National Hospital for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation Heliport

Hospital consolidation and site redevelopment. The National Hospital for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation was acquired by and merged into the larger Arlington Hospital system. The original hospital building at 2455 Army Navy Drive, along with its associated heliport, was eventually demolished to make way for the expansion and modernization of the campus, which is now part of VHC Health.

The site of the former hospital and its heliport has been completely redeveloped. The coordinates now point to the modern VHC Health campus. Specifically, the location is occupied by the VHC Health Outpatient Pavilion and its associated parking structures, which opened in 2023. The original hospital building and the US-10494 heliport no longer exist.

The heliport was a private-use facility that exclusively served the National Hospital for Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. Its primary and critical function was to support medical evacuation (medevac) operations. It allowed for the rapid air transport of patients with severe orthopedic injuries or those requiring specialized rehabilitative care, transferring them from accident scenes or other medical facilities. As a specialized hospital in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, the heliport was an integral part of the regional emergency medical services network.

There are no prospects for reopening this specific heliport. The physical site has been built over with new, large-scale medical buildings. Helicopter services for the hospital are now handled by the modern, active VHC Health Heliport (FAA identifier: 9VA9), which is located atop the main VHC Health hospital tower nearby, making the original heliport both physically gone and functionally obsolete.