Windham Airport
airport in Connecticut, United States of America
Windham Airport (ICAO: KIJD, FAA LID: IJD) is a public airport located three miles (5 km) northeast of the central business district of Willimantic, a city in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. It is owned by the Connecticut Airport Authority. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a local general aviation facility.
Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Windham Airport is assigned IJD by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.
History
The land that would become Windham Airport was acquired by the Town of Windham in 1923, when approximately 250 acres at Kirby Flats were purchased for aviation use.
Construction of the airport began in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression, and the airport officially opened in 1938.
During National Air Mail Week in May 1938, Windham Airport served as the regional air mail hub for 28 communities in northeastern Connecticut.
Between 1942 and 1943, the airport was expanded to support wartime aviation operations during World War II.
On June 18, 1946, a Pan American Lockheed Constellation operating a transatlantic flight made an emergency landing at Windham Airport after developing engine trouble. All 52 passengers and crew landed safely. Passengers included actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
The airport's first permanent hangars were constructed in 1947 by the City of Willimantic and Card Flying Service.
“Windham Airport” enters the record as airport in Connecticut, United States of America. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Windham, Airport and airport can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Windham Airport” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Windham, Airport and airport provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8024185. Authority coordinates are 41.744, -72.180. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017, 2021, 1923 and 1937.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Windham Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Windham Airport primary sources, Windham Airport archive and Windham research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Windham Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.