The Brigham City airport used to be not much more than a building and a wind sock.
But rapid growth in northern Utah - and plans for a new satellite landing system - are changing that.With more than 20,000 takeoffs and landings a year, the airport is seeing increasing use by plane owners from Ogden and Salt Lake City who want to avoid crowding in those areas, said airport manager Bruce Leonard.
"My office is continually receiving phone calls from people who are wondering if there are hangars," Leonard said.
Even with winter settling in, welders are busy erecting the framework for at least two new hangars.
Suppliers for Morton International's automotive airbag facility regularly use the airport, as do corporate jets from Morton, Thiokol and other companies.
The Federal Aviation Administration recently made the Brigham City airport one of only 18 in the country to get a new Global Positioning Satellite landing system. The system uses information from satellites ringing the Earth to allow airplanes to make instrument landings.
The city's airport master plan, just completed in June, now will have to be redone. Leonard said the new system can only mean more business. He said the FAA selected the airport because its borders are virtually undeveloped.
Wetlands border the airport on three sides, unlike Ogden's airport, which is hemmed in by Roy and Ogden development.
The system, which should be installed in the next five years, will require some changes. The runway will have to be widened to 100 feet, meaning some of the facilities at the airport have had to move.
"With the news of the GPS system we had a surge of new growth for hangar development last summer," Leonard said. More than $600,000 was invested by developers.
The federal government has a fund for airport development that the city can tap with a 5 percent match. That means for five cents from Brigham City, plus another five cents from the state, the airport can get 90 cents from the federal government.
"This last summer we were able to acquire about $80,000 from the federal government to support the growth we had up here," he said.
Bill Bridges, owner of "The Flight Shop," a repair facility at the airport, built a huge new hangar and office.
One of five authorized repair dealers in the nation for Aerostar airplanes, he's been at the Brigham City airport for 17 years and sees only growth ahead.