Minute Man Air Field is a public-use
airport
An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...
in
Stow
Stow may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Stow, Lincolnshire or Stow-in-Lindsey, a village
* Stow of Wedale or Stow, Scottish Borders, a village
* Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, a small town
* Stow, Shropshire or Stowe, a village
* Stow ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, United States. The airport is privately owned by Minute Man Airfield, Inc.
History
Started as a grass landing strip known as Erikson Field in 1963 by local pilots, the airport was purchased by Paul McPherson in 1966. McPherson and his son, Don, paved and extended the runway, added a parallel taxiway and tie-downs for 50 planes, installed
AVGAS pumps, and constructed the Operations Building. The former grass strip was re-opened as Minute Man Air Field on July 1, 1969. McPherson's wife and daughter later opened a small coffee shop on the field called "Peg's Place".
Over the decades, the airport has added aircraft maintenance and storage hangars, a runway extension, a second cross-wind runway, and aircraft parking aprons. In the early 1990s, of land was added to the field's land holdings, instead of becoming a housing development. The open space is being farmed and serves as home to many species of wildlife.
This acreage was sold and is the site of a proposed 55+
active adult neighborhood consisting of 60+ housing units.
Minute Man now has a paved, lighted and instrumented runway and a gravel-visual runway.
The airfield is home to more than 60 aircraft, including three helicopters stored in four hangars and on tie-downs along the taxi-ways and aprons. In addition to Nancy's Air Field Café, the airport is home to numerous other businesses.
The airport is still owned and operated by McPherson, and the operations are overseen by a board of Airport Commissioners. The board is made up of local business, government and aviation professionals who voluntarily serve as commissioners.
Facilities and aircraft
Minute Man Air Field covers an area of which contains two
runway
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...
s:
* Runway 3/21: , asphalt
* Runway 12/30: , turf/gravel
For the 12-month period ending 1 August 2009 the airport had 48,095 aircraft operations, an average of 132 per day: 99%
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 ...
, <1%
air taxi
An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand.
In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...
and <1% military. There are 67 aircraft based at this airport: 60 single engine, one multi engine, three
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s and three
ultralight
Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...
s.
The runway was repaved (to meet FAA required standards for safety) in the summer of 2015. The work also included removing a small hill which was a danger to people in airplanes landing from the south.
Minuteman Airfield
Don's Blog July 2015 NOTAM
Gallery
File:Approach to Runway 3 at 6B6.jpg, Dusk approach into runway 3 at Minute Man Airfield in a Cessna 172 with the runway lights visible
See also
* List of airports in Massachusetts
This is a list of airports in Massachusetts (a U.S. state), grouped by type and sorted by location. It contains all public use and military airports in the state. Some private-use and former airports may be included where notable, such as airports ...
References
External links
*
Nancy's Air Field Cafe
{{MA Airport
Stow, Massachusetts
Airports in Middlesex County, Massachusetts