What's This?

[deguspice]

What this?

Comments screened until the desired answer is found. (This should be an easy one)

(Idea borrowed from [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com])


Edit: I got a couple answers, but it's an explanation of the big black thing at the center that I'm looking for.

Comments

[jostajam.livejournal.com]

It looks like a very tiny airport.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Nope. In fact in a way it's the opposite.

[c1.livejournal.com]

In a way, it's the same, though-- both a Nike site and an airport do feature aeronautical devices, and in both, the expected direction of the 'craft on the ground is up, for various definitions of "up". And depending on the airport, the byproduct of the aircraft going up is "bang", for varying definitions of "byproduct".

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Airports have runways. Nike sites have launch bays.

Airplanes are expected to return to the ground in one piece, and not crash into another object in the air.

[c1.livejournal.com]

So a common expression amongst pilots is "a good landing is one from which the passengers can walk away, while an excellent landing is one after which the aircraft remains flyable." Kinda sets a low bar.

I would argue that the purpose of the flight has little to do with the designation of the launching facility:
Rockets launch from a pad, and land via parachute, requiring rebuilding a large percentage of the vehicle in order to be ready for re-use, unless you're the space shuttle-- in which case you glide to a landing on a runway in similar fashion to a conventional airplane. (Though you'd be right to say that currently, at least, nothing of that ilk lands on a pad.)
The vessel from which kamikaze pilots took off remains an aircraft carrier, yet they had no intentions of making the return trip that most of their comrades made.
And though helicopters do typically rest on a helipad, one often finds helipads at airports.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

A baseball team training field.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

nike site PR-58?

it was the "quite the opposite" clue that made me think to look up old missile sites.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

That was more of a hint than I intended. I didn't realize that it would unscreen the comment when I replied.

[cintyber.livejournal.com]

Signal Rock Park little league baseball

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

An (empty) nuclear warhead bunker in Signal Rock Park in North Kingstown, RI?

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

The big black thing at the center looks like water to me.

Zooming in a bit:

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=41.629815,-71.436539&spn=0.223513,0.235863&t=k&z=18

Looks like a baseball field to me. The Pawsox play in Pawtucket, though, don't they? Pawtucket is north of Providence, and where you're zoomed in on is south of Providence, kinda on the other side of the bay from Fall River.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Definitely not water.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Right, but the exact center of that is the baseball fields. Or are you referring to the small black square just south of the baseball fields?