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| The Update on Airport Upgrades | |
After a 15-year period of growth and
construction — including a new terminal building, improved
runways, and additional safety equipment and lighting — plans to
enlarge Trumbull Airport stalled. Although the focus was on
growth for southeastern Connecticut and the Groton/New London
area, opponents voiced their objections, loudly, to the bringing
in of jets to the airport.
 In view of the concerns and opposition, Airport
Manager Leo Cordier responded to their objections, soothing their
concerns: "We're a commuter-type airport.... In the near
future, we don't anticipate any major expansion. We just want to
upgrade." Allegheny and Pilgrim's daily flights brought in 226
tons of cargo in 1975 (excluding passenger baggage), and
passenger service was showing a slight but steady increase.
Cordier pointed out the limit on airport expansions; the airport
is bordered by the Poquonnock River and Pine Island Byway, and
the high ridges of the Eastern Point section of Groton and the
Bluff Point Coastal Reserve.Still, in 1976, the airport had several major operations in place, most of which were transparent to the public. The Army National Guard's repair facility, housed at Trumbull Airport, served a 13-state area; and a new repair shop was under construction. As many as 60 military aircraft, mainly helicopters, were using the airport at any given time. The airport served the private planes owned by area businesses and clubs, as well as keeping the seaplane lane in use. |
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| Airport renovations during this period included, in 1975, the overlaying of a crucial crosswind north-south runway. Allegheny flights, which required the extended use of the runway, were shut down for the 72 hours it took to complete the runway improvement. Crews for L.G. Deflice, Inc., contractor for the project, worked around the clock to finish the job; their contract stipulated that this crucial overlay had to be completed within the 72 hours in order to prevent interference with scheduled flights. Further runway improvements were planned to be completed by 1976. |  Runway work is done under the lights |
| Also in 1976, new hanger construction was initiated for the National Guard. The new structure, an aircraft repair shop measuring 150 feet by 180 feet, encompassed two stories, as well as administrative, avionics, and instrument offices. Construction by the contractor, New England Constructors, Inc. (Avon), at an estimated cost of $2.7 million, was expected to be completed by 1977. The previous WWII hanger had been servicing 500 helicopters and planes per year. | 
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| Master Plans Underway In 1977, the Connecticut State Department of Transportation (DOT) asked seven consulting firms to submit proposals for a master plan for Trumbull Airport. The plan would be funded by federal (75%) and state (25%) grants. The study, which was estimated at $100,000, was to focus on aviation forecasts for Trumbull Airport through 1997. Among other things, the proposal would assess the airport's environmental impact on coastal wetlands, air, and water quality. Economic aspects the airport would also be studied.  In 1977, when the National Guard moved to their new hanger facilities at the airport, Coastal Air Service stepped in to occupy their old space and serve private businesses. The buildings were repainted to reflect Coastal Air's signature blue. Coastal's move marked the spurring on of new business to the area, fostered by their purchase of six new airplanes and renovations costing $15,000. Staff was also doubled. "We [both] have a deep belief that there's a tremendous future here," said Coastal owner William Ferguson in an interview with the New London Day (March 17, 1977). "We hope to make this the finest operation in the state." Ferguson and Gary Saunders had bought the failing business five months prior. The two men immediately expanded Coastal's flight school, doubled its fleet of planes, and improved the maintenance shop. Coastal provides charter and freight services, as well as pilot training and aircraft sales/rentals. At the time, Allegheny and Pilgrim were also running regular intercity flights from the Groton airport, as well as Pilgrim subsidiary Pequot Aviation, a small private charter service. In order to operate from the state-owned airport, businesses must bid for franchises. Bids are held about every five years, and interested parties must be able to present a case to the State of Connecticut that their business would be a boost to the state economy. Then in 1978, the Airline Deregulation Act hit the American scene. Questions arose as to the fate of commuter traffic in southeastern Connecticut. In 1979, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which was established to assist cities threatened with passenger service cutoffs, guaranteed air passenger service from Groton-New London Airport to New York through 1989. George M. Roohr, then airport manager, assured the public that air passenger service at Groton-New London Airport more than met the CAB program requirements, which allowed for subsidies by the CAB, if necessary. At that time, Ransom was operating five or six flights daily to and from Boston, as well as flights to Bradley International and Montreal. According to the deregulation act of 1978, airlines could stop service after 90-days notice. |
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| The 1970s — Not the Best of
Years... It was February 15, 1977. A private Piper Arrow made a safe emergency landing on the ice at Mumford Cove while on its approach to Trumbull Airport. The pilot escaped unscathed, but the plane's landing gear and wing were damaged when it collided with a bank near Neptune Dr. at the edge of the cove. But one event in 1979 exemplified the need for updated funding for Trumbull Airport. In July of 1979, an element of the instrument landing system at the airport was out of operation for routine maintenance and unavailable to pilot George W. Hume, who crashed into Fishers Island Sound while attempting a landing. George M. Roohr, airport manager at the time,
reported to the New London Day: "It [the instrumentation] would
have given him more information. Whether it would have made any
difference or not, it's pretty tough to say." Hume and his two
sons died in the crash. |
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The airport's instrument landing system (ILS) houses the runway localizer and the glide slope beam. The
localizer is a radio signal that can be used by pilots with
receiving equipment to locate the center of the runway. This
system was reportedly working. The second system, the glide slope
beam, is a high-intensity radio beam that is directed at a
three-degree angle from the surface of the main runway to provide
vertical guidance to pilots in planes equipped with glide-slope
beam indicators. Pilots can follow the beam to the runway surface
using the localizer to stay in the center of the
airstrip. At the time of the crash, the glide slope beam antennas were being upgraded and maintained for the first time since they were installed in 1973. They'd been out of service for weeks, but it was unknown whether Hume's plane was equipped with instrumental landing equipment. Pilgrim Airlines President Joseph M. Fugere saw Hume miss his approach to the airport. "You're not allowed to descend as low [as that] without the glide slope," Fugere told The Day (July 31, 1979). Planes can descend to 256 feet with the runway in sight when the beam is on, but they must stay above 400 feet when it is off. "He started a right turn. I never gave it thought." Fugere reported that the pilot probably was using the localizer, because the plane flew in over the center of the runway. The pilot came out of the fog over the water and approached the main runway from the southwest. The pilot, observing the 400-foot minimum altitude, probably could not see the runway until he was nearly over it and was too high to land. The weather was quite foggy. The glide beam system might have helped the pilot through the haze if it had been operating. "If you have the system operating," said Fugere, "then you're in a better position to handle the fog," he said and claims that approach lights would have helped to orient the pilot. The wisdom in scheduling the glide beam's repairs during this time of year had been questioned. "It could have been done at a time of year when fog doesn't form in the morning on a regular basis," said Gary Saunders (Coastal Air Service, Inc.). The pilots consider this to be a bad time of year for fog. Still, pilots had been notified of the ILS maintenance by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Saunders also claimed that recently installed distance-measuring equipment had not been operating. This signal gives equipped planes a digital readout of distance from a fixed point on the runway. Roohr said, however, the system had been in continuous operation since it was installed the month before, and that it was operating at the time of the crash. |
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| It was Wednesday, June 16, 1976, and southeastern Connecticut was in for a visitor. The Goodyear blimp Mayflower was in town, gliding silently across Rte. 1. News photographer Carol Phelps jumped in her car and sped to Trumbull Airport's control tower, where she convinced Controller Jim Minahan to ask the Mayflower's crew to descend low enough for a photo at Groton Long Point, which they did, on its way to Beverly, Massachusetts. (Photo © Carol Philips, The News, June 17, 1976.) |  |
| Expressions from
All Corners Groton-New London Airport, in these years of change and growth, certainly did not neglect those in need and showed the spirit of giving with various drives, like that for the Tommy Toy Fund held in 1977. Contributions to the Fund came from airport employees, as well as Coastal Air services, the Connecticut National Guard, the then-resident Horizon Restaurant, FAA tower personnel, and local cab drivers. |
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| AWTAR Holds Final Event in
Groton In June of 1977, Trumbull Airport hosted the annual New England Air Race, which was sponsored by The Ninety-Nines, Inc., the International Organization of Licensed Women Pilots. The Ninety-Nines Women's Aviation Organization was born in 1929 in Cleveland, Ohio. Its history is deeply rooted in air racing. The Women's Air Derby on August 13-20, 1929, gave women the opportunity to participate in aviation racing. The 1948 and 1949 Jacqueline Cochran All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race marked the formal beginning of the All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race (AWTAR), affectionately known as the "Powder Puff Derby." In the past, the Air Race was restricted to female pilots, but in 1977, the competition was opened to males. Pilots from all over the Northeast and Canada participated. The race comprised a round-robin flight of about 300 miles that began and ended at Trumbull Airport, Groton. Aircraft entering the competition are limited to sock-model, single- or multi-engine aircraft of not more than 520 horsepower. The competition in June of 1977 at Groton's Trumbull Airport was the last race of the AWTAR. |
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| Did You
Know The first woman in the United States to be freely elected governor (i.e., not succeeding her husband) was Ella T. Grasso, elected governor of Connecticut in 1974. |
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| NEXT . . . | |
HOME • FLIGHTS • A SHORT FLIGHT THROUGH HISTORY
Catherine L. Young, Airport Manager
155 Tower Avenue • Groton, CT 06340 • (860) 445-8549 •
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