The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners has approved a resolution giving the Cherokee County Regional Airport the honorary name of Coleman D. Sutton Airfield after the pilot, instructor and aircraft mechanic who for 30 years was fixed-base operator there.
According to a history provided by the Cherokee County Airport Authority, Sutton served 20 years with the U.S. Air Force and was a Vietnam veteran. After retiring from the military, he opened S&S Aviation in the Ball Ground airport’s sole hangar in 1984.
Sutton fixed airplanes, taught people to fly, and established a partnership with the airport authority to manage the facility, an arrangement continued today by his business partner, Jimmy Garland.
As S&S Aviation grew and prospered, it leased two more hangars and ramp space from the airport authority and eventually built its own hangars. More than 100 planes are now based at the airport, valued in excess of than $9 million and paying more than $108,000 in ad valorem taxes to the county.
Sutton died June 21 at the age of 78.
