Our Very Own Airport!

Most towns the size of Worcester cannot boast that they had an airport. Thanks to intrepid entrepreneur  Earl Maxham, we had one. Earl's son, David, describes its origins.  "In Earl’s early 50’s [ca 1943] he took flying lessons and became a private pilot. The next move was to develop an airstrip, purchase an airplane and, of course, start a new business venture. The airstrip was the combination of two parcels of continuous land to form an 1800 foot airstrip. It was located on Route 12 across from the Worcester cemetery. ..... Earl’s D-4 Cat bulldozer did the earth moving. A land grader and operator was hired to level the future grass sod runway. The final requirement was the construction and painting (orange with wide black stripes) of the runway identifier markers. There were two buildings associated with the new airstrip: A “T” hangar was built to house the 65 HP yellow and red two seat Aeronca Champ. The hangar construction plan came from a magazine article. ..... The second building was an aging chicken coop dragged, on site by a farm tractor. The chicken coop was jacked up, painted, and a large plate glass window was installed on the side facing the airstrip. ..... Outside the administration building entrance door an aviation gas tank was buried and a gas pump was set up. Beyond the pump on the grass, six dirt anchors with ropes were set in the ground. These anchors served as tie downs for visiting airplanes. Earl later acquired a second airplane. It was an aluminum clad Cessna model 140 with a 120 HP motor. The final step, after hiring airport manager/certified flight instructor, John Culver, was getting the necessary approvals to operate a flight school. The students included local WWII veterans, from neighboring communities, who learned to fly under the GI Bill of Rights program. The flight school was in operation for a several years."

There are people still living who remember going up in that plane. It even got some press in other parts of the country. "Walter M. Kearney, aviation editor of the Worcester Evening Gazette, Worcester, Mass., and Mrs. Kearney landed at the Maxham air strip Monday afternoon. Mr. Kearney plans to have the members of the Aviation club of Worcester, Mass., fly here in the near future to be served a country breakfast at the Town Hall."

One day young David Maxham was surprised to see some workers at the mink farm pushing his Dad's airplane down Route 12 toward the airstrip. He learned that Earl had engine failure shortly after taking off and managed to land right behind Ginnie Humphreys in Ladd Field. Back at the airport, Earl Maxham primed the engine and took off again, as if nothing had happened. Its full potential, however, was never realized. The dirt air strip eventually disappeared under a hayfield and nothing remains of the hanger or administration building.