Hanscom Air Force Base began its existence while the United States was considering its entry into World War II.

In May 1941, the Massachusetts Legislature authorized the purchase of a large tract of farmland spanning the borders of the towns of Bedford, Lincoln, Concord and Lexington for a Boston Auxiliary Airport.

[3] In mid-1942, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts leased the Bedford airport to the War Department for use by the Army Air Forces.

[3] In February 1943, the airport was renamed Laurence G. Hanscom Field in honor of a Massachusetts-born pilot and aviation enthusiast who had been a reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Hanscom had died in February 1941, in an aircraft accident in Saugus, Massachusetts, while he was lobbying vigorously at the State House for the establishment of the airport at Bedford.

[3] Later in the war, the Bedford Army Air Field served as a site for testing new radar sets developed by MIT's Radiation Laboratory.

In 1945, when the MIT and Harvard wartime laboratories were dissolved, the Army Air Forces aimed to continue some of their programs in radar, radio and electronic research.

After some negotiation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agreed in May 1952 to cede land on one side of the airport to the federal government and to give a 25-year renewable lease on the airfield itself.

For base personnel, there were new service facilities—medical, youth and family support centers—as well as additional housing and a temporary lodging facility.

[3] Since July 1992, Hanscom and the Electronic Systems Center (ESC) have been part of the Air Force Materiel Command.

Subsequent reorganizations changed the groupings, but all the above organizations (though renamed) except the 38th EIW remained under Hanscom's reporting chain.

[3] In 2004, ESC was reorganized into a named wing, group and squadron unit, to better reflect the organization of the Air Force as a whole.

[3] In June 2011, the Air Force Research Laboratory Sensors Directorate moved from Hanscom to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and the Space Vehicles Directorate moved to Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, closing more than 60 years of laboratory presence on Hanscom.

On 8 August 1962, a US Air Force KC-135A tanker crashed on approach to runway 11, destroying the aircraft and killing all three members of the flight crew.

[9] Hanscom also supports the Massachusetts National Guard Joint Force Headquarters, Massachusetts Wing Civil Air Patrol, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and MITRE Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, and various other companies and groups related to the Department of Defense.