Tag Archives: aviation history

Long Island’s American Airpower Museum – Where Aviation History Takes Flight – Offers Chance to Reenact D-Day Parachute Drop

Up up and away: Andrew Beard, of North Babylon, pilots the C-47, “Second Chance,” troop transport plane, from the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, to the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

by Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

The American Airpower Museum is gearing up for a return of its C-47 D-Day living history flight experience on June 12. You can sign up, grab your gear and done your WWII helmet and uniform and fly in the troop transport plane, reenacting the experience of paratroopers on that historic and fateful day.

The flights on Saturday, June 12,will also celebrate the start of summer and a return to normalcy, after the COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines.  

To accommodate demand, AAM has scheduled three flights between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Seats will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis. To book a flight, call (516) 531-3950, visit the Museum’s gift shop or call (631) 454-2039, Thursday – Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  (a great gift for Father’s Day!).

“Parachutists” board the WWII Douglas C-47 Skytrain Troop Transporter at the American Airpower Museum, Farmingdale. D-Day reenactment flights will be held on June 12. (Photo courtesy of American Airpower Museum)

AAM’s Living History Flight Experience is a one-of-a-kind immersive educational program, where re-enactors take you up in an original WWII C-47 to get a sense of what our 101st and 82nd Airborne Division Paratroopers felt on their incredible 1,200-plane D-Day assault.  This unique immersive flight experience includes: a mission briefing; a chance to wear authentic military field jackets, helmets and gear; the actual sights and sounds as the C-47’s engines fire up and you’re off into the blue; see and hear the crew operate their C-47 and paratroopers getting ready for battle; and you actually form up and hook your parachute to a static line!

This is a family-friendly experience for all ages.  The program is about 1.5 hours long and each flight takes 25 minutes.  A flight experience entitles you to bring along an additional person who can visit the Museum all day free of charge. The cost of the C-47 flight is $350 – which goes toward supporting AAM’s mission to honor veterans and U.S. aviation history by preserving the aircraft and their legacy for future generations. 

‘Warbirds’ Continue Tradition Flying in Memorial Day Air Show

Andrew Beard, of North Babylon, pilots the C-47, “Second Chance,” troop transport plane, from the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, to the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Over Memorial Day Weekend, the American Airpower Museum (AAM) continued its traditional participation in the Jones Beach Air Show, flying their fabled “Arsenal of Democracy” warbirds.  AAM’s fleet of iconic and meticulously restored military aircraft included a B-25 Mitchell Bomber, Douglas C-47 Skytrain troop transporter, Grumman TBM Avenger Torpedo Bomber, Curtiss P-40 Flying Tiger, P-51D Mustang Fighter, AT-6 Texan Warbird and AT28D5 Nomad Vietnam Era Fighter.

The Grumman TBM Avenger, piloted by Nick Ziroli , touches down after flying in the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Visitors to the museum got to watch the pilots start their engines, taxi and lift off, performing flybys before leaving to join the Jones Beach Air Show, then watched the aircraft return, touch down and taxi back to Hangar 3.  

The B-25 that General James Doolittle used as transport. Doolittle mounted the first air raid over Japan after Pearl Harbor (they were known as ‘Doolittle’s Raiders”) © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
American Airpower Museum’s “Warbirds” take off for the Memorial Day Bethpage Air Show © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Warbirds take off from the American Airpower Museum for the Memorial Day Bethpage Air Show © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We had the special experience of seeing the close-up and meeting pilots and crew of two visiting U.S. Navy EF/A-18 Super Hornets. The Hornets are supersonic, high-tech combat jets, capable of flying at Mach2 (twice the speed of sound), designed as both fighters and attack aircraft, which have the capability to use electromagnetic energy to disarm the guidance of enemy missiles. 

US Navy pilot Wes Henderson pilots one of the most sophisticated fighter jets in America’s arsenal, the F-18. The Wyandanch native was inspired to fly during his visits to the American Airpower Museum. Watching the young children looking in awe at the collection of aircraft, spanning much of aviation’s military history, you can see that same look of awe and inspiration.

Two young fellows, aged 17 and looking to start college next year, were clearly star-struck in the presence of Henderson and his three other Navy crew, who flew from their base in Whidbey Island, WA in two of the F-18 Super Hornets, to spend Memorial Day Weekend with family and be part of the inspirational events taking place. Both young men are already pilots: Joe Jannelli of Dix Hills, inspired to learn fly after seeing a pamphlet at high school, has his ambition set to become a US Navy pilot (he’s headed to Embry Riddle next year) and C.J. Grasso of Amityville wants to join the Air Force (he’s going to Maritime College) and will actually be flying with the GEICO Skytypers.

Pilots Wes “Chunk” Henderson of Wyandanch, and Ryan “FNQ 1” Ballester of Remsenburg, Long Island and crew Pete “Lil Sippy” Stern of Westchester and Dave “Woogie” Keller of Long Island, discuss their flight plane before departing American Airpower Museum for their US Navy base at Whidbey Island, WA © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The Boeing EA-18G Growler, a US Navy SuperHornet jet capable of Mach2 speed, uses electro-magnetic energy “cannons” in the wings to disarm the enemy’s missile guidance systems visits Long Island’s American Airpower Museum for Memorial Day weekend © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

We also got to see up close a U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II, “The Warthog”. 

The aim of the event: “To honor the men and women of the ‘Greatest Generation’ who built, maintained and piloted the iconic warbirds of yesteryear in a bold defense of freedom during World War II, as well as active duty military, national guard and reservists who continue this mission and command the skies in advanced supersonic jet aircraft to our present day,” said AAM founder Jeff Clyman.  

The A-10 takes off from the American Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The A-10 takes off from the American Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

‘Where Aviation History Takes Flight’

What makes Long Island’s American Airpower Museum so special among aviation museums is that this is so much more than a static display of vintage aircraft. This is living history –just about every day you visit, you can see these historic aircraft fly – you can even purchase a seat to fly in AAM’s AT-6 Texan and Waco Biplane.

The Airpower museum is all about honoring that sacrifice and commemorating the people who flew the missions, parachuted into danger, reported on the war. Rather than tell the history of aviation writ large, it is more about the story of specific planes and people. There is a lot that puts you into the story – you get to climb into a fuselage and take hold of a machine gun with the ammo belt, climb into the C-47 troop transport plane that would shortly take off for its turn in the Air Show, piloted by Andrew Beard of North Babylon (who spent eight years flying for the Canadian Air Force, even piloting Canada’s Air Force One carrying the Prime Minister.)

Long Island’s only flying military aviation museum celebrated its 20th anniversary last year.

Its impressive collection was started by Jeffrey Clyman, president of the museum and the foundation.

His first acquisition was the P10-17 WWII training biplane which used to fly in air shows. His second was the Avenger. The third, the AT-6 “Texan” came from the Spanish air force where it was used for desert warfare in the Sahara

Pilot Nick Ziroli back on the ground after his flight on the Grumman TBM Avenger © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The Grumman TBM Avenger is the same plane model which George H.W. Bush few in WWII in which he was shot down (the other two crew members did not survive); you can see where Bush autographed this plane.  Known as the “ship killer,” so many Japanese ships were destroyed by the torpedoes it carried, that upon seeing it coming, crew would jump off, the museum’s publicist, Bob Salant, tells me during my visit.

You can actually buy a seat for a flight in the WACO UPF-7 biplane (the initials stand for Weaver Aircraft Company of Ohio) and a North American AT-6 Texan, which give you the unparalleled experience of flying with an open cockpit.

Thom Richard pilots “Jacqueline,” a P-51 Mustang fighter © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
“I try to beat gravity every day, and every day I fail,” jokes Thom Richard, pilot of “Jacqueline”.  Richard runs Warbirds Adventure flying school in Florida. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

You can also buy a seat in a D-Day reenactment flying aboard the WWII Veteran Douglas C-47 Gooney Bird, which carried parachutists – you wear an appropriate uniform, there is the radio speech of President Eisenhower sending the troops into this fateful battle, and while you don’t actually parachute, at the end, you are given a card that says whether you lived or died.

Andrew Beard, of North Babylon, pilots the C-47, “Second Chance,” a troop transport plane – the same type of plane used for D-Day (and is used in the museum’s “D-Day Experience” where you get in the same uniforms, fly in the aircraft as if about to parachute. Beard flew for the Canadian Air Force for 8 years, including Canada’s Air Force One that carried the Prime Minister. This C-47 was used in the Berlin Airlift, and spent 30 years in the Israel Air Force (you can see where the Star of David was overprinted, and there is Hebrew on one of the boxes in the cabin) – very likely used in the Yom Kippur and 7-Day wars © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

That’s what “Living history” means to the American Airpower Museum.

Indeed, just about all the aircraft you see in the hangar and on the field (a few are on loan), are working aircraft and have to be flown to be maintained, so any time you visit, you are likely to see planes flying.

Among the planes that played an important role in history is the “Mis-Hap” – a North American B25 Mitchell bomber that was used as a transport plane for General Doolittle, famous for mounting the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo – the first attack on Japan’s mainland after Pearl Harbor. It was General Hap Arnold’s personal plane (subsequent owners included Howard Hughes).

The B-25 that General James Doolittle used as transport. Doolittle mounted the first air raid over Japan after Pearl Harbor (they were known as ‘Doolittle’s Raiders”) © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Another is the Macon Belle, on view in a fascinating exhibit that pays homage to the Tuskegee Airmen, one of whom, William Johnson is a Glen Cove resident. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps during WWII. They flew more than 15,000 individual sorties in Europe and North Africa, earning more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses.

You can walk through the Douglas C-47, the same plane as was used on D-Day to drop parachutists into France, and even purchase a seat for a D-Day reenactment © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

You can walk through the Douglas C-47B. Built in 1935 and in service since 1936, the DC3 started as one of the first commercial civilian airliners. It was best known for being used in the Berlin Airlift, dropping food, clothing and medical supplies to Berliners suffering under the Soviet occupation. The plane is dubbed “Second Chance” possibly because after World War II, it was sold to the State of Israel and saw more than 30 years in the Israel Air Force (very possibly flew in the Yom Kippur and Six Day wars). Today, the C-47B is used in D-Day reenactments.

Kids are inspired at the American Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Inside the hangar, there are several excellent exhibits, including one showcasing the WASPs – the Women Airforce Service Pilots who were used to fly planes to their missions. Another focuses on women war correspondents, among them, Martha Gellhorn, considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century, reporting on virtually every major world conflict over her 60-year career (she was also the third wife of novelist Ernest Hemingway).

Kids are inspired at the American Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Clyman, who started his museum in New Jersey, moved it to Farmingdale, Long Island, the “cradle of aviation,” where America’s aviation industry began and many of these planes were built, and where the people who built them, maintained them and flew them, still live. Many of the docents as well as the pilots are former Republic workers and veterans.

“My dad was a combat pilot in WWII. So was my uncle. My mom was a nurse,” Clyman tells me. “But just as the 1920s followed WWI, and the 1950s after WWII, they didn’t talk about their experiences in war until they were about to die.” His mission is to not only legacy of the planes, but honor the people.

Kids are inspired at the American Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The structure that the American Airpower museum occupies, some 65 years ago, was a crucial part of America’s “Arsenal of Democracy” – it was home to Republic Aviation, the complex where more than 9,000 P-47 Thunderbolts were produced.

“Today, no American aviation museum with a squadron of operational World War II aircrafts has a more appropriate setting for its flight operations,” Clyman says. “Taxing to the very runways and hangars that dispatched Thunderbolts to war, vintage aircrafts recreate those turbulent years and allow the public to watch these planes in their natural environment – the air.”

The hangar where the museum is located is now part of a historic preservation district, as a result of the effort of Senator Charles Schumer and them-Congressman Steve Israel.

There are uniforms, equipment, even two Nikon cameras adapted for use by astronauts that flew in the Space Shuttle.

Here are more photos that capture the homecoming of the F-18 Super Hornet crew:

Wes “Chunk” Henderson arrived in style to visit his family for Memorial Day Weekend from his US Navy Airbase in Whidbey Island, WA – by F18 Growler, a SuperHornet capable of Mach2 speed, uses electro-magnetic energy “cannons” in the wings to disarm the enemy’s missile guidance systems, landing at the American Airpower Museum. As a boy, he was inspired to become a military pilot visiting the museum from his home in Wyandanch. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Joe Jannelli, 17, from Dix Hills and C.J. Grasso, 17, of Amityville, are already pilots and huge fans of Wes “Chunk” Henderson, pilot of the F-18 SuperHornet. Jannelli wants to become a Navy pilot and Grasso wants to be an Air Force pilot © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Wes”Chuck” Henderson and Dave “Woogie” Keller of Long Island before taking off in their F18 Super Hornet © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The US Navy’s F-18’s were not flying in this year’s Memorial Day Bethpage Air Show – that role went to the US Air Force’s Thunderbirds, who flew the practice show on Friday, then returned for a special edition on Monday after being rained out Saturday and Sunday. Henderson and his comrades got special permission to bring their state-of-the-art jets to Long Island and put them on display at the American Airpower Museum. It was Henderson’s first time home since 2018 – his father, George, passed away from COVID-19 exactly a year ago but there was no funeral. This was his first time seeing his mother, Eve, since then. For her part, this was her first time seeing her son land and take off in the F-18. Wes’ girlfriend, Kate Wise, was also able to attend © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
Local boys reach heights as US Navy fliers, piloting and crewing on the F-18s: Pete “Lil Sippy” Stern of Westchester; Ryan “FNQ 1” Ballester of Remsenburg, Long Island; Dave “Woogie” Keller of Long Island; and Wes “Chunk” Henderson of Wyandanch © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
All in the family: Ryan Ballester of Remsenburg, li, with father Lou, a flight instructor who taught his son to fly (another son flies Sea hawk helicopter and third son is an air traffic controller in San Diego © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
 Wes “Chunk” Henderson of Wyandanch and Dave “Woogie” Keller of Long Island in the cockpit © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
 
Ryan “FNQ 1” Ballester of Remsenburg, Long Island and Pete “Lil Sippy” Stern of Westchester in the cockpit © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
 
The US Navy Super Hornets take off from the American  Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The US Navy Super Hornets take off from the American  Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The US Navy Super Hornets take off from the American  Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com
The US Navy Super Hornets take off from the American  Airpower Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The American Airpower Museum, “Long Island’s only flying military aviation museum,” is located on the landmarked former site of Republic Aviation at Republic Airport, Farmingdale, NY.  The Museum maintains a collection of aviation artifacts and an array of aircraft spanning the many years of the aircraft factory’s history.  ‘Where aviation history takes flight!” The Museum is a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Educational Foundation Chartered by the New York State Board of Regents

The American Airpower Museum, Hangar 3, 1230 New Highway, Farmingdale, NY 11735, 631-293-6398, [email protected], www.americanairpowermuseum.com.

See also:

A VISIT WITH THE USAF THUNDERBIRDS

WAYS TO SEE LONG ISLAND’S BETHPAGE AIR SHOW AT JONES BEACH DESPITE WEATHER

16TH ANNUAL BETHPAGE AIR SHOW AT JONES BEACH, LONG ISLAND, HONORS SPIRIT OF MEMORIAL DAY

PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS FROM 15TH ANNUAL MEMORIAL DAY BETHPAGE AIR SHOW AT JONES BEACH, LONG ISLAND

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© 2021 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures

Long Island’s World-Class Cradle of Aviation Museum Hosts Special Events for 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing

Littlest Astronaut meets Apollo 7 Astronaut Walt Cunningham at one of the 50th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing events being held at Cradle of Aviation Museum, Uniondale, Long Island this year. A central mission of Cradle of Aviation Museum is to inspire a new generation of space scientists and astronauts © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

By Karen Rubin, Travel Features Syndicate, goingplacesfarandnear.com

The countdown clock in the lobby of the Cradle of Aviation Museum showed 43 days to July 20, the 50th anniversary of the first man to walk on the moon, on the night of the museum’s grand gala at which seven former astronauts and flight directors were fetedWalt Cunningham (Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 7), Rusty Schweickart (Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 9), Fred Haise (Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 13). Charlie Duke (Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 16), Harrison Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 17) and Apollo Flight Directors, Gerry Griffin and Milt Windler along with Grumman employees who built the lunar module and the equipment which put them there.

Cradle of Aviation Museum, Uniondale, LI, celebrates 50th Anniversary of Lunar Landing © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Throughout this year, the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Uniondale, Long Island, not far from where the lunar module was designed and built by Grumman engineers in Bethpage and a stone’s throw from Roosevelt Field where Charles Lindbergh took off for his historic transatlantic flight to Paris, has been hosting special events to mark the anniversary, use it for STEM education and inspire a new generation eager to reach for the stars.

Cradle of Aviation Museum, Uniondale, LI, celebrates 50th Anniversary of Lunar Landing © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The events climax on July 20, when at the exact same moment as Neil Armstrong made his “giant leap for mankind”, a replica lunar module will descend from the ceiling. Museum goers also can see an actual lunar module, one of the six that Grumman built (three are still on the moon, and the other three are in the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and here at the Cradle of Aviation Museum).

One of the extraordinary exhibits on view at the museum now is “Space: A Journey to Our Future,” which is on view through August 18, 2019, an absolutely thrilling, immersive exhibit which takes you from the dawn of man’s earliest visions of space exploration to the heroic achievements of the past, the unfolding discoveries of today, and the frontiers of the universe that lie ahead. You get to touch actual rocks from the lunar surface and the red planet, explore a futuristic Lunar Base Camp while walking through a full-size space habitat and work pod, get an up-close look at a wide range of artifacts from the space program and experience the past, present and future of space through these and dozens of other displays, interactive (try your hand at landing the space shuttle!) and experiences.

Find yourself in a lunar station in Cradle of Aviation’s “Space: A Journey to Our Future” exhibit © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Also, as part of this special celebration, the museum is showing Todd Douglas Miller’s new documentary film, “Apollo 11: First Steps Edition,” a special giant-screen edition created exclusively for science centers and museum theaters, like Cradle’s Dome Theater. With a newly-discovered trove of never-before-seen 70mm footage and audio recordings, APOLLO 11: First Steps Edition joins Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, the Mission Control team and millions of spectators around the world, during those momentous days and hours in 1969 when humankind took a giant leap into the future.  

The “Apollo at 50: Moon Fest,” on July 20 will be a family festival (9:30-5 pm, with activities 12-4pm) with visits from Long Island Space Shuttle Astronauts including Bill Shepherd (Babylon) and Charlie Carmada (Ozone Park). All day activities include virtual reality experiences, model rocket launches, and a countdown at 4:18 pm to collectively watch, re-experience, and honor as a community, the historic “The Eagle has Landed” Lunar Module landing on the moon. As a special bonus, all museum attendees will get a free showing of the new highly-acclaimed documentary, Apollo 11 First Steps Edition in the immersive Dome Theater. (Tickets: $20)

Then, in the evening, there will be a Countdown Celebration, a lively dinner and champagne toast with 1960s music and dancing, as the community watches and re-experiences the unforgettable first steps on the moon at 10:56 pm with a special moon landing viewing and countdown. There will also be photo opportunities in a re-created 1969 living room.  (The dinner event ticket includes admission to Apollo Moon Fest events during the day; tickets: $125).

Long Island: The Nation’s Cradle of Aviation

The Cradle of Aviation Museum and Education Center is home to over 75 planes and spacecraft  representing over 100 years of aviation history, from hot air balloons to the lunar module, in eight galleries, a planetarium and Long Island’s only Giant Screen Dome Theater.

Cradle of Aviation Museum displays its collections in the original hangars of historic Mitchel Field © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

The Cradle of Aviation Museum commemorates and celebrates Long Island’s part in the history of aviation and space exploration. It is set on land once part of Mitchel Air Force Base which, together with nearby Roosevelt Field and other airfields on the Hempstead Plains, was the site of many historic flights. In fact, so many seminal flights occurred in the area, that by the mid-1920s the cluster of airfields was already dubbed the “Cradle of Aviation”, the origin of the museum’s name. The Museum was recently recognized and listed on New York State’s National Register of Historic Places as a significant part of American history.

The museum originally opened with just a handful of aircraft in the un-restored hangars in 1980. A major renovation and expansion program in the late 1990s allowed the museum to re-open in a state-of-the-art facility in 2002. The museum is undergoing a major fund-raising campaign for a future expansion.

Historic aircraft hang from the ceiling at Cradle of Aviation Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

It is remarkable to contemplate that within a century, aviation went from the Wright Brothers to the moon, from a dangerous sport to mass transportation and commercial enterprise, and Long Island played a significant part.

It starts with Long Island’s geography: a natural airfield, on the eastern edge of the United States, the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean, adjacent to a major population center, and Hempstead Plains, the only natural prairie east of the Allegheny Mountains, writes Joshua Stoff, Curator, Cradle of Aviation Museum.

We trace flying back to the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, NC in 1903, lasting 59 seconds over a distance of 852 feet but Stoff notes that the first recorded aircraft flight took place on Long Island, in 1896 when a Lilienthal-type glider was flown from the bluffs along Nassau County’s north shore. By 1902 gasoline-powered airships were flown over Brooklyn (why doesn’t Long Island get more credit?). By 1910, there were three airfields operating on the Hempstead Plains, Long Islanders were building their own planes, and there were several flying schools and aircraft factories that made Long Island “the center of the aviation world.” Exhibits show artifacts of these early pursuits.

Belmont Park hosted the 1910 International Aviation Meet of the greatest aviators from America and Europe.

Long Island’s vital role in aviation history is told at Cradle of Aviation Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

“The period between 1918 and 1939 is considered the ‘Golden Age of Aviation’ when flying went from being a dangerous sport to a major commercial industry,” Stoff writes. Most famous of all was Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo transatlantic flight, from Roosevelt Field to Paris, in 1927. “This single event revolutionized aviation as nothing else before or since…

“By the early 1930s Roosevelt Field was the largest and busiest civilian airfield in America with over 150 aviation businesses and 450 planes based there. In 1937 the first regular commercial transatlantic airline service in America was begun at Port Washington as huge Pan American Martin and Boeing flying boats departed and arrived regularly at Manhasset Bay.”

Long Island’s aviation history is told in eight galleries at Cradle of Aviation Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

World War II sparked aviation and demand for aircraft. The two biggest aircraft companies, Grumman, was founded in Long island in 1930; Republic in 1931. They produced most of the military aircraft; other companies, Sperry, Brewster, Ranger, and Columbia, also contributed to the war effort. By 1945, 100,000 Long Islanders were employed in the aircraft industry.

Though aircraft are no longer manufactured on Long Island (the Grumman plant in Bethpage is now a movie and television studio), it is surprising to realize that there are still 240 Long Island producing parts for virtually every American aircraft that flies. 

Long Island’s important contribution to aviation is brilliant displayed in exhibits throughout the halls.

Long Island in Space

Cradle of Aviation Museum, Uniondale, Long Island, has one of only three actual lunar modules on display. Built by Grumman, in Bethpage, Long Island, the other three were left on the moon © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Thomas J. Kelly, of Cutchogue, retired president of the Grumman Space Station Integration Division and formerly lunar module engineering director, writes that there is still some Long Island left on the moon – six spacecraft built on Long Island remain on the moon,

Lunar rock on view at Cradle of Aviation Museum © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

Designing and building those craft, as part of the greater challenge of beating the Russians to the moon by 1969, was a monumental endeavor. Writing on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the moon landing, Kelly reflected, “For some 7,000 Grumman employees, however, it was far more intimate than an issue of national prestige. We felt personally empowered to put Americans at the edge of a frontier that even today seems incomprehensible. Yet not only did we succeed in meeting the mission; the efforts of our nation’s commitment to lunar exploration also inspired people around the world and showed the finest possibilities of human achievement and of creating technology that now helps to power our society…

“Nobody at Grumman who worked on the LM will ever forget it. Even the 12-and 14-hour weekdays, the frustrating paperwork and the sheer complexity of designing, building and testing the module could not dim our dedication. From the sweeper to the chief engineer, we all knew that we were part of a majestic endeavor, that we were making history happen.”

I helped build that:” Richard A. Hoffman, in front of the Cradle of Aviation’s actual lunar module, was a metallurgical engineer at Grumman who helped design the lunar module. © Karen Rubin/goingplacesfarandnear.com

At the gala, I meet Richard A. Hoffman sitting in front of the museum’s own actual lunar module, built by Grumman in Bethpage. He was a metallurgist who determined what the different parts should be made of aluminum for the struts, titanium for the propellant tanks, stainless steel propellant lines, high output silver and silver oxide batteries. He had to figure the pyrotechnics that would cause the four bolts that secured the module on the descent, to burst at just the right time with guillotine cutters for lift off from the moon. Hoffman told me he came to Grumman in the summer of 1963, and got a job there right after graduating Brooklyn Polytech in 1964. He was in just the right place at the right time, when Grumman started working on the Apollo program and he was transferred to engineering.

Next: Apollo Astronauts Look Back During Gala at Long Island’s Cradle of Aviation Museum Marking 50th Anniversary of Lunar Landing

Cradle of Aviation Museum, Charles Lindbergh Blvd, Garden City, NY 11530, General (516) 572-4111, Reservations (516) 572-4066, http://cradleofaviation.org.

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© 2019 Travel Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc. All rights reserved. Visit goingplacesfarandnear.com, www.huffingtonpost.com/author/karen-rubin, and travelwritersmagazine.com/TravelFeaturesSyndicate/. Blogging at goingplacesnearandfar.wordpress.com and moralcompasstravel.info. Send comments or questions to [email protected]. Tweet @TravelFeatures. ‘Like’ us at facebook.com/NewsPhotoFeatures