History
I have long been intrigued by the appearance of a “Landing Strip” on the 1970 United States Geological Survey (USGS) East Lansing map, supposedly located on the Michigan State University campus. I arrived at MSU in 1982, and at that time there was no evidence of a landing field at the indicated location between the large commuter parking lot off Mount Hope Road, and the adjacent railroad tracks. Could it be that there was once an airport of sorts right on campus? Indeed there was, and the history is fascinating!
The landing strip was the brainchild of the Michigan chapter of the International Flying Farmers. The IFF is still an active organization, but its current membership of about 275 families is only a shadow of what it was in the decades after WWII. Farmers were a huge part of the post-war flying boom – by 1948 they represented the second largest group of private US aircraft owners. The IFF was founded in Oklahoma in 1944, and by 1977 had grown to a peak membership of 11,000. The Michigan chapter was quite active from the start, with chapter head Lee Talladay, a 1938 Michigan State College alumnus, also serving as IFF President. (Michigan State College changed its name to Michigan State University in 1955.) By 1947 the Michigan Flying Farmers were lobbying for an airport on the MSC campus to be used for agricultural purposes. That year, 150 farmers came to campus in 60 planes for the annual meeting of the MFF, landing on makeshift runways. According to Aviation News, the Michigan Flying Farmers met with MSC President John Hannah, and petitioned him, and Dean of Agriculture Ernest Anthony, for the construction of a permanent landing strip. An airstrip design dated June 1, 1949, was filed with the Michigan Department of Aeronautics, and now resides in the MSU archives. The plan calls for a full airport located in the spot shown on the USGS map, including a runway, two aprons with T-hangars, a parking lot, and a pedestrian walkway across the railroad tracks connecting a cinder road to a third apron.
The MFF struggled to fund the airport, but were quite persistent, fighting with the university administration for approval and funding. An article appeared in the March 1, 1952 issue of the Spartan Alumni Magazine:
Michigan State College may soon have its "own" landing strip. That is the objective of a special committee of the Michigan "Flying Farmers," now gathering facts to prove that the field is necessary for educational and police purposes, and as an emergency landing field for small aircraft. Lee Talladay, '38, Milan farmer, said that the proposed landing strip would be located just south of the campus proper.
Construction of the strip will cost about $25,000, Talladay said. Five thousand dollars was once given for the project by the Michigan Department of Aeronautics, and it is assumed that this amount will be reallocated if the remaining money can be secured from private
sources. Talladay said that the landing field would be "extremely useful" for meetings of the "Flying Farmers" and other farm groups, but it could also be utilized for the state's artificial insemination program, the state police and for other educational purposes.
Any Spartan alumni who like the idea, or who might actually use the field for making visits to M.S.C, are invited to write to Lee Talladay, Milan, Mich.
Aerial imagery of campus shows no landing strip in 1950, but by 1953 an area had clearly been prepared. According to the IFF column in the April, 1953 issue of Flying Magazine:
They are now up “to snuff” at Michigan State College, thanks to Flying Farmers and progressive leadership on the part of College officials. For years it had been impossible for Flying Farmers to fly to MSC for the many yearly agricultural events staged there. Reason—no nearby strips and Lansing Municipal so far away that flying-in just wasn’t practical.
Michigan Flying Farmers have argued that a strip at this, the first Land Grant College, was a necessity. To this, College officialdom agreed, but asked “how?” With typical Flying Farmer generosity the answer was: We’ll build the strip with out own earth moving equipment.”
The strip, when levelled and packed, should give MSC agronomists a chance to run some revealing tests on how to develop a turf (sod) that can be flown off the year round.
Lee Talladay, a Michigan FF and vice president of the National Flying Farmer Association, says, “We told MSC officials we needed this strip—let’s use it.”
The landing strip was controversial from the outset, and continued to be so after it was built. According to the MSU archivist:
MSC did not want the airstrip, the flying farmers did. MSC procrastinated well into the 1950s saying they didn’t want to spend the money on it. The FF said they would pay and do the work themselves of grading and filling the land if MSC would let them. All the while the issue became more political. The governor at the time supported the airstrip and the FF, and this finally caused John Hannah to recant (1953) to say he would authorize MSC equipment to do the work to grade a 300 foot wide x roughly 2000’ – to 2500’ long strip of land. The FF was supposed to maintain it, but just a year later flyers complained that the hay was very thick on the strip, making it difficult to use. In 1961 MSU did some improvement, but nothing substantial. By 1965 it was a mess again according to reports, including a large hump in the pathway that caused takeoff and landing problems.
Aerial imagery from 1967 shows the landing strip being squeezed out by a large commuter parking lot (which has since grown to occupy a significant portion of the former airstrip). Soon it was all over. The landing strip was closed by the University on September 1, 1969. An aerial image from that year shows a lone airplane parked in the small strip of land between the parking lot and the airfield, a last gasp for the only permanent airfield ever located on the MSU campus.
According to the MSU archivist, “the airstrip was unlicensed and the MI Aeronautics Commission Chief advised that if it continued to be used in any fashion it should be licensed and brought up to code.” Apparently it never was. A check of the Michigan Aeronautical Charts and Airport Directories from 1949 through 1968 turned up no indication of the airstrip. The airstrip also did not appear in either the 1966 or 1968 Michigan Aeronautics Commission list of licensed airports, landing fields, and limited use fields, nor did it appear on the list of emergency landing fields.
Details
I have recreated the landing strip in MSFS, and updated it to how it might look if it had been preserved and cared for (although the turf is pretty worn due to much recent activity.) I have given it the ICAO airport code “KMSU,” which is currently unused, and a common traffic advisory frequency of 122.7 MHz. I also rebuilt the commuter lot to reclaim the land needed for the airstrip. There is now a single compacted-dirt apron, accessed by a road extending from the former MSU Ag Expo area. The Ag Expo was the state’s largest agricultural exposition, held each summer at MSU until 2014, and would certainly have attracted flying farmers to this spot. There are three fabric hangars where airplanes can park temporarily when on campus, but no other facilities, except for a porta-potty and a small storage barn. I expect that the strip will continue to be used for fly-ins, and it just happens that the Michigan Flying Farmers are having a get together in the grassy area next to the apron at this very moment. Go have a visit!
I have used only Asobo/Microsoft elements in the scenery, so just unzip and place the folder titled "mulberrywing-airport-kmsu-msu-landing-strip" in your community folder.
Enjoy the airstrip. I assume that the traffic pattern would be restricted to the region south of the airport, but once at altitude a nice tour of campus is at hand. Be sure to contact Lansing Capitol City Airport before entering the Class-C airspace, or just stay below the 2100-foot floor of the outer ring.
Notes
If you depart and follow the railroad tracks to the east, you will pass over my small town of Williamston, Michigan, in about 10 nm.
The fictional airport KMSC (download here) is located just 2.5 nm to the north. Pass over Spartan Stadium and fly due north for another mile and a half to visit this airfield designed by MSC undergradaute and WWII fighter pilot, Glenn A. Rushman.
6 months ago
6 months ago
MulberryWing
HamMan2118
8 months ago
8 months ago
MulberryWing
BurstixTV
I am from DeWitt, MI, just north of campus! This is super cool; I had no idea this existed in the past. It would be incredible if MSU had an airfield on its campus.
1 years ago
Glad you like it! I was able to find another indication, this one on the 1955 campus map. It's labeled there as "AIRPORT".
1 years ago
MulberryWing
roragenp