NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – The New Smyrna Beach Airport plans to display a World War II-era aircraft catapult that was recently unearthed during a taxiway rehabilitation project.
Pilots training in New Smyrna Beach during World War II would have been launched into flight with such hardware, which was found March 13 by the rehabilitation project’s construction team, according to a city spokesperson.
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A diagram of the airfield dating back to 1945 was a perfect match in location and orientation to where aircraft catapult was found, the city said on social media. In wartime, the area was used as an outlying training field for Naval Air Station Daytona, the post states.
“Unearthing this piece of local history — buried for 80 years — is truly exciting for us,” Airport Manager Arvin Weese said in a statement. “We are committed to preserving and showcasing a portion of it for future generations to appreciate.”
The current plan is to display the aircraft catapult at the airport’s administration building, located at 602 Skyline Drive, sometime in the near future, the spokesperson said.
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