Franklin Center Airport

The airport was a privately owned and operated field (FAA LID: 8PA3). While no single official reason is documented, its closure coincides with the death of its longtime owner/operator, Nick Sukach, in 2003. It is common for small, private airfields like this to cease operations for economic reasons or upon the owner's passing, with the land being repurposed for more profitable uses, which in this case was agriculture.

The airport is permanently closed and no longer exists. The land has been fully converted back into private farmland. The former turf runway area is now tilled and used for crops. Satellite imagery shows that the faint outline of the north/south runway is no longer clearly distinguishable. A long, narrow building on the east side of the property, which was likely the main hangar, appears to be the only significant structure remaining from its time as an airfield.

Franklin Center Airport was a small, private general aviation airfield. It was established sometime between 1946 and 1953, first appearing on the 1953 Cleveland Sectional Chart. For most of its existence, it featured a single unpaved turf runway (Runway 18/36) approximately 2,200 feet long. The airport served local private pilots and was a characteristic example of the numerous small, family-owned grass strips that supported general aviation in rural America throughout the mid-to-late 20th century. It did not handle scheduled commercial traffic or military operations.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airport. The site is privately owned agricultural land, and all aviation infrastructure, aside from one possible former hangar, has been removed.