Cradle of Aviation
In the years before WWII, many parts of Long Island, such as the Hempstead Plains, were largely undeveloped or farmland, thus allowing for large tracts of land to be used for airports. These airports and the aircraft manufacturers who setup their manufacturing facilities near them, attracted aviation pioneers to the area.
A good example is Amelia Earhart, who moved to New York City in 1925 to be close to airports like the Rogers-Curtis Airport in Valley Stream. Charles Lindbergh, being wealthy, had two homes in the New York area: one in the Tokeneke neighborhood on a peninsula jutting into Scotts Cove in Long Island Sound and the other in East Amwell Township, New Jersey.
This map shows all the airports, past and present, on Long Island and in the greater New York City area. The red markers represent airports that no longer exist. The orange markers are for current airports. Click or tap this map to go to a real interactive Google map.
Pioneer Airfields
The earliest airfields in the United States were on Long Island. They are listed here in roughly chronological order:
▶ Glenwood Country Club Airport
▶ Suffolk County Air Force Base
Airships
On July 6, 1919, British airship R34 was the first airship of any type to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. It landed at Roosevelt Field to huge crowds, similar to the crowds that gathered for Lindberg's landing in Paris.
Chances are good that some of our Strauss family ancestors were there.
Charles A. Lindbergh
On May 21, 1927, Charles A. Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic solo in a fixed-wing aircraft, the Spirit of St Louis. He took off from Roosevelt Field.
Credit: National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Flying Boats
Before WWII, there were few airports anywhere in the world with paved runways that could handle large passenger-carrying aircraft. Therefore, commercial passenger flights were conducted using aircraft that were flying boats. The Boeing 314 Clipper was popular on international routes. Pan American World Airways used the 314 on the route from the U.S. to Europe.
In Nassau County's Town of North Hempstead, a seaplane base was built at Tom's Point on September 14, 1929. It had names like the Port Washington Seaplane Base, the New York Seaplane Base, and the Tom's Point Seaplane Base. This was the terminal for Pan American World Airways regularly scheduled flights to Bermuda and Europe. The base had a small building with U.S. Customs and Immigration along with the airlines facilities.
The flights to Bermuda and Europe moved along at a blazing 155 miles per hour. At this speed, a flight to Europe with one of more refueling stops took more than 24 hours.
Since the cabin of the Boeing 314 was not pressurized, the flight was limited to an altitude of not more than 11,000 feet to avois passenger Hypoxia. This altitude was well below "the weather" so the ride was bumpy at times. In these early days of aviation, there were no (or few) radio navigation systems, so long distance navigation relied on celestial navigation. Not being able to fly above the weather was a hindrance to navigation with overcast skies.
The Boeing 314 accomodated 74 passengers, with up to 34 in berths for night flights.
There were two routes to Europe: the northern and southern routes. The southern route stopped in Horta Harbor in the Azores for refueling before continuing on to Lisbin, Portugal, followed by Marseille, France. The northern route refueled in Shediac, New Brunswick and Botwood, Newfoundland, before crossing to Foynes, Ireland and onward to Southampton, England.
The cost of a round-trip ticket was about $16,000 U.S. dollars (in 2026 dollars). Typical passengers were wealthy royalty, film stars, and tycoons.
▶ Beacons were used to signal pilots where airports were located in the days before radio navigation.
Plane crashes
On January 1, 1942, at 7:00 local time, a U.S. Army Air Force B-25 Mitchell took off from Mitchell Field and headed northwest. During its climb, it developed trouble and was losing altitude fast. The pilot, 2nd Lt Charles W. Van Eeuwen, steered the plane towards a sand pit in New Hyde Park to avoid hitting houses and having civilian casualties. The plane crashed and all five crew members were killed.
Ed Sawicki Sr, husband of Joanne Lubowiecki, was 14 years old at the time. He said that he heard the sound of the airplane as it passed close to his house on Park Avenue in Garden City Park at low altitude. The crash site was almost one-mile from his house.
Map of crash site - The crash site is just north of Michael J. Tully Park. The sand pit is now filled with water.
Newspaper clipping
Aircraft Industry on Long Island
Long Island was ground zero for the fledgling aircraft industry. Here's an example of Long Island companies that were building aircraft:
- Brunner Winkle Aircraft Corp, Glendale, Queens
- Chance Vought Corp, Long Island City
- Columbia Aircraft Company, Valley Stream
- Cox-Klemin Aircraft Corp, Baldwin
- Curtis Aeroplane & Motor Company, Garden City, on the east side of Clinton Road between the railroad and Stewart Avenue.
- Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing Corp, Farmingdale (1924-
- Gregor Aircraft Corp, Roosevelt Field
- Grumman, Bethpage (1942-1996)
- Helicopter Corporation of America, Roosevelt Field
- Kirkham Engineering Company, Farmingdale
- Koun Aircraft, Roosevelt Field
- Remington-Burnelli Aircraft Co, Amityville
- Republic Aviation, Farmingdale
- Seversky Aircraft Corp, Farmingdale (1922-1931)
- Sikorsky Manufacturing Company, Roosevelt
Leon Lubowiecki (husband of Kinga Strauss) worked at the Curtis Aeroplane & Motor Company in Garden City sometime before 1931. Leon was a carpenter and worked on the Curtis Jenny, which was built of wood.
Stanley Lubowiecki (son of Kinga Strauss) worked for Grumman Aerospace in both the Bethpage and Calverton locations. Nick Eichler (husband of Dorothy Pogozelski) worked for Grumman in Bethpage. Both worked on the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) used in the moon landings in the 1960s.
From Ed Sawicki: “I'd be at Grumman in Bethpage from time to time servicing their Tektronix graphics systems. Nick and I would get a chance to talk. He was involved in LEM design.”