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Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields

153 points by wizardforhire

by crnakfls

2 subcomments

My grandfather ran one of these airports:
https://airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanBernardino_...
The stories he would tell of that place. Drug runners landing in the night and him chasing them off with a shotgun. People constantly coming around to try and steal things. The people that would fly in to say hello. He had a real community out there. There were some sad circumstances around the end of his life that meant he couldn't run it the way it should have been run and it fell into decay. My family sold it after his passing as the cost and complexity to run such an airport so far from everything was too much (on top of none of us being pilots). It was a sad event. These days I think it's a solar farm.

by royskee

1 subcomments

I'm glad this site is still up as I haven't looked at it in many years. I used to be based out of W32, Hyde Field and got out during the sale/bankruptcy a few years ago. The recent photos of the place there do a good job capturing the scene of decay. It had essentially no online presence, but there was an active and very good aircraft maintenance shop there until the end. https://airfields-freeman.com/MD/Airfields_MD_PG_S.htm

by ultrarunner

2 subcomments

It’s a poignant phenomenon that so many airfields used to exist. People now complain endlessly to get long-established fields shut down *, but red tape keeps any new ones from opening.
* It is important to note that usually, something like 98% of noise complaints come from 1-2 individuals, even in areas with thousands of residents.

by user_7832

2 subcomments

I love the concept and upvoted but I really wish there was a [USA] tag. I'm on the other side of the world and I clicked, wondering if there are any airfields near where I live. I am still wondering.
(Side note to those who might know: beyond Juhu Aerodrome, does anyone know of any other such small airfields nearby?

by hadlock

0 subcomment

I've used this website to add a bunch of additional airfields in my (non-commercial, personal/hobby) flight sim that has procedurally generated runways, in the bay area specifically, so guy if you're reading this, thanks! Adds a lot of additional color to my sim flying experience.

by xeroedouttwice

1 subcomments

I discovered this website in the mid-2000s when I was obsessing over the history of a former airfield (Stengel Airport). This site combined with Google Earth got me hooked on aerial photography (also worthy of mention- USGS EarthExplorer, and FDOT APLUS). Very glad to see the site mentioned.

by boguscoder

0 subcomment

It would still help to add “in US” to the title

by phillc73

1 subcomments

For the UK, there's a handy Wikipedia page with 57 defunct airports listed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Defunct_airports_in_E...
And also specifically former RAF stations (stations, airports and headquarters):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_Royal_Air_Force...

by mauvehaus

0 subcomment

What are the criteria for inclusion on this site? In no particular order I have a couple that could be added:
Plymouth Municipal in Plymouth, NH. GA grass strip, I believe. Follow the signs towards Quincy Bog from 93. If you go through a covered bridge shortly after turning off 25, you're on the right road.
Blueberry Hill in Western MA. Private grass strip. Former(?) home of The Cookie Lady. PYO Blueberries. About 10 miles north of Upper Goose Pond cabin on the Appalachian Trail. Northbound hikers will appreciate it greatly if southbound hikers bring blueberries for the pancakes the next morning.
Post Mills, VT. Grass strip, has very active soaring and ballooning communities. Home to the Vermontasaurus and a great deal of other folk art-type stuff. Worth a trip if you're in our particular middle of nowhere already. No, I did not know Brian Boland. He died before we moved to the area.
Tonopah, NV is on there. I spent a night with my tent pitched in their hangar (with permission) in 2006 bike touring out west. That one remains active.
Post Mills is most definitely active and they release sailplane tows over our house regularly. Often you can find someone setting up for a baloon flight on a nice morning. I've driven by Plymouth Municipal a bunch going to and from Rumney for climbing when I lived in Boston, and there were a bunch of planes last time I did that. Haven't been by Blueberry Hill in a while, but sure was happy to gorge myself on blueberries on my way to Katahdin in 2010!

by rhipitr

0 subcomment

I got diverted to Roswell once and it was very cool flying in and seeing the airplane graveyard there. Not sure it’s little known but it was to me.

by HeyLaughingBoy

0 subcomment

This is really cool.
Every so often I see a yellow Piper Cub flying by just above window height (we live on top of a hill with no obstructions nearby) and I've wondered if it was flying out of a nearby airfield that I had never seen but saw signs for.
It turns out that airfield is now closed, but as I was browsing, I came across a photo of a yellow Cub at another nearby airfield. Wrong angle to see reg. numbers but I wonder if it's the same one?

by AMerrit

0 subcomment

I grew up near an abandoned WWII era airfield. I have fond memories of first learning to drive by going out and blasting along the runway, had to avoid a few spots where trees had grown up through cracks in the tarmac, but it didn't matter if I stalled out the truck and I could get it up to a good speed.

by pietro72ohboy

0 subcomment

I jumped randomly to New York and then New York State: Central which has a delightful Ford ad advertising a plane joyride with an additional text stating that if you buy a car now or make a bonafide order for one to be delivered soon, you can have this joyride for free.

by andrehacker

0 subcomment

Very nice. I checked and, yes, my favorite is on there:
“The Santa Rosa Air Center was used to film Bruce Willis' 'Die Hard 2' in 1990
according to an article in the July 22 [2009] issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
The airport was used to depict [Washington] Dulles [International Airport] in the movie"

by therockspush

0 subcomment

Have this bookmarked.
I love the Crissy Field section, considering what it is now and how recently it was being used.
https://airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_SanFran.htm#cr...

by peterspath

4 subcomments

I adore this kind of websites. Dedicated to a lifelong hobby. We need more of that.

by tlb

1 subcomments

England also has a lot of disused airfields, often with huge hangers and stupendous concrete runways built during WWII. A few are open as museums. They can be worth a quick visit.

by NoSalt

0 subcomment

If the developer is here in this post, PLEASE orient your state listings properly.

by brunoTbear

0 subcomment

I was very sad to see several north new jersey airports on this list.

by ehayes

0 subcomment

Thanks for burning a couple hours of my day

by dhosek

0 subcomment

I both love and hate the 90s web design of the page. Looking through my local area (Chicago near-west suburbs), it appears to be missing two airfields that used to be nearby: Cicero Field (which is mentioned but not listed) and another one that used to be in Forest Park (which is not even mentioned).
I didn’t know about the field that used to be in La Grange, whose location is now a gravel pit (which, combined with another one on the other side of Joliet Road is responsible for the closure of a stretch of historic Route 66 although the gravel pit operators insist that despite quarrying to within a dozen feet of the roadway on either side, they aren’t responsible for the subsistence of the road.

by Liftyee

1 subcomments

I read about the clandestine midnight destruction of Meigs Field, Chicago - somehow the first one I happened upon. The mayor had the runway bulldozed in the night so that no one could have time to object. Unbelievable and mildly infuriating story.
Apparently the main motivation was to have a legacy...