Dare County Regional Airport

Dare County Regional Airport occupies a landscape where coastal geography and wartime necessity once converged. Built as the U.S. Navy redirected its plans after Pearl Harbor, the airfield became Naval Auxiliary Air Station Manteo in March 1943, sharing its facilities with the Civil Air Patrol. From its runways, Navy and Coast Guard aircraft conducted anti-submarine patrols off the vulnerable Atlantic approaches, while squadrons trained in types such as Wildcats, Hellcats, Corsairs, Helldivers, Avengers, and Catalinas—airframes central to carrier warfare and maritime patrol in the Second World War. After the station entered caretaker status in late 1945 and was disestablished in 1947, the site transitioned back to county control, later overseen by the Dare County Airport Authority. Today, the small on-field museum documents the evolution of aviation on the Outer Banks and the airport’s own naval chapter, presenting photographs, models, and local stories that connect routine general aviation activity with its former role in coastal defense. Set amid the waters and inlets of Roanoke Island, the airfield remains a functioning piece of infrastructure layered over a distinctly wartime past.