This week in AFLCMC history and spotlight on Hanscom AFB

  • Published
  • By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office
In this edition of Heritage Hangar, you'll learn about old and new airplanes and tidbits of what happened this week many years ago. Plus a nice look at Hanscom AFB. Click to read as a PDF.  Installation spotlight on Hanscom AFB follows below. 

Installation Spotlight: Hanscom Air Force Base, MA 

In May 1941, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired approximately 509 acres of land for the Boston auxiliary airport at Bedford at the cost of $60,000. Believing that U.S. involvement in the Second World War was inevitable, the federal government, among a number of other measures, appropriated the $40 million to go toward the construction of 250 civil airports across the country that could be used for future national defense. 

In June 1942, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works and the Army Corps of Engineers negotiated the lease of the Boston auxiliary airport to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Days later, the 79th Pursuit (Interceptor) Group, flying Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft, arrived at the airport. Through-out 1942 and 1943, fighter squadrons trained at the air field; specifically, the 85th and the 318th Fighter Squadrons, who learned to fly and maintain P-40 Warhawks and would later be assigned to the North African and European theaters of the war. 

In February 1943, the air field was dedicated to Laurence G. Hanscom, who was a Worchester Telegram reporter, amateur pilot, aviation enthusiast, and vocal supporter of the airport’s establishment. Hanscom had tragically died in an airplane crash in February 1941. It was also during World War II that MIT’s Radiation Laboratory was established at Hanscom Field, which developed and tested new radar technology. 

In September 1945, the Air Technical Services Command of the Army Air Forces created Cambridge Field Station, which would be re-designated as the Air Force Cambridge Research Center (AFCRC), at Cambridge, MA in July 1949. The Air Force’s partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) continued into the Cold War and beyond via the MITRE Corporation. The early systems developed at Hanscom Field led to the post becoming the nerve center for Air Force electronic command, control and communication (C3), Intelligence, and battle management systems development. The Electronic Systems Division (ESD)—re-designated Electronic Systems Center (ESC) in 1992—was established in 1961 to coordinate USAF electronic systems management under one organization. As this mission grew, however, operational activity at Hanscom declined with regular flight operations ceasing in 1973. 

Since the creation of ESD/ESC, Hanscom AFB has steadily remained the Air Force’s principle electronic systems hub, developing numerous foundational network systems such as SAGE, the NORAD COC, ARPANET, AWACS, and JSTARS, among many others. In 2012, as a part of the Air Force Materiel Command’s (AFMC) last major reorganization, ESC was inactivated and its functions assumed by AFLCMC in 2012. 

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Never been to Hanscom AFB? This raw footage gives you a glimpse of what the installation looks like today.