Shortly after the Wright brothers took to the air, aviation fever
gripped Massachusetts. The biggest names in the industry, including
Wilbur Wright, Glenn Curtiss, and Claude Graham-White, among others,
flew in for the first major air shows, further exciting the people of
the Bay State about the potential of manned flight in the realms of
military tactics, the expansion of commerce, and even personal
transportation. By the 1920s, Massachusetts had become home to the first
Naval Air Reserve Base, in Quincy; one of the first Coast Guard Air
Stations, in Gloucester; and the Boston Airfield, which would become the
largest international airport in New England. Within a few decades,
individuals like Edward Lawrence Logan, Frank Otis, Oscar Westover, and
Laurence G. Hanscomb would permanently leave their names on the
Massachusetts landscape in connection with the airports and airfields
still used today.