Aerial Maps of ANE from 1958 to 2006

May 4th 1958                       October 4th 1963                   April 26th 1970

May 6th 1976                    October 25th 1979                    May 5th 1988

June 12th 1995             November 2nd 2001

With land acquisitions in eastern Blaine, the Metropolitan Airports Commission established the Anoka County-Blaine Airport/Janes Field in 1952. The University of Minnesota played a prominent role in the airport's early history. Its aeronautical engineering department's flight facilities program and administrative building were moved there that year from an airport located two miles east at County Road J and Old Highway 8. The facilities program included student flight training, a charter service for the University and chase support for the University's balloon research, begun at the old airport. The upper atmosphere balloon projects, many launched by university physics professor Edward Ney, sponsored by NASA and the Office of Naval Research, were key to America's entry in the space race. The University Hospital later used the flight facilities for its organ transplant program, also as a neonatal air ambulance and transport for Medical Outreach doctors and nurses to hospitals and clinics in outstate Minnesota. The University's flight training program came to an end in 1989. The flight facility, managed by Waldo Anderson for 37 years, was closed down on June 30, 1996. The University's flight needs were then handed over to private charter companies.

The airport houses the Golden Wings Museum, featuring aviation history and a private collection of airplanes. The American Wings Air Museum (AWAM) featuring numerous aircraft displays and memorabilia from the early days of aviation through the modern military era, was started as a Vietnam War-era museum. The AWAM closed in 2010 and became a mobile museum.

In 1962 the airports commission acquired the Radisson Farm, which is occupied today by the National Sports Center and the Victory Links golf course. In 2007 the airport's runway 9/27 was extended 5,000 feet to accommodate corporate jets.

See more Blaine history HERE