Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB) is a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

base located predominantly within

Bedford, Massachusetts Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population of Bedford was 14,383 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. History ''The following compilation comes from Ellen Abrams (1999) based on information ...

, with portions extending into the adjoining towns of

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

and Lexington. The facility is adjacent to

Hanscom Field Laurence G. Hanscom Field , commonly known as Hanscom Field, is a public use airport operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority, located outside Boston in Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. Hanscom is mainly a general aviation airport, ...

which provides

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and charter service. Hanscom AFB is the part of the

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB, is one of six centers reporting to the Air Force Materiel Command.AIR FORCE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT CENTER (AFLCMC) Posted 8/3/2012 Printable Fact Sheet Led ...

, one of six centers under Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center is the single center responsible for total life cycle management of Air Force weapon systems and is headquartered at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The host unit at Hanscom is the

66th Air Base Group The 66th Air Base Group is a non-flying United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Materiel Command Electronic Systems Center. It is stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. The group is also the host unit at Hanscom Air ...

(66 ABG) assigned to AFMC.

Overview

A non-flying base, Hanscom Air Force Base is named after

Laurence G. Hanscom Laurence Gerald Hanscom (August 20, 1906 – February 9, 1941) was an American journalist and aviator and the namesake of Hanscom Air Force Base and Hanscom Field. Early life Hanscom was born on August 20, 1906. He attended public schools in Mald ...

(1906–1941), a pilot, aviation enthusiast, and State House reporter who was killed in a plane crash at

Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America. History Native Americans ...

. Hanscom was a reporter for the

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

Worcester Telegram & Gazette The ''Telegram & Gazette'' (and ''Sunday Telegram'') is the only daily newspaper of Worcester, Massachusetts. The paper, headquartered at 100 Front Street and known locally as ''the Telegram'' or the ''T & G'', offers coverage of all of Worceste ...

and the Wilmington (MA) News. Hanscom was active in early aviation, founding the

Massachusetts Civil Air Reserve Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. At the time of his death, Hanscom had been lobbying for the establishment of an airfield in Bedford. The base was named in his honor on 26 June 1941.

, a civilian general-aviation airport adjacent to the Air Force Base, and

Massport Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) is an American port authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It owns and operates three airports—Logan International Airport, Hanscom Field, and Worcester Regional Airport—and public terminals in ...

are the primary operators of the air field and runways. Less than one percent of the air traffic at Hanscom Field is military aircraft.

History

World War II

Hanscom Air Force Base began its existence while the United States was considering its entry into

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. In May 1941, the Massachusetts Legislature authorized the purchase of a large tract of farmland spanning the borders of the towns of Bedford, Lincoln, Concord and Lexington for a Boston Auxiliary Airport. Funds to build the new airport were contributed by the federal government, which had appropriated $40 million to build 250 new civil airports across the United States that could serve for future national defense.Hanscom Air Force Base history
In mid-1942, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts leased the Bedford airport to the War Department for use by the Army Air Forces. Fighter squadrons trained there in 1942 through 1943. The 85th Fighter Squadron and the 318th Fighter Squadron, who trained at Bedford on the Curtiss

P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and ...

, went on to combat in North Africa and Europe. In February 1943, the airport was renamed Laurence G. Hanscom Field in honor of a Massachusetts-born pilot and aviation enthusiast who had been a reporter for the Worcester Telegram-Gazette. Hanscom had died in February 1941, in an aircraft accident in Saugus, Massachusetts, while he was lobbying vigorously at the State House for the establishment of the airport at Bedford. Later in the war, the Bedford Army Air Field served as a site for testing new

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...

sets developed by

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

's Radiation Laboratory. It was this secondary wartime activity at Hanscom that gave rise to the base's postwar role.

Cold War

Since 1945 Hanscom has emerged as the Air Force's center for the development and acquisition of electronic systems. The base has also played a significant role in the creation of a national high-technology area around Route 128. World War II established the key military importance of radar. In 1945, when the MIT and Harvard wartime laboratories were dissolved, the Army Air Forces aimed to continue some of their programs in radar, radio and electronic research. It recruited scientists and engineers from the laboratories, and its new

Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

(AFCRL) took over MIT's test site at Hanscom Field. By 1950, the Air Force was working closely with MIT to develop a new air defense system for the continental United States. Expanding its facilities at Hanscom Field was a step to accomplishing this massive project. After some negotiation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed in May 1952 to cede land on one side of the airport to the federal government and to give a 25-year renewable lease on the airfield itself. The first buildings for the new

MIT Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

at Hanscom were completed in 1952, and the Air Force's electronic and geophysics laboratories in Cambridge started to migrate out to its own new facilities in Bedford in 1954. The airfield's runways were reconfigured and expanded in 1953, and new hangars, headquarters and facilities were built. To provide test and evaluation for Lincoln Lab's new "Cape Cod" experimental air defense system, Hanscom's

6520th Test Support Wing 65 may refer to: * 65 (number) * ''65'' (film), an upcoming American science fiction thriller film * One of the years 65 BC, AD 65, 1965, 2065 * A type of dish in Indian cuisine, such as Chicken 65 Chicken 65 is a spicy, deep-fried chicken dish ...

logged thousands of hours of flying time. In April 1960, the 3245th Air Base Wing was organized to undertake routine support around the base.https://www.15wing.af.mil/UNITS/15th-Wing-Units/ retrieved October 2019. The

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...

(SAGE) air defense computer system, completed in the early 1960s, revolutionized air defense and also contributed significantly to advances in air traffic control systems. As the SAGE system matured, the Air Force developed a number of advanced command, control and communications systems. In 1961 the

Electronic Systems Division The Electronic Systems Center was a product center of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. Its mission was to develop and acquire Command and Control (Military), command and control, communica ...

(ESD) was established at Hanscom Field in order to consolidate the management of the Air Force's electronic systems under one agency. Since that time, the ESD (re-designated the Electronic Systems Center in 1992) has been the host organization on the base. The 3245th Air Base Wing was redesignated as the 3245th Air Base Group on 1 July 1964, remaining responsible to the ESD. While Hanscom's role in system acquisition flourished after the 1950s, its operational mission gradually diminished. As of September 1973, all regular military flying operations at Hanscom ceased. The following year the Air Force terminated its lease of the airfield portion of Hanscom Field, which reverted to state control, but retained the right to use the field. The Air Force re-designated its own acreage surrounding the field as the Laurence G. Hanscom Air Force Base. In 1977 the name was shortened to the present Hanscom Air Force Base. The base saw a second wave of construction during the 1980s. The Electronic Systems Division put up four new systems management engineering facilities (the O'Neill, Brown, Shiely and Bond buildings). For base personnel, there were new service facilities—medical, youth and family support centers—as well as additional housing and a temporary lodging facility.

Post Cold War

Since July 1992, Hanscom and the Electronic Systems Center (ESC) have been part of the Air Force Materiel Command. In 1994 the Air Force designated ESC as the Air Force Center of Excellence for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I). The 3245th Air Base Group was redesignated the 647th Support Group on 1 October 1992, and then the 647th Air Base Group (647th ABG) on 1 October 1993. The 647th ABG was then inactivated on 1 October 1994, and its mission taken up by the 66th Air Base Wing. The Standard Systems Group at Gunter Annex, Maxwell AFB, Ala.; the 38th Engineering Installation Wing at Tinker AFB, Okla.; the Materiel Systems Group at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; and lastly the Cryptologic Systems Group at Kelly AFB, Texas; were all attached to ESC between 1993 and 1996 in order to consolidate related functions in AFMC under the Center, and to support its expanded mission. Subsequent reorganizations changed the groupings, but all the above organizations (though renamed) except the 38th EIW remained under Hanscom's reporting chain. In 2004, ESC was reorganized into a named wing, group and squadron unit, to better reflect the organization of the Air Force as a whole. In 2006, the wings, groups and squadrons were given numbered designations. In 2010, ESC reverted to an organization of program offices and the 38th Engineering Installation Wing (by then a group) was reassigned. New Air Force standards caused the 66th Air Base Wing, because of its size, to be redesignated the 66th Air Base Group. In June 2011, the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate moved from Hanscom to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and the Space Vehicles Directorate moved to Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, closing more than 60 years of laboratory presence on Hanscom. The Electronic Systems Center as an organization was realigned in July 2012, and became a part of the newly created Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.

Incidents/accidents

The B-25 bomber which crashed into the Empire State Building on 28 July 1945, took off from Hanscom. On 8 August 1962, a US Air Force KC-135, a modified former tanker, crashed on approach to runway 11, destroying the aircraft and killing all three members of the flight crew.

Previous names

* Laurence G. Hanscom Field, Boston Auxiliary Airport at Bedford, 26 Jun 1941 * Bedford Municipal Airport, 29 Jun 1942 * Bedford Army Air Field, 8 Apr 1943 * Hanscom Airport, 15 Oct 1947 * Bedford Air Field, Mar 1948 * Hanscom Field, Jun 1948 * Laurence G. Hanscom Field, 24 Dec 1952 * Laurence G. Hanscom Air Force Base, 22 Jun 1974-18 January 1977Mueller, Robert, Air Force Bases Volume I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982, Office of Air Force History, 1989

Major commands to which assigned

* First Air Force, 2 July 1942 * AAF Technical Service Command, 15 October 1944 : Re-designated: Air Technical Service Command, 1 July 1945-12 August 1945 * Air Defense Command, 1 July 1947 *

Continental Air Command Continental Air Command (ConAC) (1948–1968) was a Major Command of the United States Air Force (USAF) responsible primarily for administering the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. During the Korean War, ConAC provided the necessary augm ...

, 1 December 1948 * Air Defense Command, 1 January 1951 *

Air Research and Development Command The Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) is an inactive United States Air Force Major Command. It was established in April 1951, being split off from Air Materiel Command. The mission of AFSC was Research and Development for new weapons systems. Ove ...

, 1 August 1951 : Re-designated: Air Force Systems Command, 1 April 1961 * Air Force Materiel Command, 1 July 1992–present Note: Station placed on standby status: 1 Jan-to Apr 1944; discontinued, 12 Aug 1945; disposed, 8 Mar 1946; transferred to Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 21 Aug 1946; leased from Commonwealth of Massachusetts to US Government, 1 Jul 1947, flying facilities are property of Commonwealth of Massachusetts with USAF not having exclusive use.

Major units assigned

* 79th Fighter Group, 2 July – 28 September 1942 * 318th Fighter Squadron, 3 August-3 October 1942 * 85th Fighter Squadron, 23 June-28 Sep 1942 *

342d Fighter Squadron 34 may refer to: * 34 (number), the natural number following 33 and preceding 35 * one of the years 34 BC, AD 34, 1934, 2034 * ''34'' (album), a 2015 album by Dre Murray * "#34" (song), a 1994 song by Dave Matthews Band * "34", a 2006 song by S ...

, 13 January-28 April 1943 * 370th Fighter Squadron, 5 April-25 May 1943 *

6th Air Defense Wing The 67th Fighter Wing was a unit of the United States Air Force for four years, between 1946 and 1950. It was located at Logan Airport, in Boston, Massachusetts. It is unrelated to the modern 67th Network Warfare Wing. History World War II The 6 ...

, 22 June-4 August 1943 * 69th Fighter Squadron, 28 April-28 August 1943 * 311th Fighter Squadron, 27 August-15 September 1943 * 442d Fighter Squadron, 17 September-11 November 1943 * 4147th Army Air Force Base Unit, 15 October 1944 – 25 February 1946 * 3d Bombardment Wing *: Re-designated:

3d Air Division The 3rd Air Division (3d AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Strategic Air Command, assigned to Fifteenth Air Force, being stationed at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. It was inactivated on 1 April 1992 ...

, 20 December 1946 – 27 June 1949 *

310th Bombardment Group 31 may refer to: * 31 (number) Years * 31 BC * AD 31 * 1931 CE ('31) * 2031 CE ('31) Music * ''Thirty One'' (Jana Kramer album), 2015 * ''Thirty One'' (Jarryd James album), 2015 * "Thirty One", a song by Karma to Burn from the album '' ...

**, 27 December 1946 – 27 June 1949 * 89th Troop Carrier Wing, 27 June 1949 – 10 May 1951 *: Re-designated: 89th Fighter-Bomber Wing, 14 June 1952 – 16 November 1957 * 6520th Air Base Group *: Re-designated: 3246th Air Base Group, 18 October 1951 – 1 March 1963 * 6250th Support Wing, 1 April 1952 – 1 July 1955 * AF Cambridge Research Center, 20 June 1955 *: Re-designated: Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, 1 July 1960- *

49th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron The 49th Fighter Training Squadron is part of the 14th Flying Training Wing based at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. It operates T-38 Talon aircraft conducting flight training. The squadron was first activated as the 49th Pursuit Squadro ...

, 5 November 1955 – 1 July 1959 * 731st Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium, 16 November 1957 – 17 September 1973 *

94th Troop Carrier Wing The Type 094 (; Chinese designation: 09- IV; NATO reporting name: Jin class) is a class of ballistic missile submarine developed by China for the People's Liberation Army Navy Submarine Force. The Type 094 succeeds the Type 092 submarine and ...

**, 16 November 1957 – 1 July 1972 * Air Materiel Command Electronic Systems Center, 2 November 1959 – 1 April 1961 * Electronic Systems Division, 1 April 1961 *: Re-designated: Electronic Systems Center, 1 July 1992 *: Re-designated:

, 16 July 2012 – Present * 901st Troop Carrier Group**, 11 February 1963 – 17 September 1973 * Air Force Computer Acquisition Center, 1 July 1976 – Present ** Note: Air Force Reserve units. Active flying at Hanscom ended on 30 September 1973. Source:Maurer, Maurer. ''Air Force Combat Units of World War II''. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1961 (republished 1983, Office of Air Force History, ).

Role and operations

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center

The

is the single center responsible for total life cycle management of Air Force weapon systems

66th Air Base Group

The

performs host unit functions of the base, supporting the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

Other units

Hanscom also supports the Massachusetts National Guard Joint Force Headquarters,

Massachusetts Wing Civil Air Patrol The Massachusetts Wing Civil Air Patrol (abbreviated MAWG), commonly referred to as "Mass Wing", is the highest echelon of Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its headquarters is located at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedfor ...

Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and de ...

and

MITRE The mitre (Commonwealth English) (; Greek: μίτρα, "headband" or "turban") or miter (American English; see spelling differences), is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in ...

Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, and various other companies and groups related to the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

Based units

Flying and notable non-flying units based at Hanscom Air Force Base. Units marked GSU are

Geographically Separate Unit In the United States military a Geographically Separate Unit (GSU) is a base that is physically separate from, yet not autonomous of its "parent" base. GSUs are "owned" by their parent organization and are typically quite small. Assignment to a ...

s, which although based at Hanscom, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) *

(GSU) ** Battle Management Programme Executive Office ** Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks (C3I&N) Programme Executive Office ** Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) Programme Executive Office *

** 66th Force Support Squadron ** 66th Medical Squadron ** 66th Security Forces Squadron

Massachusetts National Guard

* Massachusetts Army and Air Force Joint Force Headquarters-Massachusetts

References

External links

* {{Authority control Installations of the United States Air Force in Massachusetts 1942 establishments in Massachusetts Airports in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Technical Service Command Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Concord, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Bedford, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Lincoln, Massachusetts Superfund sites in Massachusetts Military Superfund sites

Overview

History

World War II

Cold War

Post Cold War

Incidents/accidents

Previous names

Major commands to which assigned

Major units assigned

Role and operations

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center

66th Air Base Group

Other units

Based units

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Massachusetts National Guard

See also

References

External links