The Island Airliners Stopped Needing

Kanton Island in Kiribati looks almost too small for the runway it carries. A roughly two-kilometer airstrip still cuts across the northwestern edge of this remote Pacific atoll, even though the island now supports only a very small resident community. This film traces how Canton became part of Pan American Airways’ trans-Pacific system, grew into an aviation community with housing, schools, weather services and medical support, and then lost its routine stopover role as longer-range aircraft began flying past it in 1958. The route did not disappear. It learned to bypass Canton — while the airfield itself survived through federal operation, NASA use and later plans for a possible new aviation role. ▶ Watch more LAND SCAR documentaries:    • Strange Borders, Forgotten Places & Geogra...   SOURCES FAOLEX — Treaty of Friendship between Kiribati and the United States https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/bi-67... Government of Kiribati — Kiribati Development Plan 2024–2027 https://mfed.gov.ki/sites/default/fil... Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility — Kiribati National Infrastructure Investment Plan https://www.theprif.org/sites/theprif... Federal Register — FAA transfer of Canton Island Airport to NASA, 1965 https://archives.federalregister.gov/... Federal Register — Part 163, Canton Island Airport, 1962 https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services... Pacific Islands Monthly — December 1958 https://pacificislandsmonthly.com/pdf... Federal Register — Federal Civil Airports on Canton and Wake Islands, 1950 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/F... U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian — 1939 Canton and Enderbury agreement https://history.state.gov/historicald... UK Treaty Series No. 21 (1939) — Canton and Enderbury agreement https://treaties.fcdo.gov.uk/data/Lib... Google Earth https://earth.google.com/ #CantonIsland #Kiribati #PanAm