Curtiss Airfield Day scheduled for Oct. 17

Before the Green Acres Mall, there was Curtiss Airfield. Now just a distant memory, the small little airport was once a popular spot for some of the world’s most famous flyers.

Next month, Valley Stream will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the airport. A ceremony will be held in front of Home Depot, which was built on the site of two of the old hangars. The home improvement store’s building even takes the shape of Curtiss Airfield’s old plane storage facilities.

The Oct. 17 ceremony will be highlighted by the dedication of a historical marker outside the store, paying tribute to the airport and the famous flyers who flew there. Guy Ferrara, president of the Valley Stream Historical Society, said he is expecting to have the wording for the sign approved at the Sept. 15 meeting of the Town of Hempstead’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Ferrara, who has been leading the effort to honor the airport’s brief but noted history, said the Valley Stream Fire Department, local dignitaries and high school bands are expected to take part in the 10 a.m. ceremony. He also hopes to have some descendants of the six famous flyers who used Curtiss Airport –– Charles Lindbergh, Elinor Smith, Jimmy Doolittle, Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post and Frank Hawks.

Lindbergh was instrumental in designing the airport, Ferrara said, which opened on April 7, 1929, and closed less than five years later. Smith is the only of the six aviators still alive. 

Ferrara said all who attend the ceremony will receive a brochure, as will visitors to Home Deport that day. “The brochure is an extensive history of Curtiss airport and the flyers that flew there,” he said. 

Field honored pioneering aviator

Curtiss Airfield was named for Glenn Curtiss, an aviation pioneer from Hammondsport, N.Y. On July 17, 1909, he won the Scientific America Trophy for the second time after he successfully completed a 52-minute flight at Mineola. He was a frequent flyer at the Hempstead Plains.