Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Massachusetts: Southwestern Boston area

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:

Massachusetts: Southwestern Boston area

Canton Airport / Massachusetts Air Terminal / Boston Metropolitan Airport (revised 9/27/06)

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Canton Airport / Massachusetts Air Terminal / Boston Metropolitan Airport, Canton, MA

42.17 North / 71.16 West (Southwest of Boston, MA)

"Massachusetts Air Terminal", as depicted on the 1934 U.S. Navy Aviation Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

This former general aviation airport was originally known as the Canton Airport.

In 1930, Massachusetts Air Terminal & Arena paid the cost of engineering

in an effort to develop the property as an airport.

It was estimated that the airport would cost $385,000

and take seven months of open weather to build.

The area selected was tested during the summer & found to be more than suitable.

It was naturally flat & had its own supply of gravel.

With a transportation terminal, industrial sites, and the nearby railroad,

it had the potential of being one of the greatest airports in the country.

The group became known as the Boston Metropolitan Airport, Inc.,

and from the sale of bonds four gravel runways were constructed in 1931.

American Airways constructed a hangar & an administration building on the property

along with E.W. Wiggins Airways.

One of the major features of the facility was to be a tethering structure for dirigibles

which would serve as a base for transatlantic traffic.

The 1930s were a very exciting time for the fledgling little airport,

including a visit from Charles Lindbergh.

The field was depicted as the "Massachusetts Air Terminal"

on the 1934 U.S. Navy Aviation Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

The 1934 Department of Commerce Airport Directory (according to Chris Kennedy)

listed the field as Boston Metropolitan Airport,

and described it as having four gravel runways.

Boston Metropolitan, as depicted on a 1935 Regional Aeronautical Chart (courtesy of Scott O'Donnell).

The huge airship Hindenberg conducted practice approaches at Boston Metropolitan.

After the destruction of the Hindenburg in New Jersey & the decline in the use of the dirigibles,

plans for a transatlantic dirigible base at Boston Metropolitan were dropped.

During the years of the depression, the airport failed to grow as expected,

but air shows & other demonstrations drew large crowds.

The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo)

described Boston Metropolitan as having 4 sod runways, with the longest being the 2,500' northwest/southeast strip.

The aerial photo in the directory depicted 2 hangars on the southwest corner of the field.

An aerial view looking southwest at Boston Metropolitan Airport,

from The Airport Directory Company's 1938 Airports Directory (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

The directory described Boston Metropolitan in the same manner as the 1937 directory had.

The 1941 USGS topo map labeled the site simply as "Airport", but did not depict any runways.

An undated (circa early 1940s?) aerial view looking northwest at 5 hangars at Canton Airport (courtesy of Roger Pinel),

two of which bear “ E.W. Wiggins Airways” legends.

Seven biplanes & monoplanes were visible on the field.

During WW2 the airport was part of the defense system & flight training program along the East coast.

It was during this time that the Canton Airport came into competition

with Bedford Airport for government contracts & expansion.

Bedford won the competition because the overall geographic area was more suitable,

and today it is still a busy, active concern.

The failure of the town to modernize Canton Airport guaranteed its death.

Boston Metropolitan, as depicted on the November 1944 Boston Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

In 1946, Wiggins Airways moved across the river to Norwood where it remains today.

The last aircraft related company at Canton Airport was Helio Aircraft Corporation.

In the late 1940s, Otto Koppen of MIT & Dr. Lynn Bollinger of Harvard

developed the first Helioplane experimental prototype, a short take off & landing (STOL) light aircraft.

The two college professors noted the precipitous drop-off

of the earlier high demand for light airplanes in the immediate post war years

and determined that the market for the standard light planes

that required a normal airport had been grossly overestimated.

The two professors correctly assessed that a major part of the problem

was the unfulfilled postwar promise of an airplane in every garage.

They felt that the ability to land in your own back yard,

providing you had a big one, was an achievable goal.

Thus they conceived the idea of an inexpensive STOL light airplane that was controllable at very low flight speeds.

The professors arranged for Greater Boston Metropolitan Airport fixed base operator,

E.W. Wiggins Airways & volunteers to convert a Piper PA-17 Vagabond to the two-place Helio No.1.

The only unmodified part of the Vagabond was the fuselage cabin area.

The original engine was replaced with a fuel-injected 85 hp Continental

fitted with a multi-belt reduction unit that drove a specially designed nine-foot Koppers Aeromatic propeller.

This extra large diameter propeller with its large thrust component was a major contributor to the success of the Helio-1.

The propeller's wide slipstream coverage of the wing slats & slotted flaps

provided a substantial added lift component during the take-off, landing and the slow/near hover flight regimes.

The wing had a complete array of the high lift devices available at that time,

including leading edges with retractable full span Handley Page automatic slats

and trailing edges with the equivalent of full-span slotted flaps.

The ailerons could be drooped in the slow speed configuration to act as flaps & still perform for banking purposes.

Most of these devices had been individually demonstrated previously

but Professor Koppen was the first in the United States to successfully

take advantage of the synergism of their combined capabilities.

The successful first flight was in 1949.

While the Helio-1 had a top speed slightly faster than the Vagabond,

its slow speed capability of 30 mph was far superior to any fixed wing aircraft available at that time.

The takeoff, landing and slow speed performance was spectacular.

Its takeoff roll was less than 100 feet & the distance to clear a 50 foot obstacle was less that 300 feet.

The Helio Aircraft Corporation had initially planned to market the two-place version

but the market saturation of lightplanes caused the company to redirect its efforts.

The aircraft in every garage remained a dream

and so the four-place Courier, with more utility & payload,

was developed for both the civilian & military markets.

The Courier was certified by the Civil Aeronautics Administration in 1953.

In 1956, the company merged with Mid-States Manufacturing Corporation of Pittsburgh, Kansas.

The Canton location was then primarily research & development with some limited amounts of construction.

At one point, the Helio company employed about 46 people in Canton.

The last depiction which has been located of Canton as an active airport

was a November 1956 aerial view by Mark L. Thaisz of Col-East, Inc.

It showed the 3 hangars on the field, along with the 4 unpaved runways.

Only 2 aircraft were visible parked outside on the field.

Boston Metropolitan Airport apparently closed at some point between 1956-59,

as it was no longer depicted at all on the 1959 Boston Local Aeronautical Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).

Helio’s first plane manufactured in Canton went into the Smithsonian Institute in Washington in 1963.

The Helio company remained in Canton until 1964 when it moved to Bedford Airport.

Canton Airport was definitely closed by 1965,

as a November 1965 aerial view by Mark L. Thaisz of Col-East, Inc.

showed that a road had been constructed running right through the center of the hangars,

and continuing north through the center of the runways.

The 3 hangars still remained, though,

and the outline of all 4 runways still remained recognizable.

The former airfield property was used as an automobile junkyard from 1970-80.

From 1980-2000, the former airfield site was the property of MDC, which used it for a sewer pipe run.

A 1999 photo by Peter Kodis of the two remaining hangars on the southwest side of the former Boston Metropolitan Airport.

A 1999 photo by Peter Kodis looking along the remains of a runway at Boston Metropolitan Airport.

The airport originally had a total of 5 hangars.

Two of these hangars still existed (as of 2000) on the southwest side of the property,

while at least 1 of the other 3 hangars was relocated to nearby Norwood Airport.

A May 2003 aerial photo by John Ford of Les Vants Aerial Photos

showed that only 2 of the hangars still remained, although one of them had mostly fallen down.

A fence surrounded a square parcel around the former hangars.

A circa 2005 aerial photo looking north at the two remaining circa 1930s hangars

on the southwest side of the former Boston Metro Airport.

A 2006 aerial photo showed that the remains of the runways were very badly decayed, but still discernable as cleared areas.

The hangar at the southwest corner of the field remained intact as well.

The Boston Metro property is located east of the intersection of I-95 & Neponset Street.

It sits only a mile directly under the final approach path to Norwood Airport's Runway 35.

Thanks to Peter Kodis for pointing out this airfield.