Timothy Bradshaw
FROM COAST… TO AIR Photos and Story by Cory Crouser
Valley Business FRONT introduces Tim Bradshaw, a 2020 advisory board member representing the transportation sector. "The mission of the United States Coast Guard is to ensure our Nation's maritime safety, security and stewardship." – USCG Keep that in mind. We'll circle back. Daylight comes brightly through picture windows into an otherwise modest, corner office. Timothy Bradshaw, executive director of Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport, scoots back in his chair (ensuring social distance), unmasks and smiles a small, contented smile. He gestures toward the window, toward the wide tarmac outside: a pristine plain of asphalt and patchy grass, stretching (it seems) all the way to the distant Blue Ridge. "That's McAfee Knob"— Bradshaw's squinting; he's tracing the contour of the prominent peak with his finger—"and that's Mill Mountain over there... This really must be the best view in Roanoke..."
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t SEPTEMBER 2020 / vbFRONT.com
In time, Bradshaw's gaze comes home, back to the nearer neighborhood and settles, admiringly, on an airplane just-arrived, a white behemoth taxiing slowly toward the gate. "Wana... Wana go outside?" Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport isn't huge. Interrupted (rest assured!) by badgeswipes, code-ins and polite once-overs by airport security, it's only a short walk from Bradshaw's office to the facility's expansive tarmac. "We've got two runways," Bradshaw explains, flagging the driver of a nearby patrol vehicle, "One's longer than the other. We can accommodate some pretty large planes, big freighters. Although most of the passenger flights we have coming through are smaller. Regional." The SUV arrives, lights blinking. "Hey, Dave," Bradshaw grins, as if greeting an old friend,
