Sparsely populated, as evidenced by the once sparse scattering of farms, Long Island, still in its nascent state, had been carpeted by forest, but a single central clearing, the largest east of the Mississippi River, stood like an oasis in the desert. , and served as a spawning ground for aerial life. It was called “Hempstead Plains”. Almost preordained as the threshold of air, its flat, unobstructed expanses called to flight, providing a site for aeronautical experimentation, flying fields and piloting schools, an area where vehicles unfurled wings and rose from the womb that had held them. incubated, chasing a promotion. path that would one day outshine the atmosphere and connect the planet to its moon.
Located in the extreme east of the country, a dividing line that only pointed transcontinentally to the west or transatlantic to the European continent, the area, very close to New York, the most populous city in the world, only served to geographically cement this aviation base. . .
Glenn Hammond Curtiss, the first to aerially triumph over Long Island in his Golden Flyer biplane, won the Scientific American trophy after making a 16-mile, 20-loop flight around Mineola Airfield on July 17, 1909, drawing others inspired by aeronautics and the first commercial buyer of an airplane.
The burgeoning interest and experimentation in aviation, which quickly eclipsed the confines of the tiny field, resulted in the establishment of nearby Hempstead Plaines Airfield, on whose nearly 1,000-acre expanse 25 wooden hangars and grandstands had sprouted by the summer of 1911. The Moissant school, the first civilian institution of its kind in the country, had opened with a fleet of seven Bleriot monoplanes operating from five structures. It subsequently issued the first female pilot’s licence, to Harriet Quimby.
Long Island’s soil, which nurtures aviation as much as grass, provided the setting for the first international aviation meeting the year before at Belmont Park in Elmont, attracting American and European pilots who competed and set speed and performance records with a growing collection. early designs, while Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn served as the origin of the first transcontinental flight piloted by Calbraith Rogers in an EX Vin Fiz biplane designed by the Wright brothers on September 17, 1911. He ended up in San Diego, California, 49 days later . , despite a dizzying series of en-route stoppages and accidents requiring airframe reconstruction.
The first US airmail route, albeit the short and temporary six-mile stretch from Garden City to Mineola on a Bleriot plane, also occurred that year.
Hempstead Plains Airfield, assuming a military role, provided the site for the training of New York National Guard pilots in 1915, and two years later, it had become one of only two Army camps in the United States. United with a fleet of four Curtiss JN-4 Jenny aircraft. It had also been the year it had been renamed “Camp Hazelhurst”, after an Army pilot who had lost his life in a plane crash.
To meet the increased demand for Army pilot training, Field No. 2 was established south of the existing Hazelhurst Airport in 1917 and was subsequently renamed “Mitchel Field” in July of the following year in honor of then-New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel.
The first regularly scheduled airmail service, which took place in May 1918 from Washington to Belmont Park with Curtiss Jennys, gave way to the first heavy aircraft transatlantic crossing from Long Island to Portugal the following year with a trio of planes operated by the Navy, Curtiss NC amphibious seaplanes with four engines, only one of which finally reached the European mainland after two intermediate stops in Newfoundland and the Azores.
The roots of many Long Island aircraft manufacturers were planted during World War I.
The “Golden Age of Aviation”, associated with numerous speed, distance and altitude records, resulted in two famous non-stop flights. The first of these, involving a single-engined Fokker T-2, resulted in a 26-hour, 50-minute transcontinental crossing from Roosevelt Field to San Francisco in 1923, while the second had been the world famous, solo, by Charles Lindbergh. nonstop transatlantic flight four years later, on May 20, 1927, on the Spirit of St. Louis.
After its almost symbolic deployment at dawn shrouded in mist before departure, the silver monoplane plunged into darkness, doubt and the darkness of consensus belief about the attempt, but the little orange glow that pierced the sky in the horizon somehow reflected promise and hope: a target to aim for. However, from today’s point of view, France seemed equally infinitesimal in size. However, the precarious take-off, impeded by mud and water, which barely passed the trees, served as the threshold for the 3,610 miles successfully covered across the Atlantic to Paris.
By 1929, Roosevelt Field, having been integrated with its former half known as “Curtiss Field”, had been considered the “World’s First Airport” due to its paved runways and taxiways, instrument flight equipment, hangars, restaurants, and hotels. , and by the early 1930s, it had been the largest such facility in the country with 450 aircraft based and some 400 moves per hour. It had also been home to the Roosevelt Aviation School, one of the largest civilian pilot training facilities in the US.
During a three-year expansion phase after World War I, which took place between 1929 and 1932, Mitchell Field became one of the largest military installations in the United States, with eight hangars, barracks, operations buildings, and steel and concrete warehouses. , and served as a home for many fighter, bomber, and observation squadrons. The first nonstop transcontinental bomber flight, operated by a B-18 in 1938, departed here, while two squadrons of P-40 Warhawks were based in the field during World War II.
In fact, war-induced demand only served to deepen Long Island’s aviation hub, resulting in an explosive spike in military aircraft design and manufacturing in 1945, by which time some 100,000 local residents had become involved. in aviation-related jobs, primarily with Republic Aircraft. Corporation and Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, in a fusion of man and machine that had finally triumphed in the war.
The first of these, founded in 1931 as the Seversky Aircraft Corporation, moved to larger facilities, redesignating itself as the Republic Aviation Corporation seven years later and becoming the Army Air Corps’ second largest supplier of fighters due to copious amounts of P from superior performance. -47 Thunderbolts sold to them.
The second of these, founded in 1930 by Leroy Grumman, became the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation and had joined the Navy and amphibious aircraft, the first included the two-seater FF-1, the F4F Wildcat, the F6F Hellcat, the TBM / TBF Avenger, F7F Tigercat and F8F Bearcat, with the latter including Grumman Goose, Widgeon, Mallard and Albatross.
However, changing post-war conditions began to tug at Long Island’s aviation roots, as military aircraft contracts no longer needed were canceled and encroaching suburbs stifled Roosevelt and Mitchel Fields to closure. However, at that time its manufacturers had manufactured more than 64,000 civil and military aircraft.
Transcending the atmosphere, aviation became aerospace.
Dr. Robert Goddard, who had successfully designed the world’s first liquid-fuel rockets in Massachusetts, received a $50,000 grant from Harry Guggenheim on Long Island for related research and testing, eventually designing a liquid-fuel rocket motor , a turbine fuel pump, and a gyroscope-controlled steering device.
Subsequently, eleven aerospace companies submitted a bid to design and produce the lunar module transfer component required for the Project Apollo lunar mission, which allowed crew members to travel between the orbiting command module and the lunar surface, and NASA awarded the contract to Grumman in 1962. Two simulators, ten test modules and 13 operational lunar modules were built during the Apollo Program, the most famous of which was the LM-5 “Eagle”, which was separated from the Apollo 11 spacecraft on July 20, 1969 and connected the first human. being with the moon, leaving his mark and the Lunar Module base itself as eternal evidence of this feat.
The seed of aviation planted in Long Island’s Hempstead Plains had sprouted and grown, connecting its own soil with that of its moon.
