The Cradle of Aviation Museum is an

aerospace museum An aviation museum, air museum, or air and space museum is a museum exhibiting the history and cultural artifacts, artifacts of aviation. In addition to actual, replica or accurate reproduction aircraft, exhibits can include photographs, maps, P ...

located in

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

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

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes airplane, fixed-wing and helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as aerostat, lighter- ...

. It is located on land once part of Mitchel Air Force Base which, together with nearby

Roosevelt Field Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...

and other airfields on the Hempstead Plains, 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.

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 major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905. It is operated by the non-profit New York Racin ...

. *1911 -

Cal Rodgers Calbraith Perry Rodgers (January 12, 1879 – April 3, 1912) was an American aviation pioneer. He made the first transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S. from September 17, 1911, to November 5, 1911, with dozens of stops, both intentio ...

makes the first transcontinental airplane flight from Sheepshead Bay to California in the

Vin Fiz The ''Vin Fiz Flyer'' was an early Wright Brothers Model EX pusher biplane that in 1911 became the first aircraft to fly coast-to-coast across the U.S., a journey that took almost three months. History The publisher William Randolph Hearst ha ...

. *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 torpe ...

. *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, Central America, or South America, or ''vice versa''. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing air ...

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 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, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

from Roosevelt Field to Paris, France. *1927 - First transatlantic passenger flight by

Clarence D. Chamberlin Clarence Duncan Chamberlin (November 11, 1893 – October 31, 1976) was an American pioneer of aviation, being the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to the European mainland, while carrying the firs ...

from Roosevelt Field to Eisleben, Germany. *1929 - First "blind" instrument flight by Jimmy Doolittle 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 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''), Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, Republic Seabee, Grumman F-11A Tiger, and a Grumman Lunar Module spacecraft. These aircraft were destined to occupy hangars 3 & 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" was a series of biplanes built by the 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 for th ...

in which he barnstormed, the

A-10 Thunderbolt II The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1976, it is named for the Republic ...

and Grumman F-14 Tomcat 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 ...

, 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 and census-designated place (CDP) located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 16,429 at the 2010 United States Cens ...

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

Image:Curtiss Golden Flyer replica.JPG, Curtiss ''Golden Flyer'' replica Image:Grumman F3F-2.JPG, Grumman F3F-2 Image:Grumman F6F Hellcat 03.JPG, Grumman F6F Hellcat Image:Grumman F-14 Tomcat 23.jpg, Grumman F-14 Tomcat Image:Grumman F6F Hellcat 02.JPG, Folded wing of F6F Image: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 Photos of aircraft and other exhibits
Long Island Air Museum in Peril: Eric Ricioppo

Nassau County Firefighter's Museum website
{{authority control Aerospace museums in New York (state) Garden City, New York Museums in Nassau County, New York Military and war museums in New York (state)