Make that the “Morris Cove Airport,” as our flying field was called back in the late 1920s, before it was formally dedicated in 1931 as the New Haven Municipal Airport.
It became Tweed-New Haven Airport, named for a manager and renowned local flyer John Tweed, only in 1961.
Will it surprise you to hear how controversies around Tweed — neighbors complaining about incessant noise and aviation pros who say commercial viability requires runway lengthening — are hardly new? If you think so, listen to the case of a certain John Fabian, a clerk for the city, who had done the title research for a whopping 178 acres of land the city needed to purchase to make an airport. Fabian felt he wasn’t appreciated enough. On this day way back then, he held the opening of the airport hostage to a lawsuit demanding he get an additional commission of $4,000.
Join us to hear how the very opening of the airport, on this day, in 1929, was a cliffhanger, down to the last second. To listen to the episode, just click on the audio above, or find it in iTunes or any podcast app under “WNHH Community Radio.”
In 86 years from now the same objections to the airport wI'll apply!