Looking back at the Somerset Hills Airport in Basking Ridge, NJ
Lord Stirling, the Revolutionary War Buildings, the First Airmail, World Record Gliders, the Tuskegee Airmen, the VA, a proposed Super Airport, and more historic moments tie back to this small strip of land in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.
If you were driving around the small town of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and you were looking for an airport, the only thing you’d find is a sign. But for residents who’ve lived here since the 1930s, the area was home to a small grass-airport called the Somerset Hills Airport.
Before there was an airport, there was a 70-acre tract that had a long history in Basking Ridge. The original owner dates back to the early 1700s, when James Alexander, the father of Lord Stirling (aka William Alexander), bought large tracts of land in the area. The land was part of a farming community in the 1800s and was owned by the Fenner family, with abundant corn fields, before it was sold to Standard Flying Services to develop the airport, which officially opened in 1932 and operated for 50 years.
Flying was taking hold in America in the 1930s. While the military and commercial aviation lead the way, private aviation and local airports were spreading across the country. On Sunday, October 23, 1932, the vision met reality when Somerset County’s first airport opened with an air meet organized by Standard Flying Services, the owner of the new Somerset Hills Airport facility in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. The event included competitive flying, aerobatic exhibitions, parachute jumps, and a bomb-dropping contest with cash prizes.
Under the watchful eye of Project Manager George Viehmann and Waldron Schanz, the manager, the two dedicated an airfield in the quiet Basking Ridge community.
Three grass runways initially served the public facility. Later, the facility became an Army Air Corps flight training facility from 1941 through 1945.
Providing support to private pilots was one of the key activities at the Somerset Hills Airport. Most of the managers at the Somerset Hills Airport over the years were also certified in airplane mechanics and flying instructors. Many were also former military pilots.
On Thursday, June 10, 1947, Mrs. Alice Spencer of W. Oak Street in Basking Ridge was the first woman veteran to receive a private pilot’s license under the GI training program. Alice was the daughter of Mrs. Truman Spencer, who served three years in the WAVES as an aviation machinist mate. Her father was the Bernards Township Tax Collector.
Many area residents have fond memories of attending flying school at the Somerset Hills Airport, which has existed since its inception in 1932. The Great Depression virtually decimated the private aircraft industry, and aircraft manufacturers scrambled to develop a low-cost light airplane that could be bought by anyone with an average income and a desire to fly. In response to this need, Clarence Taylor of Taylor Brothers Aircraft in Bradford, Pennsylvania, designed the E-2 Cub in 1930. It was a small fabric-covered, high-wing airplane with a steel-tube fuselage, wooden wing spar, and aluminum wing ribs. This led to the resurgence of private leisure flying and let to many of the stories our local friends sent in.
I took flying lessons there for about four years like ‘68 to ‘72. My flying buddies included Sid Sussman, George Mennon and Al Needleman who owned Basking Ridge Pharmacy. Probably have some pictures. My husband grew up on Riverside Drive behind the airport and he had plenty of his own stories.
Deborah Lewis – Basking Ridge Resident
I remember growing up in Basking Ridge, the airport was in my backyard. We used to ride our bikes up there and get orange sodas and watch the planes
Jim DiQuattro – Basking Ridge
I remember sitting at the dinner table on Gerard Ave. watching one of the planes hit nose to tail across our back yard until it landed at the farm behind us. We moved a few years later to Homestead Village only to have one nose dive into neighbors trees. Everyone walked away. Just a broken arm in the 2nd crash.
Wendy Wahl
We used to go to the Henry St bakery after church on Sunday and then to the airport to watch the planes.
Erika Leigh – Basking Ridge
In the winter of 1965/1966, Rinker Buck, a 15-year-old, and his 17-year-old brother Kernahan, got their pilot licenses, devised a plan to rebuild their father’s 1948 Piper PA-11, and fly it from Somerset Hills Airport to Capistrano Airport in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Then they flew back!
Their journey took six days and was completed in July 1966. The flight is the subject of Buck’s 1997 memoir Flight of Passage.
It was 1959, and what many people never knew was that not only would the area lose the Somerset Hills Airport, but we also almost lost the entire community. Saving The Great Swamp: Battle to Defeat the Jetport is a one-hour documentary about the events, people, and politics behind the struggle to preserve a rural area of New Jersey between 1959 and 1968, including the Great Swamp and Basking Ridge.
The fight began when the powerful Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced plans to build a huge 10,000-acre “jetport” 26 miles west of New York City, in a little-known place called the Great Swamp. In the name of progress, entire towns would be obliterated, the aquifer and wildlife destroyed, and a way of life threatened for thousands of people.
Pressure had been building for years at Somerset County’s oldest airport as the population in the Basking Ridge community grew. A new high school had been constructed in 1960 just to the west of the Airport. In addition, a number of
Pilots who knew the airport had a term for the corner just to the west of the runway approach. They nicknamed the area of South Maple and Lord Stirling Road “Crash Corner” as they approached the 2,300-foot runway. That location was the scene of a number of near-fatal crashes in the 60s and 70s. Local resident George Fricke of Peachtree Road said “It’s like Russian roulette around here.”
On October 17, 1975, a private plane crashed into an above-ground swimming pool after tearing apart an apple tree at 67 Woodstone Drive. Vincent Smith of 67 Woodstone Drive, who had lived there for 28 years, stated that he had witnessed five crashes on his property.
In 1975, ordinances were enacted permitting the airport property to be used for low-income housing, as reported in local newspapers. There were a number of high-profile crashes in the area in 1975, and increased pressure was being mounted by the Bernards Township Board of Education’s Superintendent, Dr. Philip Tieman.
After a severe fire in 1981 and investigations into a number of severe crashes by the FAA, the Municipal Board, local school boards, and the community that lived around the airfield put enough pressure on the Airport owner to close the facility.
The Somerset Hills Airport officially closed on October 15, 1982, almost 50 years to the day!
(Dedicated) Sunday, October 23, 1932.
Prelim approval was granted by the Bernards Township Planning Board on July 14, 1981, to the Lanid (Lanidex) Corporation of Parsippany to develop the 77 acres where the airport stood.
The approved plan called for 150 townhouses to be built on the first 25-acre tract, priced from $ 130-150k. The other 50-acre tract was carved out for single-family homes ranging from $110- $135k. Lanid also constructed the Country Side complex off Mount Airy Road next to the Somerset Hills Cemetery.
Finally, in 1986, a report by the New Jersey General Aviation Study Commission’s Subcommittee on Airport Closings showed the airport’s taxes had risen 500 percent in its last 16 years of operation. By 1983, the airport was not listed as “active” by national flight guides, and the 1986 USGS map listed it as “inactive.”
Below is a partial list of what we found. If you know more, please let us know.
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Jean Smalley wrote: "I loved going there as a kid w my dad to watch the planes. We would sit on the hood of the car.. great article!thanks!"
Willie Dade - Before they paved the runway ,my Uncle was landing from the Lord Stirling School end of the runway , and the bumpy grass terrain bent the tip of one of the prop blades.
Gina Kalvin wrote "this is where my father had his 1948 Taylorcraft. Jackie soloed but he sold the plane before I could. Great memories!"
Gloria Borchert wrote: "My father paved the runways."
Mark Waters wrote us: " When I was about 10 or 11 years old I saved up $10, rode my bike to the airport, and, without my parents knowing about it, took may first plane ride. It was in a Piper Cub. There was some snow on the grass runway and the plane was outfitted with skis. That experience gave me the "flying bug" and I eventually got my pilot's license."
Judith Klein Woodruff wrote: " As children my dad used to take us there to watch the planes. Later in his life he took flying lessons there and got his pilot license."
Karen Jones Potts wrote: "My dad spent hours hanging around the airport. He also had a plane that he kept there. He loved that place and always wanted his ashes sprinkled over it during a fly by. He was unable to get that wish because by the time he passed away the airport was no longer there"
My buddies and I used to ride our bikes down Lord Sterling Rd to the airport, get a bottle of Dr Pepper out of the machine there and spend an hour or two hanging around and gawking at the airplanes. This was in the 1968-69 timeframe. Good memories of that place, sad that it's gone.
I believe one of the fatal crashes in the 60s involved a teenager with the last name Yingling. Can’t remember his first name. Such a tragedy.
When I moved in with my wife in Millington in 1985, I used to check out the field, sneaking in through the loosely chained gate. For years there was a derelict fuselage of what was probably a canvas covered aircraft still on the field, though I did not get to close to examine it as it was inhabited by a beehive. I'm pretty good at aircraft identification as an aviation historian, but could not identify it.