You're not likely to see any flying fish here today but if you were in this spot on April 17, 1910 you would have witnessed history in the making. About 1 mile ESE of here W. Starling Burgess' Flying Fish made the "first flight from the first runway in New England". Three short, controlled and fully powered flights over the salt marsh on Plum Island were second only to the first actual flight that had taken off from a frozen Lake Chebbaco in Hamilton, MA on February 28th of the same year. That plane was manned by Augustus Herring who had partnered with Burgess to design and build a biplane.
Wanting some wide open space and a secluded place to work on his designs, Burgess moved his operations to Plum Island where he built a wooden runway over the dunes and marshes. W. Sterling was an incredible inventor and designer. He was a student of the Wright Brothers and one of the first engineers. He fitted a biplane with pontoons which made the first flight to begin and end on water. His factory in Marblehead, MA produced 8 planes a day for the US Army and Navy during WWI. The Brutal Beast, his 14' boat design, was mass-produced.
During WWII Burgess enlisted in the Navy and became a Lt. Commander designing for the government. After the war he returned to the business of designing yachts and had three winners of the America's Cup. In his later years Burgess experimented with aluminum and alloys on car designs and ships. He became the third person (following the Wright Bros.) to receive the Collier Trophy, the highest award in US Aviation.
The Flying Fish
The nearby Plum Island Aerodrome (2B2)houses The Burgess Museum. You can take a self-guided tour; there are airplane models, a diorama and displays of historic aviation memorabilia. The role the airport has played in aviation and local history is explained. The museum is open to the public free of charge year round. 2B2 is the oldest privately owned airport in the country still in operation.