Situated at the mouth of the Merrimack River where it runs into the Gulf of Maine and the Atlantic Ocean in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Plum Island Aerodrome has quite a lot of aviation history associated with it and the immediate surrounding area. The first flying field in New England was on the dunes and marshes of Plum Island, about a mile and a half east of the current airport, where from April to August 1910, Marblehead yacht designer W. Starling Burgess conducted a series of test flights with biplanes that he and Augustus M. Herring designed and built.
On February 28, 1910, the first airplane flight in New England took place when Herring – who had first tested gliders in 1895 with the 'Father of Aviation', Octave Chanute, on the Lake Michigan dunes – took off from the frozen surface of Chebacco Lake in Hamilton, Massachusetts, in a pusher biplane he and Burgess built. After the single flight, Burgess sold the plane and moved the operation to the marshes at Plum Island. He built a building and a wooden "runway" near where the dunes meet the marshes, about a mile south of the current entrance to the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. The test range included approximately the area bounded by the dunes, the Plum Island Turnpike, High Road, and the Parker River. The aeroplane, called the Flying Fish, first made three short flights on April 17. In May Burgess brought additional aeroplanes from Marblehead and built an additional building. Tests continued through the spring and summer of 1910 with longer and higher flights.
The earliest record of possible aviation activity at the current Plum Island Airport was in 1926, when the U.S. Army Air Service designated the field as an Emergency Landing Field. Sometime in 1926-1929, the new Civil Aviation Administration (now the FAA) installed a beacon tower at the Plum Island field as a primary navigation aid to mark the Boston-Portland air route. The base of the beacon tower can still be seen at the bend in the Plum Island Turnpike.
Since then the airport has passed through many owners and operators. In June 2002, a volunteer group led by PICA president Ted Russell opened the Burgess Aviation Museum to promote the history of aviation at Plum Island and the region. Since October 2006, the airport has been leased from Historic New England, and has operated under the name Plum Island Aerodrome. Since then, a hangar has been constructed and the museum has been improved. In July 2010, the 10/28 asphalt runway was resurfaced.
Not only is this an airport I'd eventually like to fly into (soon), but Asobo/NavBlue closed runway 28, and it's not closed, so I needed to fix that. It was damaged in the blizzard of 78 and a subsequent storm or two, so they shortened it, but it's not closed.
To install this scenery just copy scenery-ma-flyingscool-2b2 directory contained in this zip-file into your Community directory.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Most additions to the scenery are default objects delivered by ASOBO with the MSFS package.
I have also used objects from and you will want to install the following object library packages:
Camper Library - https://flightsim.to/file/12386/camper-library
FISD - https://files.fsnordic.net/fisd-library-for-msfs2020
Wombiiactual ENxx Asset pack - https://flightsim.to/file/12208/wombiiactual-enxx-asset-pack
Dave's Crooked Library - https://flightsim.to/file/4696/dave-s-crooked-library
Dave's 3D People Library - https://flightsim.to/file/5452/dave-s-3d-people-library
SDR Scenery Pack V1.1 - https://flightsim.to/file/6072/sdr-scenery-pack-v1-0
Mikea.at AssetPack - https://flightsim.to/file/1923/mikea-at-assetpack
Windy Things - https://flightsim.to/file/14024/windy-things
Reno Stead Airbase - https://flightsim.to/file/11837/reno-stead-airport-krts-reno-air-races
EGOV RAF Valley by skell300 and Superspud - https://flightsim.to/file/9361/egov-raf-valley-custom-built
LEGAL:
This scenery addon for MSFS2020 is released as FREEWARE. You may use and modify it for your personal use only. This scenery is NOT to be used in any commercial endeavor for monetary gain.
Tom "FlyingsCool" Perry
Awesome work! I drive by this airport all the time! Also KACK!!!
Do you have plans to enhance KBVY?
3 years ago
Hi, thank you :)
I've been working on a bunch of turf airports around the White Mountains in New Hampshire, mostly just to add parking spots to airports without them so I can start cold and dark. So far I finished 1B5, NH49, NH31, NH18, NH38. I just need to package and release them. I'm about halfway done with NH69 (turns out it's an airport community property with something like 38 hangars, so it's taking longer than I expected), and there's a couple more I want to do, including an airport I found that's not in MSFS. KBVY would be pretty far down my list. I want to redo KLEB, too, as MSFS has 18 as closed and it's not.
3 years ago
FlyingsCool
FlintyPuppy921
Nice! I was pleasantly surprised to find this this morning. This place is probably my best flying memories and where I first experienced grass runways. Landing 14 is probably the most fun I've ever had in an airplane. We definitely need more airports around this area. I've been slowly chipping away at KLWM just next door. I still have a lot of work left with dozens of custom buildings but I'll share some screenshots with you if you are interested.
3 years ago
Skyhawk62T
ahhh so that's why you've been spending so much time hanging out over there on the US East server XD XD. Will give it a try this evening.
3 years ago
:D
That and for some reason I lost my ATC voices. A reset it in the options fixed it ;)
3 years ago
FlyingsCool
BortCobain