USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 43
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume II > Part 43
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The Navy was the first to organize a project to show the great advances that had been made in aviation during the war years. A secret Navy project had been under way in the Curtiss Engineering Laboratories at Garden City for several years. A huge 3-engine air- plane had been designed and was being built there, which was of sufficient power and range to fly across the Atlantic. It was to be a big surprise for the Germans, but the armistice came before it was completed. Work was not stopped, however, and in the spring of 1919 parts for three of the big ships were taken from Garden City down to the Naval Air Station at Rockaway Beach, where they were assembled in a large hangar. By April the three sister ships, NC1, NC3 and NC4, were ready for test flights.
On May 8, 1919, all three of the big 3-engined flying boats took off from Jamaica Bay on the first leg of their flight and flew to Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland. On May 16th, they started across the Atlantic for the Azores. Mechanical troubles caused the NC1 and NC3 to drop out, but the NC4 with Lt. Commander Albert C. Read in command and Walter Hinton as pilot, reached Horta on May 17th, flew on to Lisbon on May 27th, and completed the trip to Plymouth, England, on May 31st. They flew altogether a total of 4514 miles.
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Long Island can indisputably claim as its own this first successful transatlantic project.
By quite a coincidence, the British were able to return this courtesy visit across the Atlantic within five weeks' time, and thus even up the score by achieving a transatlantic "first" of their own. On July 6, 1919, the great British Dirigible R-34 completed the first lighter-than-air-ship flight across the Atlantic Direct from England it came non-stop, cruised around New York City, and then moored at Roosevelt Field. A rigid dirigible was a new sight not only to Long Islanders but to America. Thousands of people drove out on the
The Navy Airplane NC4, built at Garden City, assembled at Rockaway Beach; first airplane to fly across the Atlantic, May, 1919
Island to see the huge silver fish slowly swaying at its moorings in the center of Roosevelt Field. At night floodlights illuminated it and the public stayed to admire. It remained there for several days until the weather was right for the return trip and then one evening it rose, circled New York in a farewell gesture, and was off again to England. Probably no other aeronautical occasion on Long Island ever attracted so many people. It was a majestic sight.
Before the end of 1919 a wealthy hotel owner, Raymond Orteig, probably inspired by these first transatlantic events, posted a prize of $25,000 for the first non-stop airplane flight between Paris and New York. The offer did not stir any excitement at the time; the feat was considered impossible. Activities turned in other directions. The offer was forgotten.
On Long Island, the spotlight swung over onto Mitchel Field, the new Army air base just south of Roosevelt Field. It had now acquired some fine new hangars and several good long runways. The most interesting news of the early nineteen twenties seems to center
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there. Many new projects were afoot. In mid-July, 1920, four Army airplanes under the command of Captain St. Clair Street took off from Mitchel Field for Nome, Alaska. By mid-August they were back again, having covered 9327 miles and having learned a great deal about air navigation. In November, Major C. C. Moseley established a new American speed record of 178 miles per hour at Mitchel Field by winning the first Pulitzer Race.
During the year 1922 the Army constructed a model airway between Mitchel Field and Dayton, Ohio. This was a most important development. Cross-country flying alone was not sufficient for regular flights. Emergency landing fields, markers, beacons, coordinated weather reports were all essential to regular flying. Even the term "airway" was a new word coined at this time. This work was of great aid to the Post Office Department, who were just preparing to set up the first regular airmail routes across the country.
The outstanding event of the year 1923 was the first non-stop flight across the continent. On May 2nd, Lieut. J. A. Macready and Lieut. O. Kelly took off from Mitchel Field in a large single-engine Fokker airplane, the T-2, with a heavy load of gas and headed west. They flew all through that night and twenty-six hours and fifty min- utes later they landed in San Diego, California. This was an impor- tant milestone in the history of transcontinental flight.
The record, however, did not stand for long. In the early dawn of June 23, 1924, one of the longest days of the year, Lieut. Russell Maughan took off from Mitchel Field in a Curtiss pursuit plane which had been built and especially groomed at the Garden City Curtiss plant. He raced the sun across the continent and landed at San Fran- cisco in the late twilight of the same day. The elapsed time was 21 hours and 44 minutes. The flight was known as the Dawn-to-Dusk flight.
In 1925 the Pulitzer Trophy Race was again held at Mitchel Field. Lieut. Cyrus Bettis flew the latest Garden City product, a new Curtiss racing plane, and set a new world's speed record at 249 miles per hour. So by watching Mitchel Field during these few years, we have seen speed, range and endurance climb to a point where the airplane had truly become efficient.
Mitchel Field, however, settled down after 1925 to a routine Army life, with regular and unspectacular flying. So we must seek some other place to swing the spotlight.
Things had been quite normal during these years at Roosevelt Field. Schools and flying services were prospering. New and better types of planes had come along, but there was no outstanding news. Roosevelt Field had become just another local field with no prospects for world fame. But along in the Fall of 1926, Capt. Rene Fonck, the brilliant French war ace, came to Roosevelt Field with a Sikorsky biplane and his crew of three. He announced his plan to fly non-stop to Paris in an attempt to win the almost forgotten Orteig prize. On September 15th, with a very heavy load of gas, the attempt was made. The plane was too heavy. It roared down the runway but could not get off; it crashed at the far end and burst into flames. Capt. Fonck
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and Lieut. Curtin were saved, but the other two crew members were killed.
Even though this attempt failed, it called attention to the fact that the non-stop transatlantic flight, though still a gamble, was no longer a fantastic idea. Plans were being hatched on both sides of the Atlantic. In Paris, Capt. Charles Nungesser and Capt. F. Coli, two famous French war aces, were preparing carefully for an attempt from Paris to New York.
NAVY
Curtiss Navy Racer with "Casey" Jones, Curtiss test pilot, winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize; built at Garden City
At Roosevelt Field, Commander Byrd, having just successfully flown over the North Pole, was preparing his big tri-motor airplane, the America. He had gathered a fine crew and his preparations were thorough and painstaking. Clarence Chamberlin was also at Roosevelt Field experimenting with a new Wright-powered Bellanca which was owned by Mr. Charles Levine. Chamberlin and Bert Acosta took this plane up from Roosevelt Field one Spring day to fly back and forth over Long Island until the gas ran out. It was two days later that they landed again at Roosevelt Field with the world's endurance record of 51 hours and 11 minutes. This performance convinced Mr. Levine that his Bellanca, Miss Columbia, could win the Orteig prize, so he had Chamberlin make preparations for the great trial.
With so much stirring on both sides of the Atlantic, public inter- est in the rivalry and the preparations was rising to a high pitch. The month of May, 1927, brought real drama, probably the greatest
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in the history of aviation. On May 7th, Nungesser and Coli took off from Le Bourget, Paris, in their White Bird and started across the ocean. There were days of suspense, but no report of the flyers. Floyd Bennett flew from Roosevelt Field to Newfoundland and searched the sea for several days, but no trace of the French flyers was ever found.
At Roosevelt Field, test flights and final preparations were being made with both the America and Miss Columbia. On May 10th, how- ever, there was unexpected news. A young airmail pilot by the name of Charles A. Lindbergh was flying eastward from San Diego, Cali- fornia, in a new Ryan monoplane named The Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh stopped at St. Louis overnight so that his sponsors might have a look at his shiny new ship. Then he flew on and landed at Roosevelt Field on the evening of May 12th. He modestly announced that he was going to fly on to Paris. With no crew or mechanics, he quietly checked over his airplane, spent the nights in the nearby Garden City Hotel, and kept in daily, almost hourly touch with Dr. Kimball, the New York City weather man. For several days the reports were very bad, but on May 19th, even though it was raining hard, Lindbergh learned from Dr. Kimball that weather over the Atlantic was improving. With no hesitation Lindbergh decided to go even though Dr. Kimball did not recommend it. He was at the field before daybreak. It was overcast and still raining, the field was soak- ing wet. The plane was towed to the extreme west end of the field and at 7:52 A. M. he took off into the gray eastern sky. Somehow the whole setting of the unknown youngster taking off alone with so much confidence and so little show where war aces and famous pilots had failed and where others were still busy with their elaborate prepara- tions, electrified the world. There were hours of charged suspense and then the news. Lindbergh had landed at Le Bourget Airport after 33 hours 30 minutes of flying. He was greeted by a huge and wildly enthusiastic crowd. In the succeeding days he was cheered and feted and written about until even the statesmen of Europe and America considered it a phenomenon. The United States Government rose to the occasion when President Coolidge ordered the cruiser USS Memphis to bring the flyer home in triumph. The reverberations of Lindbergh's flight lasted several years and had a tremendous effect in advancing aviation.
Back at Roosevelt Field, Chamberlin and Byrd, disappointed, had to modify their plans. Neither one abandoned his project, however. Chamberlin and Levine made arrangements to fly to an unnamed destination (later found to be Berlin). On June 4th the Miss Colum- bia took off from the same runway that Lindbergh had used and left everyone guessing as to where they would land. Two days later the news came that they had crossed the Atlantic safely, but had had to make a forced landing in Germany at Eisleben when they ran out of gas. They had covered, however, 3911 miles in 42 hours and 45 min- utes, a world record for distance which stood for some years.
Finally, on June 29, 1927, Commander Byrd, after being delayed both by hard luck and very thorough testing, was ready to start with
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the America. He had as crew Bert Acosta, Bernt Balchen and Lieut. Noville. At 5.30 A. M. they took off, but hard luck still pursued them; they had fogs and bad weather all of the way. They could not find Le Bourget and finally landed in the water just off the coast of France at Ver-sur-Mer after 42 hours in the air.
Before the end of this great year, Roosevelt Field launched one more attempt at transatlantic flying. On October 10th, George Halde- man and Ruth Elder took off in a Stinson monoplane. They encoun- tered storms and finally came down in the ocean 360 miles from the Azores. They were rescued by a Dutch oil tanker.
In looking back over the year 1927, of the six attempts to fly across the Atlantic, Lindbergh was the only one who reached his announced destination. All of the later attempts only enhanced his prestige as the premier flyer.
Long range flights, however, were no longer unusual, but Long Island continued to be the springboard from which many long flights started, both over the continent and over the ocean. Occasional rec- ords were bettered, but for. a few years nothing sensational occurred. Aviation was slowly assimilating what had been learned from these great flights into standard designs which could be used for commercial flying.
One of the most serious problems that the long-distance flying and the scheduled airmail had brought up was the difficulty of blind flying. No longer was fair-weather flying sufficient. Further advance in aviation must wait on the improvement of blind-flying techniques. .
Here Long Island stepped into a new role. Almost without out- side help it undertook the problem. Harry F. Guggenheim of Sands Point, Long Island, seeing the need, endowed a project for the study of blind flying and blind landing. The place selected for the work was Mitchel Field and the man assigned to carry on the flight experiments was Lieut. James C. Doolittle. New instruments had to be developed. Doolittle did not have to go far. There was the Sperry Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, the first company in this country to make air- plane instruments. There was the Pioneer Instrument Company of Brooklyn, founded in 1919 by three young engineers who had first worked with Sperry and who later successfully built up the largest airplane instrument business in the country. And there was Paul Kollsman, a fine instrument builder who was just starting a small company in Elmhurst, Long Island, and who knew how to build a more sensitive altimeter than anyone else. Doolittle worked with all three and by the Summer of 1929 he had a small plane equipped with some instruments which the world had never seen before, and a hood which he could draw over the cockpit so that he could not see outside the plane. Among the instruments on the board, all of which were made on Long Island, were three new ones: a sensitive altimeter made by Kollsman, a gyro-horizon and a directional gyro made by Sperry. There were also the gyro turn indicator, air speed indicator, rate of climb indicator, and aperiodic magnetic compass made by Pioneer. With this set of flight instruments and a radio direction finder, Doo- little was ready to make a new kind of pioneering flight.
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On September 24, 1929, with only a small audience of interested engineers, Doolittle climbed in his plane, drew the hood over the cock- pit and took off on the first all-blind flight in history. He climbed steadily out of Mitchel Field, made a wide turn and flew down wind several miles; then he turned toward the field and carefully let down on a long slanting approach, using only his radio direction finder and his flight instruments. It was a long minute both for him and the
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Wiley Post and the "Winnie Mae" at Floyd Bennett Field just before his solo trip around the world, 1933
observers as he cautiously felt for the ground as the plane soared over the field at only a few feet elevation. Finally, the wheels touched and he rolled to a stop. A new chapter in aviation had been started. Within a year the new blind-flying instruments were being installed in all airmail planes and scheduled flying greatly improved its reli- ability and safety. During the next ten years these three Long Island instrument companies, by supplying over ninety per cent of all the airplane instruments used in America, were a large contributing factor in building up the great air transport systems of the country.
The availability of blind-flying instruments soon brought a second wave of spectacular long-distance flights. It started with a white Lockheed airplane named the Winnie Mae in June, 1931. Wiley Post, a sturdy pilot from Oklahoma, and Harold Gatty, an experienced navigator from Australia, equipped their plane with all of the new
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blind-flying instruments. Their plan was to fly around the world. At 5 A. M. on the morning of June 23rd they took off from Roosevelt Field for Harbor Grace, their first stop. For the next week the news- papers traced their progress across Europe, Russia, Siberia, Alaska and back to Roosevelt Field, where they landed at 8.47 P. M. on July 1st. They had been away from the home field only 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes and had traveled 15,128 miles. It was a splendid record and many believed it would hold for some years.
Before the end of July two more flights were ready to take off from Long Island. This time, however, preparations were being car- ried on at a brand new airport on the edge of Jamaica Bay, Floyd Bennett Field, which had just been dedicated.
In 1929 the City of New York had become dissatisfied with New- ark Airport as the terminal for its air mail and air passengers. It had made a strong bid to relocate its air terminal at the western end of Jamaica Bay, including Barren Island and the surrounding marsh- land. After a tremendous job of pumping in 14 million cubic yards of sand and leveling it off, a splendid airport was produced at the southern end of Flatbush Avenue. Large hangars and a fine adminis- tration building were erected. The field was dedicated on May 23, 1931, with great ceremony and named Floyd Bennett Field. The air- lines, however, could not see the economy of moving over from New- ark and consequently this fine new airport awaited with some uncer- tainty its future. The Navy moved into a part of it. The Coast Guard, the Aviation Section of the New York Police Department, several flying schools and airplane maintenance companies filled the spacious hangars. But it was not long in finding fame which outshone even Newark Airport, that overworked old terminal which it was built to replace. Such fine facilities and long, wide runways without the con- fusion of heavy scheduled air traffic were ideal for special flights.
The spotlight that had illuminated Roosevelt Field during the late 1920s suddenly swung over onto the glistening runways of Floyd Bennett. On July 28, 1931, by coincidence, two Bellanca airplanes were poised to take off on great flights. In the first one, Russell Boardman and John Polando were set to try for a new non-stop dis- tance record. They took off and flew eastward on a great circle course for Turkey. 50 hours and 8 minutes later they landed at Istanbul after flying 5011 miles. It was a new world record.
The second plane, with Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, took off the same day in at attempt to beat the Post-Gatty round-the-world record. They made fast time to Croydon Airport, London, and through Europe and Russia. They were, however, arrested in Japan for flying over Japanese fortifications. After their release they flew on across the Pacific back to the United States, but it was October 15th before they got back.
On July 5, 1932, two more intrepid pilots took off from Floyd Bennett for another try at the Post-Gatty record. James Mattern and Bennett Griffin made the try in their Lockheed Vega Century of Progress. They got as far as Minsk, where they crashed on a take-off and had to abandon the flight.
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Mattern, however, went right to work to try it again and on June 3, 1933, we find him again taking off from Floyd Bennett Field, this time alone. He got as far as Anadyr, Siberia, where he made a forced landing in the vast uninhabited muskeg and was lost for over three weeks. Coast Guard surface craft and Russian rescue planes searched the bleak Arctic Circle for him. He was found just in time by some Eskimos as he was floating himself down a river on a raft, almost starved.
While Mattern was still lost in Siberia, Floyd Bennett Field was honored by a visit of the largest and most colorful air armada that ever came to the United States. Twenty-four large, twin-fuselaged Savoia Marchetti seaplanes under the command of General Balbo of Italy, stopped off for several days to pay their respects to New York. They were on their way from Orbetello, Italy, to the Century of Prog- ress at Chicago. The brilliant red-white-and-green airplanes attracted much attention and many sightseers thronged Floyd Bennett Field.
In one corner of the Field at this very time, but unnoticed by the crowd, was a familiar white airplane being groomed for another flight. Some new apparatus was being installed on the Winnie Mae. Wiley Post had not been satisfied with his first trip around the world. He was anxious to try it again in an attempt to beat his own record. This time, however, he wanted to do it alone.
The greatest problem was the element of human endurance. He knew that at Sperry's in Brooklyn a new design of an automatic pilot was almost perfected. If he could have that automatic as his co-pilot he could do the trick. It was finally arranged and the first model of the modern automatic gyropilot was hastened to completion, and it was this that was being quietly installed down at Floyd Bennett Field. After careful tests, Wiley was ready to take off. On July 15, 1933, he started from Floyd Bennett Field with only a few friends and well wishers to see him off. He encountered all kinds of weather, but with the automatic pilot as relief, he kept pushing ahead at a terrific pace with a minimum of time spent on the ground to refuel and catch some sleep. Wiley found that on the stretches where the weather was good he could even take short naps while the gyropilot kept him steadied on his course. During the evening of July 21st, Post's progress on his final dash across the United States from Edmonton was broadcast hourly and thousands drove down to Floyd Bennett Field from miles around to witness his arrival. At one minute before midnight the white plane landed and rolled to a stop in front of the administration building amid floodlights and police desperately trying to hold back the crowds. As Wiley climbed out, he was greeted with the greatest ovation ever given to a flyer on Long Island. He had made a new record of 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.
This was the last of the great flights which stirred the imagina- tion of the public. Other long flights occasionally took off from Floyd Bennett during the next few years, but they were news only for the day and most of them have since been forgotten.
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Codos and Rossi, two French aviators, took off from Floyd Ben- nett in their plane, the Joseph Le Brix, on August 5, 1933, and flew non-stop to Rayak, Syria, a distance of 5657 miles, a new record.
Dick Merrill and Harry Richman took off from the same field in September, 1936, for a round trip to London. Although completed, it was marred by forced landings, so in May, 1937, Merrill tried it again with Jack Lambie. This trip was undertaken to tie in with the corona- tion in London. Air mail was carried over to London and five days later, photographs of the coronation ceremonies were flown back to Floyd Bennett Field. The trip was the first commercial round trip of an airplane across the Atlantic.
In August, four Germans in a Focke Wulf Condor flew from Berlin to Floyd Bennett Field and a few days later flew back to Berlin. It was getting commonplace.
In 1938 there was one more stunt flight from Long Island which might well be mentioned as closing the amateur era. A young fellow named Douglas Corrigan took clearance from Floyd Bennett Field one day for California. Nothing was heard from him, however, until twenty-four hours later when word arrived from Ireland that he had landed at Dublin. He nonchalantly stated that he guessed he had gone the wrong way. He was dubbed "Wrong Way" Corrigan. The public was delighted. In it they saw the end of long-distance stunt flying. It was now too easy.
Corrigan did not realize how well he had timed his little joke. Next year, on June 24, 1939, the Pan American Airways inaugurated the first regular transatlantic airmail service. Pilot Harold Gray flew the Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, Long Island, to South- ampton, England.
Transatlantic flying without missing a step moved smoothly from the exciting days of stunts to the routine business of the great air- lines. Long Island has remained the western focal point of this great airpath from the days of the NC4 to the present days of heavy trans- atlantic traffic at LaGuardia Field.
The business of air transportation had been growing by leaps and bounds during the 1930s. Air mail, air express and passenger service were becoming big business. Municipal airports and govern- ment airways linked together all of the larger cities. New York City was still unhappy in having its airline terminal in Newark, New Jersey, not only outside of the city, but even outside of the State. Mayor LaGuardia made it one of his major projects to remedy this situation. A survey made in 1935 pointed to North Beach, Long Island, as a favorable site. Located on the north shore of Queens County, west of Flushing, it had advantages of being near the city and having unobstructed approaches over the surrounding water. There was already a small privately owned airfield called North Beach Airport, which had been constructed in 1929 on the site of an old amusement park. It was, however, quite inadequate in size, consisting of only 105 acres, but New York City leased it in 1935 and started to make elaborate plans. In September, 1937, the Board of Estimate approved the site for development, President Roosevelt approved the
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