Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
New York, Central Long Island
© 2002, © 2008 by Paul Freeman. Revised 1/31/08.
Grumman Bethpage (revised 8/6/07) - Hazelhurst Field / Roosevelt Field (revised 10/22/06)
Hicksville Aviation Country Club (revised 10/22/06) - Hazelhurst Aviation Field #2 / Mitchel Field / Mitchel AFB (revised 1/31/08)
Rogers Airport / Curtiss Airport / Columbia Aircraft Company (revised 1/29/08)
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Hicksville Aviation Country Club, Hicksville, NY
40.74 North / 73.53 West (East of New York, NY)
The Hicksville "Country Club" Airfield,
as depicted on the 1930 "Rand McNally Standard Map of NJ With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airfield while open has not been located.
According to an article by John Fleischman in the 2/99 issue of Air & Space / Smithsonian Magazine,
this airfield was founded by an elite group of fliers who formed what they thought would be
the first of a string of aviation country clubs that would extend from coast to coast.
A national committee had been formed in April 1928 to issue charters,
and at one point, 114 such clubs were supposedly in the works.
Charles Lindbergh was a charter member of the Aviation Country Club in 1929.
He was brought in by its first president, Charles Lanier Lawrance,
who'd designed the Wright J5C Whirlwind air-cooled radial engine for the Spirit of St. Louis.
Lindbergh, who had just married Anne Morrow that May, taught his bride to fly at the club.
The club's treasurer was another giant of the aeronautics industry, Chance Vought,
and the board was fleshed out with society types, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
and Reginald Langhorne "Peter" Brooks, a band leader & a superb young pilot (he was also the nephew of Lady Astor).
The Aviation Country Club of Long Island opened in June 1929,
which turned out to be very unfortunate timing,
as the stock market crashed 4 months later.
The Sportsman Pilot wrote in 1929:
"The Long Island club is no longer a test tube.
It may have been an experimental device at first.
Now it has been elevated from the laboratory.
It has become a beacon for guidance of other club units...
The Hicksville club has not contented itself with fair-weather flying & tea at the clubhouse,
skeptical suspicions to the contrary notwithstanding."
The earliest depiction of the Aviation Country Club which has been located
was on the 1930 "Rand McNally Standard Map of New Jersey With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
For all the snobbish overtones, the Long Island club was set up for serious flying.
A huge hangar was built, 200' wide by 60' deep.
Until the Second World War, 2 mechanics were on duty every day
with 4 helpers to gas up the airplanes with high-octane fuel,
push them onto the line, and hand-prop the engines.
The 1934 U.S. Navy Aviation Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
depicted the Long Island Aviation Country Club as consisting of a rectangular-shaped field.
The "Aviation Country Club" was depicted on the 1935 Regional Aeronautical Chart
as a commercial or municipal airport.
The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo)
described the "Long Island Aviation Country Club" as having a sod rectangular landing area, measuring 2,200' x 1,500'.
Alan Reddig recalled, “My father, James Reddig, who was Grover Loening's Assistant Chief Engineer,
was an early member, and he had many fond memories of the Club.
I have Charles Lindbergh's autograph in the form of his pledge card
for one of the club's annual Christmas gift fund collections for the club's staff.
My father said that one of the last times he saw Lindbergh at the club
was when, a few day's after the Lindbergh baby had been kidnapped,
Lindbergh landed at the club to refuel before flying on with some police on board
to follow up on a tip that the baby might be somewhere in New England.
Dad said that everyone kept a respectful distance
as Lindbergh went about checking out the plane
for the hop over Long Island Sound while the ground crew was fueling it.”
An undated (circa 1939?) aerial photo (courtesy of Bob Levittan).
The original caption read, "The latest types of private planes assembled
on the flying field of the Aviation Country Club at Hicksville, L.I.
on June 30 for the club's 4th annual private Demonstration Air Meet.
An article (courtesy of Bob Levittan) described the club as follows:
"The Aviation Country Club, which is at Hicksville, is the swankiest of its kind in the country.
There are dozens of other flying clubs in the U. S., the most active ones lying west of the Alleghenies.
But most of them use commercial hangars & airports.
Often enough they consist of a group of enthusiasts who own a secondhand Waco & take off from a cow pasture.
The Aviation Country Club, however, counts 175 wealthy flying members.
Of these, 76 own their own planes & most of the rest are licensed pilots.
The Club's swimming pool, tennis courts & clubhouse (with 4 bedrooms) are frills.
The members really pay their $250 initiation fee & the $150/year dues
because the Club offers useful facilities for their planes:
a landing field, a big hangar, mechanics, fuel & oil.
It has a flying instructor, just as another country club would have a golf pro. It rents & sells planes.
Every now & then, it stages an air demonstration, comparable to an invitation golf match,
to which plane makers send their products & pilots."
An undated (circa 1939?) aerial photo (courtesy of Bob Levittan).
The original caption read, "Aviation Country Club at Hicksville, L.I.
is the only one which boasts clubhouse, tennis court, swimming pool as well as hangar."
An undated (circa 1939?) photo (courtesy of Bob Levittan)
of several planes at the Aviation Country Club, including Stinson, Waco, and Fairchild.
An undated (circa 1939?) aerial photo (courtesy of Bob Levittan).
The original caption read, "Members & guests of Aviation Country Club watch a Luscombe monoplane fly at air demonstration.
In formation is a Lockheed."
An undated (circa 1939?) aerial photo (courtesy of Bob Levittan).
The original caption read, "The hangar at the club is a major reason for becoming a member.
Here 20 fair-sized planes can be stored at once.
Mechanics offer complete repair service, keeping an active watch on all members' planes,
giving them a thorough overhauling every 25 flying hours."
In nearly 20 years of flight operations,
the club never had a serious accident resulting in injury - not even at the annual airshow.
Instead of death-defying stunts & hell-for-leather pylon races,
manufacturers used the show to put on dignified exhibitions of their latest products.
The Flying Committee's 1939 invitation to manufacturers made the tone of the event clear.
"Each demonstrator will be asked to demonstrate his ship in the air for approximately 5 or 6 minutes.
The Committee will permit no stunting, excessive pull-offs & climbs or unorthodox maneuvering,
the demonstration being purely to show off the ship's best qualities.
It is important that each demonstrator realize that he is not in competition & also that no sales approaches be made."
The chance to present the best aircraft to the best people was irresistible to those in the business
(many of whom belonged to the club anyway),
and the shows were hugely successful - too successful in some ways.
Club members & demonstrators were issued entry ribbons,
but keeping the ordinary people of Hicksville away was difficult.
They lined the roads & trespassed on the airfield for a glimpse of the amazing craft on display or flying by.
In 1939, the club had TWA's "stratosphere laboratory plane" & a trio of Goodyear blimps,
as well as flybys from Pan Am's Sikorsky S-42 Bermuda Clipper flying boat & the Douglas DC-4 prototype.
The crowds, both beribboned & uninvited, were enthralled.
From the beginning the club was a perfect place to fly, recalled former member Betty Gillies.
It had 100 acres, most of it an "all directions" grass landing field in the midst of an endless plain of potatoes.
In case of a forced landing, the potato fields were a great reassurance, said Gillies.
Betty's first ship was a de Havilland 60 X Moth.
She bought it from Grover Loening, who had the airplane shipped from Britain.
His aeronautical engineering firm put it on floats,
and Bud Gillies, Betty's husband, was Loening's test pilot.
When Loening was done, Loening sold the Moth to Betty.
She put it back on wheels.
"We were in the business," Gillies explained matter-of-factly, "so we had the airplanes."
The club's mix of status, wealth, and insider connections produced some unusual scenes on the flightline.
The club newsletter noted in August 1938
that "Mr. Roy Grumman is now keeping his new G-32A in the hangar.
It is a 2-place conversion of the Navy F-3-F fighter with an 830 HP Cyclone.
It can climb to 12,500 feet in 5 minutes."
Imagine a modern day "Mr. Grumman" rolling up at a general aviation field
in a civilian version of his company's Navy F-14 Tomcat.
The same issue noted that Mr. Howard Hughes had dropped by the club
at the conclusion of his record 3 & a half day around-the-world flight
and had been ferried back to Newark Airport in the club's Stinson.
WW2 seemed to help the club in the first months; flying lessons were in high demand.
Barbara Kibbee Jayne was hired by Bud Gillies early in 1942 as the club's chief instructor.
He'd flown up to Troy, New York, where Jayne had just qualified
as the first woman instructor in the new Civilian Pilot Training Program, just to talk her into it.
After she reported for work in Hicksville, there weren't enough hours in the day.
She taught 7 days a week, dawn to dusk.
"All kinds of people went out & learned to fly," she says.
"To this day, I can't think of anything more thrilling than a first solo.
It was just you & God."
Despite the workload, teaching flying at the club was fun for Jayne in ways that it never was after the war.
In 1942 aviation fuel was not yet being rationed,
and members could still fly up to Nova Scotia to pick up salmon or down to the Chesapeake Bay to hunt ducks.
Some club members joined the Civil Air Patrol & were sent out to monitor the coast,
where they "spotted quite a few submarines off the island," Jayne recalls.
Over time, the fabric-covered biplanes were joined by high-wing monoplanes such as the Fairchild Ranger,
and then the first all-metal sport aircraft, such as the Ryan S-T.
These & other models are the signature airplanes of what historians now call the Golden Age of Aviation.
Other aircraft based at or visiting the club included the Beech 17,
Bellanca Skyrocket, Lockheed 10, Boeing 247-D, and Grumman G-21.
But as the war continued, the club found it harder & harder to retain good help.
Jayne says Grumman would lend mechanics to the club for a day or an afternoon.
By then, the club's wartime flying days were numbered.
Jayne herself was spending more & more time test flying production aircraft at Grumman.
Many of the club's women members had gone into the service as ferry pilots.
Jayne is not sure exactly when the club suspended operations for the duration of the war,
but almost her last memory of the club was of a party there -
not a high-society event but a wedding thrown by the Polish refugee couple who served as the live-in housekeeper & cook.
The April 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer)
described the Aviation Country Club as having a 2,400' unpaved runway.
To be sure, the Aviation Country Club of Long Island survived the war & resumed operations.
Former airfield worker Alfred Merrill, however, did not get back to Long Island to visit his parents until the spring of 1948,
only to be told the club had just closed permanently.
Standing outside his parents' house in Hicksville, he found the silence strange.
There were no small aircraft taking off from the club airfield.
On another visit, Merrill drove over to see for himself.
"The place had been bulldozed & they were building Levittown," he recalls.
"The buildings were gone. What happened to all our planes I can't say, but everything was gone."
For some, that's the final irony of the Aviation Country Club of Long Island: It's buried under Levittown.
What was once an elite social club in pre-war America
was sold off for post-war America's most famous mass-housing development.
For former members like Betty Gillies, the memory of the club's end was painful.
"That horrible time," she said. "Those little houses. Hundreds of them."
The club had fallen victim to rising land values.
While Hicksville was charmingly rural in 1929,
twenty years later it was about to become solidly suburban.
And as the houses closed in, it became dangerous to operate an airfield.
When William Levitt offered $2,200 an acre,
the club ceased flying in May 1948 & began looking for a new home.
The hangar was sold & reassembled in nearby Bethpage,
where it served for years as a perfume factory, then a pickle works, and finally a tuxedo warehouse.
Local historians say parts of other club buildings were trucked away & incorporated into 5 private homes.
The Hicksville "Country Club" Airfield was still depicted on the 1950 NY Sectional Chart (courtesy of Mike Keefe).
It was depicted as having a 2,300' unpaved runway.
The club planning committee found a new site in 1950, a small private airport at Commack.
The members, however, had lost interest,
and that August, 90% voted to dissolve the club forever.
The 1994 USGS aerial photo showed the site of the former airport to be occupied by dense housing,
with not a trace of the airfield still recognizable.
As seen in a 2002 aerial photo, the site of the former airport is occupied by dense housing.
Today a street in Hicksville called Pilots Lane
is essentially the only sign that the Aviation Country Club of Long Island ever existed.
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Grumman Bethpage Airfield (BPA), Bethpage, NY
40.75 North / 73.49 West (West of Republic Airport, Long Island, NY)
Grumman's Bethpage Airfield, as depicted on the August 1938 NY Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
This was the former factory airfield of the Grumman Aircraft Corporation,
which relocated from Farmingdale to Bethpage in 1936.
Thousands of aircraft were produced at the factory.
F6F Hellcats are assembled on Grumman's Bethpage production floor in 1944.
Grumman's Bethpage Airfield, as depicted on the 1945 NY Sectional Chart.
Mark Ball recalled working at "Bethpage as a production test pilot from November 1943 until September 1945."
He flew everything from F6F Hellcats, F7F Tigercats, F8F Bearcats, to Widgeon amphibians.
Mark recalled that the primary runway was repaved & lengthened by 1,000' in 1945,
a process which involved temporarily operating from shortened portions of the main runway,
and at one point led to operating solely from the much shorter crosswind runway.
While this was fine for the smaller F6F & amphibians,
it wasn't very comfortable for the twin-engine F7F Tigercat fighter,
with its much longer runway requirements.
The 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer)
described Grumman Bethpage Field as having a 5,400' hard-surfaced runway,
A 1952 profile of the XF10-1 Jaguar prototype at Bethpage (courtesy of Brett).
A 1952 front view of the XF10-1 Jaguar prototype at Bethpage in 1952 (courtesy of Brett).
In a 1960 aerial view looking northeast at the Bethpage airfield,
two runways appeared to still be in use,
with a third former runway used for aircraft parking.
Grumman Bethpage Field was described by the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory
as having 2 paved runways.
An undated view of NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft (a modified Grumman Gulfstream II) at Bethpage (courtesy of Brett).
Grumman Bethpage Field, as depicted on the 1979 NY Terminal Control Area Chart (courtesy of Bill Suffa).
The 1979 USGS topo map depicted a total of 3 runways at the Grumman Bethpage Airfield.
By the time of the 1982 AOPA Airport Directory (courtesy of Ed Drury),
Grumman Bethpage Field was reduced to a single active runway (6,000' concrete Runway 15/33).
The Grumman Bethpage airfield was still depicted as an active airfield on the 1979 NY TCA chart (courtesy of Bill Suffa).
It was depicted as having 2 paved runways,
with the longest being the 6,600' northwest/southeast runway.
The airfield was surrounded by extremely dense development,
leaving insufficient room to operate modern high performance jet aircraft.
For this reason, production & flight test of Grumman's last jet aircraft deigns (A-6 & F-14)
were moved to the newly-constructed Calverton Naval Weapons Plant Airfield,
further east on Long Island, and the Bethpage airfield was closed (at some point in the 1990s?).
The sole remaining Grumman aircraft production (E-2) has since
been consolidated in the 1990's to St. Augustine, FL.
The Bethpage airfield was closed at some point in the early 1990s (evidently before 1994).
At the time of the airfield closure, the only remaining runway
was the longest of the original 4 runways (approximately 7,000' long).
In the 1994 USGS aerial picture, the primary runway had only recently been closed,
and portions of at least 3 other runways still existed.
The Grumman airfield was still shown on 1997 sectional chart as an abandoned airfield.
An aerial view looking southeast at the closed Grumman airfield in 1997, by Tom Kramer.
A 1999 aerial view looking east at the remains of the Grumman Bethpage Airfield by Philip Kineyko.
Tom Kramer reported from an overflight in 2003 that
"about a quarter of the runway remains & parts of the main ramp.
Since construction is already completed of the office park
(except for a field adjacent to the runway on the eastern side),
I don't think the remaining runway will be torn up completely anytime soon.
They built a road along & over it's western edge
and a new watertower is about 100' from it's eastern edge.
Two closed X's are clearly visible."
What a sad end for a historic airfield,
where thousands of our country's military aircraft were built & took their first flights.
A circa 2001-2005 aerial photo looking south at what appear to be former hangars at the Bethpage complex,
with some of the remainder of the runway pavement along the bottom-left.
A 2005 aerial photo by Paul Freeman, taken from a Diamond Eclipse at 8,000 feet, looking northeast at the former Grumman Bethpage Airfield.
An undated (pre-2007) photo of the remains of a former runway or taxiway at Bethpage.
Two undated (pre-2007) photos of the several former hangars at Bethpage.
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Carlton Klein reported, “The old Grumman plant still has one significant aviation usage (at least it did in 2001 when I was last there):
it is used as a base for one of Nassau County Police Department's Bell 206L LongRanger helicopters.
I used to live on Eastern Long Island & took the Long Island Railroad into NYC for work everyday;
we would go right by Bethpage & often I would see the helicopter being wheeled out of the hangar on a dolly.
They also had some sort of motorpool there
as there were always several patrol cars in various states of disrepair in a parking lot nearby.”
As of 2005, the Nassau County Police Heliport (8NY9) is listed as an active heliport
on the northeast side of the former Bethpage airfield.
The heliport is listed as having 4 helicopters based at the facility.
See also:
http://www.lihistory.com/specpio/runway1.htm
http://www.lihistory.com/9/hs9grum.htm
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Hazelhurst Field / Roosevelt Field, Garden City, NY
40.74 North / 73.6 West (East of Manhattan, NY)
"Hazelhurst Aviation Field #1" & "Aviation Field #2", as depicted on the 1918 USGS topo map.
Two airfields, separated by a 15' high bluff, were established here in 1911.
They were collectively known as Hempstead Plains Field.
The 2 fields were taken over by the Army in 1917,
and renamed Hazelhurst Field.
It was labeled as "Hazelhurst Aviation Field #1" on the 1918 USGS topo map.
The Army renamed the east field as Roosevelt Field in 1918.
The west field was known as Curtiss Field by the 1920s.
The British dirigible R-34 landed at Roosevelt Field in 1919
after the first east-to-west nonstop transatlantic flight.
An even more famous event took place in 1927,
when Charles Lindbergh departed from Roosevelt Field in the Spirit of St. Louis
on the first solo transatlantic flight.
A circa-1920s aerial view of Army biplanes at Roosevelt Field, courtesy of Bill Larkins.
A single hangar was depicted on the field.
Roosevelt Field,
as depicted on the 1930 "Rand McNally Standard Map of New Jersey With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
An undated aerial view looking northeast at Roosevelt Field,
from The Airport Directory Company's 1933 Airports Directory (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Two undated photos of hangars at Roosevelt Field
from The Airport Directory Company's 1933 Airports Directory (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
The directory described Roosevelt Field as having three 2,000' asphalt runways.
A large number of hangars was depicted along the west & north sides of the field.
The General Manager was listed as George Orr,
and dozens of companies were listed as having operations at the field.
Roosevelt Field, as depicted on the 1934 U.S. Navy Aviation Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
The original Roosevelt Field closed in 1935,
and the site was redeveloped as a auto race track with unbanked curves, Roosevelt Raceway.
Curtiss Field was then renamed Roosevelt Field.
Roosevelt Field, as depicted on the 1935 Regional Aeronautical Chart.
Aron Krantz recalled of Roosevelt Field, “My dad Duke Krantz was the Daily News pilot there circa 1930-1940 period.”
An aerial view of Roosevelt Field, looking east,
from The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo).
The directory tagged Roosevelt Field as "The center of commercial aviation in the east."
It was described as having three 2,000' asphalt runways.
The aerial photo in the directory depicted a long row of hangars along the north & west sides of the field.
A number of vintage advertisements for firms based at Roosevelt Field,
from The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo).
Many aviation business operated out of Roosevelt Field,
including Aeronautical Radio Company, Waco Sales of New York, Pester's Propeller Service,
C. Foley Company, Aero Trades Company, Northern State Airways, and Leech Aircraft.
An undated photo of the hangars which may have been at the west end of Roosevelt Field,
from a pamphlet describing the "Roosevelt Aviation School" (courtesy of Bob Levittan),
which apparently trained aircraft mechanics for service during WWII.
A WW2-era view of Roosevelt Field, looking east. National Archives photo.
An undated (circa 1940s?) aerial view of Roosevelt Field, looking southwest,
from an airport directory (courtesy of Ed Drury).
Note the track of the Roosevelt Raceway in the lower left.
An undated (circa 1940s?) airport layout of Roosevelt Field,
from an airport directory (courtesy of Ed Drury).
Being located near the major aircraft manufacturing facilities of Grumman, Chance Vought, and Eastern Aircraft,
Roosevelt Field was commissioned as a Naval Air Facility in 1943.
Its mission was to serve as a modification & delivery center for newly manufactured aircraft,
primarily those purchased by the British.
In 2 & a half years, Roosevelt delivered 6,662 aircraft!
At its height during WW2, the airfield consisted of a total of 3 asphalt runways (the largest was 3,000' long),
parking ramps, 6 large hangars along the northeast ramp, and numerous smaller hangars & other buildings.
The 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer)
described "NAF, Roosevelt" as having a 3,000' hard-surfaced runway,
and indicated that both Army & Navy operations were conducted at the field.
After WW2, Roosevelt Field was surrounded by increasingly dense development.
The Roosevelt Raceway was built on the east side of the airfield.
Note the 1940s plan of Roosevelt Field above depicts a hangar on the raceway property (at the northeast corner of the plan).
Roosevelt Field was depicted on a 1946 USAAF KS-NY Pilot's Handbook (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
as having 3 paved runways.
Note the proximity of Mitchel Field to the south.
An aerial view looking northeast at Roosevelt Field from a 1948 brochure (courtesy of Rudolph Tomasik).
Rudolph Tomasik in the front seat of the Roosevelt Aviation School's T-6, “Whistlin Dixie”, from a 1948 brochure (courtesy of Rudolph Tomasik).
Maintenance being performed on the Roosevelt Aviation School's T-6, from a 1948 brochure (courtesy of Rudolph Tomasik).
Rudolph Tomasik of the Roosevelt Aviation School in front of a Republic SeaBee, from a 1948 brochure (courtesy of Rudolph Tomasik).
Roosevelt Field, as depicted on the 1950 NY Sectional Chart (courtesy of Mike Keefe).
Roosevelt Field was closed in 1951.
Bill Reidy recalled, “I did quite a bit of flying over Long Island in the 1950s.
Although Roosevelt Field was closed
you could still see the outline of the runways.
I always thought of Lindbergh heading for Paris!”
Robert Weiss recalled that "at least one of the Roosevelt Field hangers was a teen nightclub in the mid 1960s -
'Murray the K's World' - a popular NY disc jockey lending his name (and $?) to the place.
I remember going to see Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels there in 1966 or so."
Portions of the 2 intersecting runways were still depicted (northwest of the racetrack)
on the 1979 USGS topo map.
By the time of the 1994 USGS aerial photo, the site of the former airfield had been redeveloped as the Roosevelt Field Mall,
with not a trace of the historic airfield remaining.
As seen in a 2005 aerial photo, not a trace of Roosevelt Field appears to remain.
The site of Roosevelt Field is located southeast of the intersection of Old Country Road & Clinton Road,
less than one mile north of the site of Mitchel AFB.
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Hazelhurst Aviation Field #2 / Mitchel Field / Mitchel AFB, Garden City, NY
40.72 North / 73.6 West (Southeast of La Guardia Airport)
"Hazelhurst Aviation Field #1" & "Aviation Field #2", as depicted on the 1918 USGS topo map.
This field was established in 1917 as Aviation Field #2 just south of Hazelhurst Field
to serve as an additional training & storage base.
The earliest depiction which has been located of this airfield was on the 1918 USGS topo map.
It labeled an irregularly-shaped property as "Aviation Field #2".
It was renamed Mitchel Field in 1918,
after John Mitchel, the youngest elected Mayor of New York City,
who perished in a 1918 crash after joining the Signal Corps Army Air Service.
Lewis Layne was killed in a crash of a Curtis Oriole at Mitchel Field on June 27, 1920 (according to Layne Bumgardner).
A 1929 photo of a Curtis Pulitzer Racer at Mitchel Field.
Mitchel Field continued to grow after WW1
& a major new construction program was undertaken from 1929-1932,
including housing, warehouses, operations buildings, and 8 massive steel & concrete hangars.
Mitchel Field, as depicted on the 1930 "Rand McNally Standard Map of NJ With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
A large number of Army biplanes are seen at Mitchel Field in 1931 (courtesy of Brett).
Mitchel Field, as depicted on the 1934 U.S. Navy Aviation Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Mitchel Field, as depicted on the 1935 Regional Aeronautical Chart.
An aerial view looking west at Mitchel Field from The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo).
It described Mitchel Field as having a rectangular 4,000' x 3,000' landing area, plus one 2,700' paved east/west runway.
The aerial photo depicted a line of hangars along the northern edge of the field.
A July 6, 1939 aerial view depicted Mitchel Field during the construction of 2 large concrete runways.
Note several aircraft parked along the hangars along the north side of the field.
An October 9, 1939 aerial view showed the pace of construction progress at Mitchel Field,
with a 3rd concrete runway having been added between July-October.
A November 1940 photo of two dozen P-40 fighters on the Mitchel Field flightline.
During WW2, Mitchel was the main point of air defense for New York City,
equipped with 2 squadrons of P-40 fighters.
The April 1, 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer)
described "Mitchel, Army" as having a 5,400' hard-surfaced runway.
A 1945 aerial view looking west at Mitchel Field (courtesy of John Voss).
A 1946 USAAF KS-NY Pilot's Handbook (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
depicted Mitchel Field as having 4 paved runways, with the longest being the 5,152' Runway 12/30.
Paul Hawthorne recalled, “I lived across the street on the Hofstra College campus from 1946-53.
Lots of C-119s a minute or two apart in the evening,
and F-84s often doing extended runup at the end of Runway 5 in the day.
I figured out years later these were probably just-delivered aircraft & the ferry pilots were making sure the bird was ready.
Runway 18/36 was closed before I got there, courtesy of the wartime crash into the college.
I remember several crashes including a C-119 that just cleared Hempstead Turnpike
and crashed into & burned at Havendale Real Estate one evening, right off the end of Runway 23.
A prop blade fell through the roof of one of the temporary faculty housing units (barracks) & landed on a bed.”
Mitchel served as the headquarters of the Continental Air Command starting in 1947.
By 1949, Mitchel was relieved of the responsibility for defending New York City because
of the many problems associated with operating tactical aircraft in an urban area.
Bill Summers recalled, “I was stationed at Mitchel Field in 1949
and we had an F-82 that crashed on takeoff & went across the highway
and into Hofstra College & one prop ended up in a bedroom.”
Mitchel Field was the terminus for the last speed record set on Long Island,
a transcontinental speed record of 4 hours, 8 minutes set by Col. W. Millikan in an F-86 Sabre on January 2, 1954.
A 1954 photo by William Ebert (used by permission of Colin Ebert)
of a massive Convair B-36 bomber at Mitchel Field's Armed Forces Day airshow.
A 1954 photo by William Ebert (used by permission of Colin Ebert)
of a Lockheed F-94 Starfire interceptor at Mitchel Field's Armed Forces Day airshow.
The 1955 USGS topo map (courtesy of John Voss)
depicted Mitchel's airfield at its ultimate configuration, with 4 paved runways (the longest was the 6,700' Runway 5/23)
and a large number of taxiways & ramps.
An aerial view looking north at the static display of numerous military aircraft on Mitchel's ramp
during the base's 1959 Armed Forces Day open house.
A 1960 photo of C-119 Flying Boxcars from the 514th Troop Carrier Wing
being readied for takeoff from Mitchel AFB during Operation Bright Star / Pine Cone III.
The last aeronautical chart depiction which has been located of Mitchel AFB
was on the 1961 NY Local Aeronautical Chart (courtesy of Mike Keefe).
It depicted Mitchel AFB as having 4 paved runways, with the longest being 6,700'.
After several notable crashes (including a P-47 into Hofstra University’s Barnard Hall),
public pressure ultimately led to the field’s closure.
The last active unit to be based at Mitchel was the 514th Troop Carrier Wing
flying Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars.
Due to the noise, small size of the field, and several spectacular crashes,
Mitchel's control tower was vacated on April 15, 1961,
after 43 years of flight operations at this historic airfield.
The property was eventually turned over to Nassau County.
An undated photo of Mitchel's control tower, shortly after it was vacated in 1961.
The 4 runways of Mitchel AFB were still depicted on the 1965 NY Sectional Chart (courtesy of John Voss),
but the field was labeled "Closed".
A circa 1968 aerial view looking west at Mitchel Field.
An undated photo of a hangar at Mitchel, which no longer stands.
View of the remaining portion of Runway 23 in 1998.
The remaining hangar line at Mitchel Field, as it existed in 1998.
A circa 2001 aerial photo of the site of Mitchel Field.
The last remaining portions of Mitchel's Runway 5/23 were visible in the NE & SW corners of the photo.
The Nassau Community College had been built over the center of Runway 5/23.
Remains of Runway 17/35 were less perceptible along the western side of the photo.
The Nassau Community College now covers most of the Mitchel AFB site,
with portions of 2 runways still remaining.
A new museum has been established on the grounds of Mitchel AFB,
the Cradle of Aviation Museum.
A 2003 aerial view by Stephen Cohen looking southwest along the remains of the runway at Mitchel Field.
A circa 2001-2005 aerial view looking west at the remaining line of former hangars from Mitchel Field.
A circa 2001-2005 aerial view looking east at the remaining line of former hangars from Mitchel Field,
with several aircraft from the collection of the Cradle of Aviation Museum visible in the center.
A 2005 photo by Tom Lenihan of Mitchel Field's Hangar 3, after its recent renovation.
It serves as the Cradle of Aviation Museum's “Donald Everett Axinn Air & Space Museum Hall”.
See also:
http://pirs.mvr.usace.army.mil/fuds/C02NY064503/21.pdf
http://www.hnd.usace.army.mil/OEW/factshts/factshts/mitchel.pdf
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Rogers Airport / Curtiss Airport / Columbia Aircraft Company Airfield, Valley Stream, NY
40.66 North / 73.72 West (East of JFK Airport, NY)
The Curtiss Airport in Valley Stream,
as depicted on the 1930 "Rand McNally Standard Map of NJ With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
The history of this obscure little airport is somewhat convoluted,
and involves 2 obscure aircraft manufacturers which made their home at Valley Stream.
In 1928, Rogers Airport was opened on the southwest border of Valley Stream.
About a year later, Curtiss-Wright purchased the Rogers Airport & the Reisert Farm adjoining it.
Several millions of dollars were invested before the Curtiss Airport became operational.
Hundreds of planes used the facility daily, along with famous aviators like Charles Lindbergh & Wiley Post.
The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots,
was established on November 2, 1929, when 26 licensed women pilots met at Curtiss Airport in Valley Stream.
In 1931 Amelia Earhart was elected as their first president.
The group was named for the 99 charter members.
The Columbia Aircraft Company was formed in Valley Stream in 1929 by
Charles Levine, Giuseppe Bellanca & Clarence Chamberlain
to acquire the rights to a Wright Aircraft designed by Bellanca - the W.B.2.
An undated photo (circa 1929-31) of the sole prototype of the Columbia CAL-1 Triad.
Three examples of the Columbia CAL-1 Triad were produced in 1929.
The Triad was a 6-passenger amphibian, which converted to a landplane via a detachable hull,
or to a full seaplane by removal of the wheels.
It was powered by a 220hp Wright J-5.
A sole prototype of the Columbia Uncle Sam was built in 1929,
reportedly costing a total of $250,000.
It was planned as a 50-passenger transoceanic transport.
The Uncle Sam was powered by a 450hp Packard 2A, and had a span of 60'.
It was test-flown into 1930, but production of the plane, seriously underpowered, was cancelled.
Curtiss Airport was the largest commercial airport on Long Island for 3 years starting in 1930.
The Valley Stream Airport was also the location of Naval Reserve Aviation Base Valley Stream
(according to the 12/50 issue of the Naval Aviation News (courtesy of John Voss).
As of 1930, the naval aircraft assigned to NRAB Valley Stream were: 6 Consolidated NY-2's,
1 Vought O2U-2, and 3 Curtiss Fledgings.
Training was given to 3 squadrons,
and during the summer elimination flight training was provided to 35 student flight officers.
At some point after 1930 Valley Stream's Naval Aviation activities was transferred to Floyd Bennet Field.
The sole prototype of the bizarre Curtiss-Bleeker helicopter,
seen in 1930 at the Curtiss airfield in Valley Stream.
The first 2 Columbia Triads were destroyed in a hangar fire in 1931.
It is not known what became of the 3rd & last Triad.
The sole prototype of the Columbia Uncle Sam was auctioned in 1931 for only $750,
but destroyed in hangar fire 2 weeks later.
Leroy Grumman moved his fledgling aircraft company to the Curtiss Airport in Valley Stream in 1931,
but then moved on to Farmingdale the very next year.
In 1933, only 3 years after the Curtiss Airport had opened in Valley Stream,
the worsening conditions of the Depression reportedly led to the airport's closure.
However, the Columbia Aircraft Company evidently continued their operations at Valley Stream,
and the 'closure' only referred to the operations of the public airport.
A November 1940 aerial view looking northeast at Curtiss Field in Valley Stream (courtesy of Jim Freyler).
The airfield consisted of 3 asphalt runways in a triangular layout in the middle of a large grass field.
A row of 6 substantial hangars lined the west side of the field.
Jim noted, “There were still 5 aircraft parked there in the photo although the field had been 'closed' for many years.”
A J2F-6 Duck, built by Columbia Aircraft in Valley Stream, NY.
During WW2, the Grumman Aircraft Company (in nearby Bethpage) developed the J2F Duck floatplane.
However, under pressure of growing demand for its more urgently needed fighters & dive-bombers,
Grumman had to farm out the Duck & other projects.
After the last J2F-5 Duck rolled off the Grumman assembly line,
production of the Duck was shifted to the Columbia Aircraft Corporation,
which built the J2F-6 at their Valley Stream, Long Island factory from early 1942 until the end of WW2.
The J2F-6 was identical to the -5 except for the more powerful Wright 1820 Cyclone engine (with 1,050 hp).
The J2F-6 was the most numerous version of the Duck, with 330 having been built for the Navy & Coast Guard.
Lee Englund recalled, "As a kid I lived in Valley Stream in the 1940s.
It was great fun to watch the Grumman Ducks flying around."
The Columbia Aircraft Company airfield was not depicted at all
on the 1943 NY Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
According to John Voss, the Columbia airfield was listed in the 1944 Directory of Airfields, with a 2,900' runway.
The earliest aeronautical chart depiction which has been located of the Columbia Aircraft Airfield
was on the 1945 NY Sectional Chart (courtesy of Robert Bown).
It depicted Columbia as an auxiliary airfield.
An undated photo of the ungainly Columbia XJL-1 amphibian.
An even more obscure product of this relationship was the XJL-1.
During the early WW2 years Grumman commenced a project to marry the best features of the Duck
with a more modern monoplane configuration, an all-metal structure,
and fully retractable tricycle landing gear.
This resulted in the XJL-1,
which was also farmed out to Columbia Aircraft Company.
Columbia built 3 prototypes of the XJL-1.
One prototype was tested structurally to destruction, while the first to fly took to the air in late 1946.
The specific outcome of the XJL project is unknown,
but it evidently was canceled as part of the post-WW2 military cutbacks.
Columbia Aircraft Company was acquired by Commonwealth Aircraft in 1946.
Commonwealth transferred production of their Skyranger (a light single engine general aviation aircraft)
from Kansas City's Fairfax Airport to the former Columbia Aircraft factory in Valley Stream.
Commonwealth went on to manufacture 276 of their Skyrangers before production ceased after less than one year, in late 1946.
Commonwealth went bankrupt in 1947,
as the anticipated post-war boom in civil aviation never occurred.
It is not known if the Columbia Airfield was ever used again
after the bankruptcy of Commonwealth Aircraft in 1947.
It was apparently abandoned by 1949,
as it was not depicted on the 1949 NY Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
In 1956 the Green Acres Mall (one of Long Island's first malls) opened on the north side of the former airport property.
However, the former hangars were spared, and remained standing for another 3 decades.
Greg Dito reported, “I was employed by the defense firm Bulova Technologies
that used the 2 hangars since razed to build the Home Depot.
Bulova’s expertise in watches & general timing devices migrated to weapons fuzing & safe/arm devices starting the 1950s.
At some point (late 1950s / early 1960s?) Bulova moved its growing defense business
from the watch company site in Jackson Heights, Queens to the Valley Stream location.
A single-story structure was built between the 2 hangars, joining them & serving as the company’s full-service cafeteria.
Other added structures included an adjoining shipping warehouse
and a below-ground bunker for storage of the small detonators used in the devices.”
The 1969 USGS topo map still depicted the former hangars of the Columbia Aircraft Company on the west side of the property,
but the airfield area in the center had been covered by residential streets.
Greg Dito recalled, “I joined Bulova in 1980 until its closing in May 1991 when it relocated to Lancaster PA
after purchasing Hamilton Technologies from Olin Corp.
Olin purchased Hamilton’s parent company for its large-caliber munitions business & had no interest in fuzing.
There were just under 1,000 employees during Bulova’s peak in the 1980s.
Bulova designed & manufactured fuzing devices for Sidewinder, Maverick and Sparrow missiles,
artillery and mortar fuzes, ICBM security key locks, and M1A1 Abrams HEAT ammunition, to name a few.
I believe Bulova was one of the largest defense firms on Long Island after the big aircraft companies.”
Greg continued, “Layoffs began in 1989 although several employees including myself were there until the very last day in 1991.
I took a number of photos of the buildings, looking pretty much overgrown & abandoned by May 1991.
The parking lot used the original concrete tarmac & it was very easy to see how the hangars were arranged,
their original facades with a bas relief of a single prop plane making its way through the clouds.
Even though the large hangar door openings were long ago ‘bricked over’
one could still see how immense & cavernous the hangars were.”
Lee Englund recalled in 2003, "I had occasion to visit Valley Stream about 8 years ago & found Curtiss airport,
its great hangars still standing with the airplane emblem at the peak of each end.
At that time some company was using the hangars as a manufacturing facility."
In 1993, two hangars, formerly the home of Columbia Aircraft,
were demolished to make way for a Home Depot which presently occupies the site.
Two hangar emblems were located at each hangar.
Gabriel Parrish, a volunteer at the Restoration & the Cradle of Aviation in Mitchel Field,
was instrumental in salvaging the last remaining emblem
and arranging it to be moved to the grounds of the Valley Stream Historical Society.
A circa 2006 aerial photo showed that 4 of the 1930-era hangars of the Columbia Aircraft Company
still remained standing on the west side of the property.
A circa 2006 aerial photo looking north at 2 of the former hangars of the Columbia Aircraft Company.
A circa 2006 aerial photo looking south at the 4 former hangars of the Columbia Aircraft Company.
The site of the Columbia Aircraft Company is located southwest of the present-day Valley Acres Mall,
on the south side of Green Acres Road.
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