Massachusetts Aviation Heritage
At the end of the nineteenth century Massachusetts was one of the world centers of experimentation with gliders, balloons, kites and aeronautical flight models and aerial devices. By 1908, experimenters from Boston to Worcester, to Springfield and in Waltham, Lynn, Milton, Marblehead, Ashburnham and Amherst had built and were testing full scale aircraft of all types, and flew them on frozen lakes, ocean beaches, and from hilltops, pastures and marshland.
The twentieth century brought Massachusetts’ leading educational institutions into the scientific testing of aircraft designs. The Blue Hill Observatory expanded its study of the weather and atmosphere in which aircraft operated. Harvard, MIT,WPI and other colleges and universities accelerated scientific study of aeronautical theory and in their laboratories and wind tunnels they developed practical solutions to the problems of flight. These capabilities grew and evolved to make Massachusetts a leader in United States and world aeronautical research and development.
