The Cradle of Aviation Museum is an aerospace museum located in the East Garden City section of

Uniondale, New York Uniondale is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in central Nassau County, New York, on Long Island, in the Town of Hempstead, within the New York metropolitan area. The population was 32,473 at the time of the 2020 United States census ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, established to commemorate Long Island's part in the history of

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

. It is located on land once part of Mitchel Air Force Base which, together with nearby Roosevelt Field and other airfields on the

Hempstead Plains The Hempstead Plains is a region of central Long Island, in what is now Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, in New York State. It was once an open expanse of native grassland estimated to once extend to about . It was separated from the Nort ...

, was the site of many historic flights. So many seminal flights had 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. Naming rights to the museum are held by Flagstar Bank.

Long Island – The Cradle of Aviation

Aviation firsts that contributed to Long Island's nickname – the "Cradle of Aviation": *1873 – First recorded flight over the island, a balloon piloted by W. H. Donaldson from Brooklyn to Queens Village. *1874 – More balloon flights, New York City to Lynbrook and Lynbrook to Hempstead. *1909 –

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early a ...

flies a plane 25 miles from Mineola and wins the Scientific American Prize. *1910 – The International Aerial Tournament is held at

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a thoroughbred racing, thoroughbred horse racetrack in Elmont, New York, just east of New York City limits best known for hosting the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the American Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United Stat ...

. *1911 – Cal Rodgers makes the first transcontinental airplane flight from Sheepshead Bay to California in the '' Vin Fiz Flyer''. *1916 – First night flight. *1917 – First flight of pilotless aircraft, the Sperry

Aerial Torpedo An aerial torpedo (also known as an airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo) is a torpedo launched from a torpedo bomber aircraft into the water, after which the weapon propels itself to the target. First used in World War I, air-dropped torped ...

. *1919 – First

transatlantic flight A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, bal ...

by any aircraft, via airplane (US Navy NC-4 (flying boat)) from NAS Rockaway, Long Island, and arrived at Plymouth England, via stops in Massachusetts, Newfoundland, the Azores, and Portugal. *1919 – First

transatlantic crossing Transatlantic crossings are passages of passengers and cargo across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe or Africa and the Americas. The majority of passenger traffic is across the North Atlantic between Western Europe and North America. Centuries ...

by an airship ( R34 (airship)) which arrives at Roosevelt Field from England. *1923 – First non-stop transcontinental airplane flight from Mitchel Field to San Diego, CA by John A. Macready and Oakley G. Kelly. *1924 – First round-the-world flight arrives at Mitchel Field. *1927 – First solo

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

from Roosevelt Field to Paris, France. *1927 – First transatlantic passenger flight by Clarence D. Chamberlin from Roosevelt Field to Eisleben, Germany. *1929 – First "blind" instrument flight by

Jimmy Doolittle James Harold Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was an American military general and aviation pioneer who received the Medal of Honor for his raid on Japan during World War II, known as the Doolittle Raid in his honor. He ma ...

at Mitchel Field. Instruments developed by the Sperry and Kollsman companies of Long Island. The Cradle of Aviation Museum's first curator, William K. Kaiser, participated in an aviation first as one of the pilots on the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships in 1944 as a young ensign in the United States Navy. For his educational contributions and curatorial work at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Kaiser was named a Jimmy Doolittle Fellow and an Ira Eaker Fellow by the Air Force Association Aerospace Education Foundation in 1986.

Museum origins

The first Cradle of Aviation Museum Newsletters were published periodically by the Friends of Nassau County Museum when the air museum itself was still just a dream of Kaiser and George C. Dade, the museum's first director. Along with Henry Anholzer of

Pan American Airlines Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

and a team of volunteers, they acquired and restored numerous aircraft. These aircraft reflected some of Long Island's ''aviation firsts'' and its local aerospace industry. The first acquisition was a World War I Curtiss JN-4D discovered in an Iowa pig barn by Dade in 1973. Apparently, Lindbergh later confirmed that this was his very first airplane. According to their Spring 1979 newsletter, the museum also had a Ryan Brougham (sister ship of the ''

Spirit of St. Louis The ''Spirit of St. Louis'' (formally the Ryan NYP, registration: N-X-211) is the custom-built, single-engine, single-seat, high-wing monoplane that Charles Lindbergh flew on May 20–21, 1927, on the Charles Lindbergh#New York–Paris flight ...

''), Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, Republic Seabee, Grumman F-11A Tiger, and a Grumman Lunar Module spacecraft. These aircraft were destined to occupy hangars 3 and 4 of Mitchel Air Force Base which was acquired by Nassau County when the base closed in 1961. 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.

Aircraft

Today the museum contains over 70 aircraft and scale models of airplanes from various time periods, including

Curtiss Jenny The Curtiss JN "Jenny" is a series of biplanes built by the Glenn Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft ...

in which he barnstormed, the

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 , also infamously known under the nickname , is a single-seat, twinjet, twin-turbofan, straight wing, straight-wing, Subsonic aircraft, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Aircraft, Fairchild Republic ...

and

Grumman F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for t ...

and an unused

Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM ), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed sp ...

, LM-13. LM-13 was scheduled to land on the Moon with the Apollo 19 mission, but the mission was cancelled and it remained on Earth, close to its birthplace in the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation facility in nearby

Bethpage, New York Bethpage (formerly known as Central Park) is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located within the Oyster Bay (town), New York, Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on the South Shore (Long Isla ...

Many of the tour guides and restoration workers formerly worked at Grumman, which contributed much to the museum. The museum consists of eight chronological galleries with an approximately equal number of aircraft in each gallery. It is one of the only museums in the United States to cover all aspects of aviation/space history including pioneer aircraft, Golden Age aircraft, warbirds, civil, general, commercial and jet aircraft as well as spacecraft The museum is one of the more popular Air and Space museums in the United States and has installations that include audio-visual, and unique hands-on and interactive exhibits, including a 'cockpit trail' where visitors can sit in an aircraft cockpit from each era. The museum's longtime curator (1985–present), Joshua Stoff, is a respected aerospace author and active member of the aviation museum community. In addition to the museum itself, the complex houses the JET BLUE DOME theater featuring digital format films as well as a digital planetarium, and an onsite cafeteria/catering venue

Firefighter Museum

Within the same building, the Cradle of Aviation Museum houses the Nassau County Firefighter's Museum and Education Center. It is a nearly 10,000 square foot interactive facility. Visitors can also trace the history of firefighting in Nassau County with hands-on exhibits that feature antique and contemporary fire apparatus and gear.

Gallery

File:Curtiss Golden Flyer replica.JPG, Curtiss ''Golden Flyer'' replica File:Grumman F3F-2.JPG, Grumman F3F-2 File:Grumman F6F Hellcat 03.JPG,

Grumman F6F Hellcat The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier Grumman F4F Wildcat, F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United St ...

File:Grumman F-14 Tomcat 23.jpg,

File:Grumman F6F Hellcat 02.JPG, Folded wing of

File:Lone Eagle Charles Lindbergh clothing Cradle of Aviation Museum NY.jpg, Charles Lindbergh's flight gear

References

External links

Cradle of Aviation Museum website

* ttp://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/CradleOfAviationMuseum/index.htm Cradle Of Aviation Museum Photos
Long Island Air Museum in Peril: Eric Ricioppo

Nassau County Firefighter's Museum website
{{authority control Aerospace museums in New York (state) East Garden City, New York Uniondale, New York Museums in Nassau County, New York Military and war museums in New York (state) Buildings designed by Frederic P. Wiedersum Associates