Baltimore Municipal Airport

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Airphoto of the former Baltimore Municipal Airport, 8 April 1994

Coordinates: 39°14′50.86″N 76°31′46.81″W / 39.2474611°N 76.5296694°W / 39.2474611; -76.5296694

Baltimore MAP

Location of Baltimore Municipal Airport, Maryland

Baltimore Municipal Airport (also known as Harbor Field) is a former airport and United States Air Force military airfield located about 6 miles southeast of Baltimore, Maryland on an artificial peninsula. Construction began in 1929 and was completed in 1941. It was closed on 30 December 1960. The western half of the airport was located within the city of Baltimore, whereas the eastern half was in Dundalk, in Baltimore County.

Today, the former airfield is the site of the Dundalk Marine Terminal, a multi-use shipping facility.

[edit] Official Names

1929-1941 Baltimore Municipal Airport
1942-1945 Baltimore Army Airfield
1946-1950 Baltimore Municipal Airport
1950-1960 Harbor Field
1960–present Dundalk Marine Terminal

[edit] History

Construction of Baltimore Municipal Airport began in 1929. The airport was planned as a replacement for Logan Field, which was located adjacent to the planned site of Baltimore Municipal Airport. It was constructed on an artificial peninsula built from dredged harbor silt. A seaplane facility was opened by Pan American Airlines in 1932, and by 1937 Imperial Airlines began operation out of the airport (seaplane use subsequently declined, and by the end of 1940s the seaplane facilities had fallen into disuse). Various commercial airliners and Pan Am seaplanes used the facility until World War II. Problems with the harbor silt led to lengthy delays and the facilities for land-based aircraft weren't ready for use until 1941.

All normal civilian traffic was suspended in 1942 when the United States Army Air Force took over the airfield. The Air Force used Baltimore Army Airfield as a I Fighter Command training airfield. Units assigned to the airfield were the 324th Fighter Group (6 July-28 October 1942); 353rd Fighter Group (26 October 1942-27 May 1943), and the 358th Fighter Group (28 April-28 May 1943). Beginning in 1943, it was transferred to the Air Technical Service Command as a repair and maintenance sub-depot for the Middletown Air Depot, located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill departed from Baltimore Municipal Airport on a 1942 British Overseas Airways Company (BOAC) flight. BOAC continued to use Harbor Field as its main U.S. Operating base during the war. BOAC flying boat service to Baltimore Municipal Airport ended in 1948.

Civilian airline service returned to Baltimore Municipal Airport after the war in 1946. However, the airport's runways were not long enough for the postwar jet airliners. The airport's use was limited to smaller, lower-capacity planes. When Friendship Airport (later later renamed Baltimore-Washington International Airport) opened in 1950, major airline operations almost immediately moved to the new airport. Baltimore Municipal Airport was officially renamed Harbor Field in 1950. During the 1950s Baltimore Harbor Field continued to serve private pilots and business aviation.

It was also used as a Maryland Air National Guard (MDANG) base after the war.^[1] Beginning in 1946, the MDANG based its 104th Fighter Squadron at the airport. The squadron was originally equipped with piston-powered P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft, later replaced by F-51 Mustangs, but eventually the unit converted to the jet-powered F-86 Sabre. In 1957, the 104th relocated to the Glenn L. Martin Company Airport, whose longer runway was necessary to support jet operations. In addition, the Maryland Air National Guard's 135th Air Commando Group was based at Harbor Field from 1955 until 1960, when it too relocated to the Martin Company Airport. That unit flew twin-engine C-46 Commando and SA-16 Albatross aircraft.

In 1958, the airport was purchased by the Maryland Port Authority for conversion into a marine terminal, ending the use of the facility as an airport. The airfield was officially closed on 30 December 1960, following the departure of the last Air National Guard unit. Construction throughout the 1960s removed the runways and other airport structures, and by 1971 almost all physical evidence of the former airport were gone. A 1990 historic site survey reported on 4 major structures from the airport era which were still extant, the Pan American terminal, the Air Station, Hangar #1, and the Air Guard Building. The Maryland Historical Trust subsequently found these buildings to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, based on their innovative design features & their association with local transportation history. In 2005 the former control tower building, which had become derelict, was torn down.