Thursday, May 6, 2021 – A FLIGHT FROM BROOKLYN, ONLY FOR A FEW YEARS
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
The
356th Edition
LA GUARDIA
AIRPORT
PART 1
STEPHEN BLANK
MOTHER’S DAY SPECIAL SHOPPING
SEE BELOW
Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper https://metroairportnews.com/pan-americans-dixie-clipper-makes-first-regular-trans-atlantic-passenger-service-to-europe/
LaGuardia Airport
Stephen Blank
Our aviation neighbor. From my balcony, I can sometimes see 4 or 5 planes in a long row preparing to land on runway 4. I’m looking forward to a trip out of the newly redone LGA, but let’s pause before take-off.
Well before LGA, Long Island was home to many aerodromes. Indeed, over the 20th century, some 70 airfields were located on the Island, most in aviation’s “Golden Age” of the mid ’20s to late ‘30s. Largely small with only simple structures. But some are memorable.
On the morning of May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field airport and pointed his airplane towards Paris, on way to a successful transatlantic flight. Flying for 33 1/2 hours and covering approximately 3,600 miles, Lindbergh was the first person to fly nonstop from the United States to France.
On June 28, 1939, Pan Am’s Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper lifted off the water in the Port Washington airport to begin the first regular trans-Atlantic passenger service to Europe. The aircraft carried 22 passengers on the southern route to Horta, Lisbon, and Marseilles. Later, on July 8, the Yankee Clipper would launch Pan Am service across the Atlantic on the northern route, carrying 17 passengers to England.
Aerial view of Floyd Bennett Field
Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn was New York’s first municipal airport. During the 1920s, air travel in Europe, with shorter distances between main centers, was more popular than in the United States which was still more enraptured with trains. Interestingly, while other localities such as Atlantic City and Cleveland had municipal airports, New York City had a multitude of private airfields, and felt no need for a municipal airport until the late 1920s. Newark was the main airport serving New York City into the 1930s.
But Lindbergh’s flight changed this. Billed as New York to Paris, Roosevelt Field was outside the city. New York City now wanted its own airport. A city panel selected Barren Island in Brooklyn as the location, and New York’s first municipal airport was named Floyd Bennett Field, honoring the pilot on Byrd’s 1926 North Pole flight. Dedicated on May 23, 1931, it was rated A-1-A, the highest classification of the Civil Aeronautics Board. It boasted concrete runways, fours hangers that could service the largest aircraft of the day, and an Administration Building that served as a terminal.
Floyd Bennett Field was the site of many adventures. In 1938, Douglas Corrigan planned to fly out for Los Angeles. But he somehow got turned around and ended up in Ireland instead, earning him the nickname “Wrong Way” Corrigan. Probably not really an error. Lacking funds and permission for a transatlantic flight to Ireland, Corrigan decided to take the matter into his own hands. With the owner’s unspoken support, Corrigan landed in Ireland, having consumed two chocolate bars and a couple boxes of fig bars on the way over. Despite his adamant assertion that he had made an honest mistake, the country knew the truth and cities from New York to Chicago threw ticker tape parades to honor the lovable rogue.
Floyd Bennett Field in the 1930s. Eagle postcard photo by Rudy Arnold
On Sunday July 10, 1938 at 7:20 PM, Howard Hughes and four companions lifted off from Floyd Bennett Field to try to break the record for a round the world flight. On July 14 at 2:34 PM, they returned to the same airport completing their tour in 3 days 19 hours 14 minutes and 10 seconds, less than half the time of Wiley Post’s record-breaking flight in 1933. Nothing new, however, for Floyd Bennett Field: Between 1931 and 1939, 26 around the world or transatlantic flights started or ended there.
Flushing Airport was one of New York City’s early airports and was located only a mile east of present-day LaGuardia Airport. Opened in 1927 on city-owned land leased to private operators, Flushing Airport was briefly New York City’s busiest airfield, until the much bigger LaGuardia superseded it. But ever since its closure by Mayor Koch in 1984, it has been largely forgotten, save by aviation and history buffs, and Queens old-timers.
In addition to LaGuardia and JFK, four Long Island airports continue to be active: Brookhaven Calabro (HWV), East Hampton (HTO), Long Island MacArthur (ISP) and Republic (FRG).
And LaGuardia. As a publicity stunt in 1934, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia refused to deplane after landing on a TWA flight from Pittsburgh to Newark, declaring that his ticket showed his destination as New York. TWA quickly agreed to fly the mayor and several reporters on to Floyd Bennett Field. The press conference that followed underlined that it was time for a new, modern facility closer to Manhattan. In conjunction with the City of New York and the Federal Works Progress Administration, ground was broken in 1937 to create a 558-acre airport in Flushing.
CONTINUED TOMORROW
SPECIAL MOTHER’S DAY SHOPPING AT RIHS KIOSK
THURSDAY TO SUNDAY 12 NOON TO 5 P.M.
Great Julia Gash Merchandise
Some Quotables to check out Eleanor’s recipes
Dad can read FDR’s Quotables while making pizza
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR SUBMISSION
TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
TOM OTTERNESS SCULPTURE IN SUBWAY STATION
ANDY SPARBERG, ED LITCHER, SUSAN RODETIS, HARA REISER,
GLORIA HERMAN, LAURA HUSSEY, VICKI FEINMEL
ALL GOT IT!
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Stephen Blank
RIHS
May 2, 2021
Sources
https://metroairportnews.com/long-islands-roosevelt-field/
https://gizmodo.com/the-forgotten-history-behind-some-of-americas-busiest-a-1744664701
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
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rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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