Dane County Regional Airport (DCRA) , also known as Truax Field, is a civil-military airport located northeast of downtown Madison, Wisconsin. In the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2023–2027, it is one of 2 airports in Wisconsin that is categorized as a small-hub primary commercial service facility; the other is Appleton International Airport. It is the second busiest of eight commercial airports in Wisconsin in terms of passengers served, after Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. History In 1927, the City of Madison purchased 290 acres of land for $35,380. Previously a cabbage patch for a nearby sauerkraut factory, the newly-acquired land would later become the present-day home of the Dane County Regional Airport. In January 1936, the city council voted to accept a Works Progress Administration grant for the construction of four runways and an airplane hangar. Additional grants financed the terminal and administrative building as well as electric floodlights. The development price tag was $1 million – 10% paid by the city and the remainder by the federal government (MSN Airport, 2012). In September 1938, Barnstormer Howard Morey of Chicago; Edgar Quinn; and J.J. McMannamy organized the Madison Airways Corporation. The airport was renamed Truax Field and activated as a U.S. Army Air Corps airfield in June 1942 during World War II. During the war, it was used by the Army Air Corps Eastern Technical Training Center, a major school operating at Truax AAF for training radio operators and mechanics, and the airport later expanded to training in radar operations, control tower operations, and other communications fields for the Army Airways Communication Service. A unit established in 1943 trained radio operators and mechanics on B-29 Superfortress communications equipment. The host unit on the airfield was the 334th (later 3508th) Army Air Corps Base Unit. On September 17, 1945, the airfield's mission was changed to that of a separation center and it was closed as an active AAF airfield on November 30, 1945. Conveyed to local civil authorities, the Madison Municipal Airport became the home to the 1st Battalion 147th Aviation Regiment. The 1-147th operates the UH-60M Blackhawk Helicopter and has deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The airport is also home to the Wisconsin Air National Guard and its present-day 115th Fighter Wing (115 FW), an Air National Guard fighter wing operationally gained by the Air Combat Command (ACC). Today, the Air National