Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport , formerly known as Hernando County Airport, is a joint civil-military public airport located southwest of the central business district of Brooksville, a city in Hernando County, Florida, United States. It is owned by Hernando County and is north of Tampa. While having consistent growth in its traffic rate, it does not yet serve the public through commercial airlines, but it does have charter and executive service. This airport is assigned a three-letter location identifier of BKV by the Federal Aviation Administration, but it does not have an International Air Transport Association (IATA) airport code. Facilities and aircraft Brooksville–Tampa Bay Regional Airport covers an area of which contains two concrete paved runways: 9/27 measuring 7,002 x 150 ft (2,134 x 46 m) and 3/21 measuring 5,015 x 150 ft (1,529 x 46 m). On October 15, 2012, the airport opened a Level I FAA contractor operated air traffic control tower, the first time the airport has had an operational control tower since it was Brooksville Army Airfield during World War II. For the 12-month period ending November 7, 2001, the airport had 49,000 aircraft operations, an average of 134 per day: 98% general aviation, 1% military and 1% air taxi. There are 108 aircraft based at this airport: 83% single engine, 7% multi-engine, 5% helicopters, 3% ultralights and 2% jet aircraft. History Hernando County Airport was opened in November 1942 by the United States Army Air Forces. Known as Brooksville Army Airfield, it was used as part of the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics (AAFSAT) tactical combat simulation school in Central and Northern Florida. Headquartered at Orlando Army Air Base, AAFSAT's mission was to develop tactics and techniques of aerial warfare and to establish technical and tactical proficiency requirements for combat units to effectively engage and defeat enemy air forces. This was done with a wide variety of aircraft, including heavy strategic bombers, tactical fighters, medium and light bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and dive bombers, based at different airfields of the school. AAFSAT used Brooksville as a heavy and medium bomber training base, assigning the following squadrons to the airfield: 1st Bombardment Squadron, December 15, 1942 – February 25, 1944 (B-17 Flying Fortress) 5th Bombardment Squadron, January 6-February 25, 1944, (B-24 Liberator), (B-25 Mitchell) 99th Bombardment Squadron, January 5-February 25, 1944 (B-25 Mitchell), (B-26 Marauder) 430th Bombardment Squadron, January 6-February 25, 1944 (B-24 Liberator), (B-25