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An Airport with a History

© Christina Coruth

Many scorned the little Manchester Airport during its early years. After all, when compared to Boston's grand Logan International Airport, which is a mere one-hour drive away, it did seem like a little airport "wannabe" living in the shadow of a glamorous giant. But the "wannabe" has grown up to become northern New England's largest commercial and general aviation airport. The giant feels the pinch as travelers choose not to fight Boston traffic and airport terminal crowds by opting to fly into or out of Manchester instead.

The Manchester Airport is a part of the history and culture of Southern New Hampshire, especially the Manchester - Londonderry area. Parents, such as my husband and me, have long taken their children out to the airport to watch the planes take off and land. There was a time when you could park fairly close to the runway and watch through the chain link fence. For many, including yours truly, the first bird's-eye view of the Manchester landscape was had through the window of a small plane just departed from this airport.

It all began on June 7, 1927, when Manchester's mayor and board of aldermen appropriated $15,000 towards the development of an airport for the city. By October, an 84-acre parcel of land near the Londonderry line had been approved. Two 1,800-foot runways had been cleared within a month and the first flight from the Manchester Airport took to the sky in November. In March of the following year, the airport became home base to its first passenger service airplane. The plane was the Kreisner-Reidner Challenger. This two-seater transported 212 passengers during its first month of operation.

Over the next several years, businesses began to sprout up at the airport. In 1939, Granite State Airways offered flying lessons by owners Carl Park and Arnold Butler. In a 1998 interview with John Clayton of the Union Leader newspaper, Park reminisced about those early days at the newly renamed Manchester Municipal Airport. For three years he lived at the airport and provided a much-appreciated service to incoming pilots. In those days, the runway lights were operated manually. Word soon spread among the pilots that if they circled the airport and "jazzed their motors" (Clayton 09/14/98), Park would get out of bed and go to the tower to throw the switch to turn on the runway lights.

Little did Park know in those early days that he would have a hand in creating history. Every Saturday, a kid from Derry would ride his bike to the airport. The "flying bug" had bitten him when his parents made a present of an airplane ride. As he told Park, he didn't have much money, but was willing to work for flying lessons. He cleaned out hangars and wiped down planes. In exchange, Park gave him flying lessons. Many years later, on May 5, 1961, inside Freedom 7, he became the first American in space as he made a 15-minute sub orbital flight. Ten years later, as the Commander of Apollo 14, he would spend a record 33.5 hours on the surface of the Moon. The kid on the bike was Alan B. Shepard, Jr!

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