville, in Davidson County, Tennessee, United States. It is named in honor of Nashvillian, Cornelia Fort, the first female pilot to be killed on war duty in American history. The airpark was built in 1945 near her family farm.
The 141-acre airport was located on part of a plot of land granted to early Nashvillian Ephraim McLean for service in the Revolutionary War, near what is still known as McLean's Bend in the Cumberland River in East Nashville. The airport operated from 1944 until 2011, when the city of Nashville acquired it to include it as non-aviation part of Shelby Park.
Cornelia Fort Airpark
Runway at Cornelia Fort Airpark as seen in 2018. The facility was closed in 2011.
The airport's former facilities
Cornelia Clark Fort was an American aviator who became famous for being part of two aviation-related events. The first occurred while conducting a civilian training flight at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when she was the first United States pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the Attack on Pearl Harbor. She and her student narrowly escaped a mid-air collision with the Japanese aircraft and a strafing attack after making an emergency landing.
Cornelia Clark Fort, resting on her plane
An Interstate Cadet airplane.