Celebrating 100 Years of Flight
by Martin Benante

We are beginning our celebration here at The Cradle of Aviation Museum because New York State is historically the most important region in the United States for the development of American aviation as well for Curtiss-Wright.

From a geographic perspective, Long Island was a natural airfield—largely treeless and flat, with only tall grasses and scattered farmhouses, located at the eastern tip of the U.S., western edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and adjacent to New York City, America’s most populated urban center. It became the center of the aviation world—civilian and military—for over fifty years.

Early aviation activity in NY included hot-air balloons, gliders and gasoline-powered airships. In 1909, Glenn Curtiss brought his “Golden Flyer” biplane here for testing and development. The year 1911 saw both the first airmail flights, and the first transcontinental flight, when Cal Rodgers flew a Wright biplane from Long Island to California in 49 days. During World War I, Long Island was the center of both military aircraft production and military aviator training. Curtiss, at its multiple locations, produced over 10,000 aircraft for the war, becoming a key supplier to the government.

Following the war, the pace of aviation advancement gained even greater momentum. In 1919 the first trans-Atlantic flight was made when a Navy Curtiss flying boat, the NC-4 built in Garden City, flew from Long Island to England, with two stops along the way. In 1923, the first non-stop flight across America was made from Long Island to California. And, of course, in May 1927 we had Charles Lindbergh’s solo non-stop transatlantic flight from Roosevelt Field to Paris in only 33 hours and 30 minutes.

Roosevelt Field was also the take-off and return site of the first round-the-world flight by Wiley Post and Harold Gatty in 1931, which took eight days. Indeed, by the early 1930s, Roosevelt Field was the largest and busiest civilian airfield in America with over 150 aviation businesses and 450 planes based there.

In 1929, when Curtiss-Wright was formed, it established manufacturing facilities in Garden City and surrounding areas.

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the heir of three great aviation pioneers—Orville and Wilbur Wright and Glenn Curtiss—was formed in July 1929, through the union of businesses that were founded by them, Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company and Wright Aeronautical.

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation has been a global leader in designing and manufacturing highly engineered products, since the birth of human flight and the inception of the aerospace industry.#

Martin Benante is the Chairman and CEO of Curtiss-Wright Aircraft.

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