Vintage aviation photos. New York City. LaGuardia.
Sorry for the format.
Best I could do.
"In aviation's earliest days,
Long Island, New York,
particularly the central area
of Nassau County known
as the Hempstead Plains,
proved to be an ideal flying
field – treeless, flat, and
with only tall grasses and
scattered farm houses.
During aviation's infancy,
this area became known for
its intense aviation activity
and was recognized as the
center of the aviation world.
By 1910, Long Island
hosted several aircraft
factories and three airfields
from which the world's
most famous aviators set a
significant number of
aviation records.
The Island, ideally located
on the eastern edge of the
United States, at the
western edge of the
Atlantic Ocean, and
adjacent to America's most
populous city, also made it
the ideal focal point for
most of the early
transatlantic and
transcontinental flights."
http://www.faa.gov/about/history/celebration/media/LaGuardia%20Exhibit%20Album.pdf
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What a wonderful bunch of pictures........I looked at every single one, and I was riveted.
We think of flying as routine and settled, but those pictures show so clearly how much effort went into making it so.
Just the sheer historical documentation alone is wonderful.
Thank you for bringing these to us!
There is a single flying example of the Sikorsky S-39 "Spirit of Igor" that was rebuilt over 40 years at a hanger adjacent to the Rochester NH Skyhaven Airport (KDAW). The paint scheme is an exact copy of one of the two planes (the other an S-40) flown by Martin and Osa Johnson on a safari to Africa and later to the South Seas where they made documentary films. "Igor" was painted as a giraffe and the other plane in zebra stripes.
There is a ton of info on the internet but the rebuild info is here: http://www.spiritofigor.com/history.html
<a href="
.html" target="_blank"><img src="
" border="0" alt=" photo s39_zps54fd0068.jpg"/></a>
She left here several years back for Kermit Week's Fantasy of Flight Museum in Florida which I believe has since folded-I don't know her current whereabouts...
