Brainard Field was opened in 1921 in a former cow pasture in the southeast Hartford Neighborhood of South Meadows. For its first decade, officials limited the airfield’s use primarily to small passenger flights, but in 1933, city officials opened Brainard to commercial traffic. Passenger airlines, such as American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, and Colonial Airlines served Brainard Airport. However, the airport could not handle the large Douglas DC-3 and heavier planes that became common in the 1930s. The weight of the planes was too much for grass runways so later, the city of Hartford installed a blacktop runway. Brainard could not accommodate large aircraft because its runways were too short; the airport’s proximity to Connecticut River also resulted in the challenges related to flying in fog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford%E2%80%93Brainard_Airport