Flyingcars,apartments, warehouses? The future of Hartford's airport brings surprising possibilities

Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
Updated ·3 min read

Aug. 15—Competing visions for Hartford-Brainard ‒ and the 200 acres of prime land it sits on ‒ were up for debate last week at the final public meeting hosted by a team of consultants tasked with exploring the airport's potential. The state's Department of Economic Community Development (DECD) commissioned New York-based BJF Planning to prepare a $1.5 million study that is scheduled to wrap up in October.

Airport advocates have argued that Hartford-Brainard is valuable in the present tense as a home for corporate jets and a hub for the training of badly needed pilots and other aviation workers.

But it was a vision of the airport's future that captured attention at the Aug. 10 meeting, held at Hartford's Metzner Early Learning Center.

"What I think is very exciting about the airport itself is that the location of Brainard... it's perfect for eVTOL operations," said aviation consultant Ron Price, speaking of electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing craft. Many prototypes of eVTOL "flying cars" have a range of about 100 miles, making Hartford a logical stopover between New York and Boston.

Major aerospace companies like Embraer are investing heavily in the technology behind eVTOL, seen as the future of flying. A California startup's "flying car" that can park and drive on regular roads and fly about 100 miles on an electric charge became the first eVTOL vehicle certified for testing by the FAA in July.

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Although widespread use of eVTOL aircraft is still a decade or more in the future, Hartford-Brainard's geographic potential as a base for the technology is significant, Price said.

"I think it's a great opportunity that needs to be explored," Price said. "It's one of the ideal locations for a vertiport." Vertical takeoff craft don't need extensive space and the existing 200-acre facility could be retrofitted to accommodate them, he added.

Even without the improvements needed for a eVTOL vertiport, Hartford-Brainard's operator, the Connecticut Airport Authority, is expected to spend $22 million over the next 20 years to maintain the existing buildings and runways. In recent years the airport has reported a $400,000 annual deficit.

Later segments of the consultants' presentation explored alternate uses of the Hartford-Brainard property, with the caveat that the shutdown process for a federally chartered airport is an expensive and lengthy process.

Some environmental concerns about development at the airport site were also discussed, with more positive findings than expected.

Although the airport land is next to the Connecticut River, the existing levee actually protects the property to the extent that it's not actually in a floodplain and buildings at the site don't need special flood insurance, according to engineering consultant Joseph Canas. But that levee needs about $15 million in improvements in coming years to stay effective, he added.

Chemical pollution from underground storage sites and activities at the airport is also minimal and would not require particularly extensive or expensive cleanup before development, another consultant said.

Rather than issuing a finding on the feasibility of building something new at the airport site, the consultants outlined a "development matrix" of factors that could impact any project. Included are the real-world costs and potential of development plus the years required to get any project off the ground, BJF Planning lead consultant Thomas Madden said.

"We have to show our math," Madden said. "Now we're actually finishing off with calculations and design based on that development matrix for the final report."

That report will be presented to the DECD and state legislature in October and is expected to result in one of three actions: Closing the airport and redeveloping the site, keeping the airport open but closing one runway, and keeping the airport open at its current size.