LINDBERGH'S DEPARTURE POINT IS NOW A SHOPPING MALL

Below, an image shared with us by Tim Kalina. He says about this image, "I thought I’d send along this scan of an old USAAC photo that I recently acquired. The paper caption on the back of the photo reads: ‘General view of Roosevelt Fields, No. 1 and 2, showing planes of the 31st Provisional Transport Group and the 11th Provisional Bombardment Group of the First Air Division, U. S. Army lined up in readiness for the Air Maneuvers in the New York City area. 5-22-31.’ The transport planes nearest are Fokkers and Fords."

Roosevelt Field, 1931 (Source: Kalina)

At least three pilots of the 11th Bombardment Group, based at Rockwell Field, San Diego, CA, landed at Tucson April 20, 1929 flying Keystone bombers.

Also in the image above, it's interesting to note the buildings along the flight line. At top there are seven hangars. These hangars are visible below (image from the reference cited in the left sidebar) in a 1933 view (from the opposite direction). Note what appear to be barracks near the right center of the image above. There looks like one building at top, followed by three vacant pads, followed by another four barracks. In the image below, taken two years later, you can see (at far left) those three pads have had buildings placed on them.

Below, Roosevelt Field ca. 1933 from the "Airports and Established Landing Fields..." reference in the left sidebar. The location is given as 18 miles east of Manhattan. It had asphalt and sod runways, with ROOSEVELT FIELD painted on top of one of the hangars (not visible in this image or the one above. It had a revolving beacon, boundary lights, flood lights, obstruction lights and an illuminated wind tee. It had a telephone at the field (number "Garden City 8000"), and was served by radio station W2BI. It had a full line of gasoline and oil, with licensed mechanics available 24/7. There was a hotel at the field, with additional housing and eateries in Manhattan.

Roosevelt Field, Ca. 1933

Roosevelt was the premier Golden Age airfield of the eastern U.S., enjoying many on-site operators. Among them were Bird, Lockheed, Monocoupe, Kittyhawk, Stearman, Stinson, Waco, Aeronca, Fairchild, Fleet, Standard, Travel Air, Kellett, Curtiss-Wright and Rearwin aircraft sales and service. It housed service hangars and flight training facilities, as well as repair services including aviation welding, sheet metal, engine and instrument companies.

It hosted aircraft manufacturers including Fleetwings, Loening, and Amphibions, Inc. The Roosevelt Flying Corp provided short haul air transport, and Plane Speaker Corp., Skywriters, Inc. and Air News, Inc. provided aerial advertising services. A branch office of the U.S. Department of Commerce was on the field.

Below, from the U.S. Department of Commerce reference in the left sidebar, is a description of Roosevelt Field from 1937.

Roosevelt Field Data, 1937 (Source: U.S. DOC)

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UPLOADED: 10/22/08 REVISED: 12/31/09