Essex Skypark is a publicly owned general aviation airport and seaplane base located in Baltimore County, Maryland, on the Back River Neck Peninsula off the Chesapeake Bay. It is approximately three miles southeast of Baltimore, Maryland and just south of Martin State Airport.FacilitiesThe 48 acre airport is surrounded by 588 acres of undisturbed and pristine wetlands and heavy forest. As the last light general aviation airport in Baltimore County, the airpark offers a 2,084 by 28 foot asphalt runway and a 3,000 by 300 foot water runway. Local aviation enthusiast use it to fly single engine airplanes, ultralights, seaplanes, banner towing, and Radio controlled aircraft. Essex Skypark has been an operating public use airport for over 60 years.Early historyAviation enthusiast William Diffendahl carved the airpark out of local farmland in the late 1930s and early 1940s and it was used by aviation enthusiasts from the working communities around the Baltimore Glenn L. Martin Company plant that built the Martin M-130 flying boat, the Martin B-26 Marauder bomber and other aircraft in the 1940s. A 1947 Maryland Airport Directory listed the airport as having two intersecting grass runways: a north–south strip 2,200 feet in length and an east–west strip 1,800 feet in length. Buildings on the airport (which was owned and operated by Isabelle Diffendahl) included an administration building, a 44-foot by 60-foot hangar as well as eight t-hangars. The early years were very good to the airport with more than 200 pilots calling the field their homeport. These pilots included crop dusters, air traffic reporters, traveling salesmen, daredevils and more.
