Floyd Bennett Field - History

History

Prior to the opening of Floyd Bennett Field in 1930, a compacted dirt runway existed on the island. It was referred to as "Barren Island Airport", but was used primarily by one pilot who took customers up for joy-rides.

The municipal airport site was chosen and designed by famed aviator Clarence D. Chamberlin. His preference was Barren Island, a 387-acre (1.57 km2) marsh with 33 small islands in Jamaica Bay, off the southeastern shore of Brooklyn. The site was favorable due to the lack of obstructions nearby, and because it was easily identifiable from the air. After much debate over the merits of other sites within the city (including Governors Island, the purported favorite of New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia), the site was approved. Six million cubic yards of sand were pumped from Jamaica Bay to connect the islands and raise the site to 16 feet (4.9 m) above the high tide mark. The new airfield's modern, electrically illuminated, concrete runways (when most "airports" still had dirt runways and no night landings) and comfortable terminal facilities with numerous amenities made it among the most advanced of its day, earning a rating of A-1 (the highest) by the United States Department of Commerce at the time.

LaGuardia pushed for Floyd Bennett Field to replace Newark Airport in Newark, New Jersey as the city's de facto main air terminal, including designs and plans to shuttle passengers to and from Manhattan in flying boats. He was only able to persuade American Airlines to move its Newark operations to the new airport, and many passengers complained that travel from Bennett Field to Manhattan took longer than from Newark. In addition, particularly in the early days of commercial aviation, freight - not passengers - provided the bulk of profits. As airmail was a major fraction of air freight at the time, airports having contracts with the United States Post Office Department attracted commercial airlines. Airlines used the cargo area available on passenger aircraft to carry airmail, guaranteeing a profit on empty flights, and often providing more revenue than passenger ticket sales on under-booked flights, which were common. Public skepticism about the safety of this new form of transportation, as well as the Great Depression, made air travel an expensive luxury. As LaGuardia was never able to convince the Postal Service to move its New York City operations from Newark to Floyd Bennett Field, neither did the airlines relocate. This hindered commercial air activities at the airfield. As a general aviation airfield, however, it attracted the record-breaking pilots of the Golden Age of Aviation because of its superior modern facilities and excellent location for flying, hosting dozens of "firsts" and time records as well as a number of air races in their hey-day, such as the Bendix Cup.