Glenn A. Rushman (1920-2014) was a student in civil engineering at Michigan State College when WWII broke out. He left college and enlisted in the US Army Air Force in 1942, trained in the P-40 Warhawk, and obtained his wings in March of 1944. (During training, another aircraft collided with his, completely severing his tail section and sending him into an unrecoverable spin. He had to hand-crank his canopy and was able to parachute to safety at the last second. The pilot of the other aircraft also had to bail out.) He was assigned to the 486th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, at Bodney, England, where he flew the P-51 Mustang on 57 combat missions totaling 237 operational hours. His group became known as the "Bluenosed Bastards of Bodney" because of their many successful actions against the Luftwaffe. Glenn was awarded the distinguished flying cross and received several other honors, and would remain in the Air Force Reserve, eventually retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.
Glenn continued his civil enginering studies after the war, completing his BS degree in 1947. His senior thesis was titled "Design of East Lansing & Michigan State College Airport" (the pdf can be found here). He proposed a Class-2 airport, as designated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, consisting of three intersecting runways, to serve East Lansing and the growing Michigan State College. (He predicted that MSC would grow to 12,000 students by 1970. In fact, Michigan State University, as it would be know by then, enrolled over 40,000 students on campus in the fall of 1970.) He also noted that local interest in general aviation would be bolstered by many returning Air Force veterans who would want to continue their flying activities. It is interesting to see the list of aircraft that Glenn described as being suitable for a Class-2 airport:
Abrams Explorer T-2
Curtiss-Wright A-19-R
Curtiss-Wright CW-22
Piper Cub Coupe
Piper Cub Sport
Piper Cub Trainer
Ryan S-T-4 Special
Ryan S-C
Waco F K S
Boeing 247D
Fairchild 24
Waco EGC
Bellanca 14-9
Cessna C-145
Howard DGA-15P
Monocoupe 90-A
North American AT-6
Stinson S R I O F
Glenn's choice of three intersecting runways (all shorter than 3000 feet) is clearly influenced by his wartime experience flying tail-draggers, along with his recognition that the airport would be used primarily by small, conventional-gear aircraft. I'm guessing that he anticipated an influx of former military single-engine aircraft, repurposed for GA.
Glenn's airport was never built, and he went on to work for the Dow Chemical Company as a civil engineer until he retired in 1982. The area he proposed for the airport has seen both commercial and residential development, and is now quite crowded. I endeavor to honor Glenn by creating this airport in MSFS, keeping as close to his original design as possible. Unfortunatey, I never met Glenn, although I taught engineering at MSU for 35 years. If you knew him or have any interesting information about him, please provide your comments.
This is my first attempt at creating scenery for MSFS. I welcome your feedback on problems or suggestions for improvement. I have used only Asobo/Microsoft elements in the scenery, so just unzip and place the folder titled "mulberrywing-airport-kmsc-glenn-a-rushman-airfield" in your community folder.
Notes:
If you depart on runway 18 and continue to fly the runway heading, you will pass over Spartan Stadium, just 1.5 nautical miles to the south.
Use of the add-on We Love VFR, Region 2, will introduce a cell phone tower at the approach end of runway 31. You can sneak around this once established on final.
The airport is shoe-horned in among residential neighborhoods and commercial buildings. There are many trees along the approaches to each runway, but if you stay on the proper glide slope (using the PAPI) you will remain above the trees. Be sure not to drop below the glideslope.
KMSC is located within the inner five-mile Class-C ring of Lansing Capital City Airport (KLAN). Thus, it should be considered a satellite airport, and contact with KLAN established as soon as is practicable after departure (14 CFR 91.130, Operations in Class C airspace.)
Nice and interesting history. Downloaded both the airport and the thesis. Thanks!
1 years ago
Glad you like it!
1 years ago
MulberryWing
edpatino
This is a seriously cool concept! I love the idea of simulating never-built airport designs. Thanks much for the time and research you put into this!
1 years ago
Thanks for the kind words! I had to wipe out a few neighborhoods, but that's the price that must be paid.
1 years ago
MulberryWing
DennyAtkin