Woonsocket Airport – Rhode Island

Updated November 20, 2025

     There doesn’t seem to be a lot of documentation about the former Woonsocket Airport that was once located on the north side of Diamond Hill Road in the northern part of the City of Woonsocket.   Today a large shopping plaza occupies the land where the airport once stood.

     Based on available information found in the Woonsocket Call, it is surmised that construction of the airport was begun in late 1929, or early 1930. 

     On April 7, 1930, it was reported in the Woonsocket Call & Evening Reporter that the first airplane had landed at the new airport, thereby indicating it was now open for business.  

     The airport was reportedly sponsored by the Woonsocket Chamber of Commerce, and was still under ongoing development as of April of 1930.  The airport was operated by the newly formed Woonsocket Airways, the city’s first aviation company, which owned at least one airplane.  As of the end of April plans were underway to build a hangar large enough to house two or three airplanes.

     The Superintendent of Operations for Woonsocket Airways was George H. Mitchell, who was supervising the ongoing improvements at the airfield.

     The land occupied by the airport was owned by William L. Whipple, 77, a farmer who owned several hundred acres of land in north-eastern Woonsocket.  Mr. Whipple had been an aviation enthusiast for many years, and on April 27, 1930, went to the airport and took his first airplane ride.  When it was over he remarked, “That’s something to talk about when I get old.”

     Sources:

     Woonscoket Call & Evening Reporter, “First Aeroplane Landing Reported At Airport Here”, April 7, 1930

     Woonsocket Call, “77-Year-Old Man Enjoys Plane Ride”, April 28, 1930.

Click on images to enlarge. 

Illustration from the Woonsocket Call & Evening Reporter,

February 5, 1930.