Floyd Bennett Field
New York City's
First Airport
Updated Septemer 24, 2000
Douglas "Wrong-Way" Corrigan in Dublin
after his flight from Floyd Bennett Field
(AP Photo)
Constructed on the site of Barren Island and additional landfill,
Floyd Bennett Field was New York City's first municipal airport.
The airport is located in the southern part of Brooklyn between Flatbush Avenue and Jamaica Bay, and was completed in 1930. The airport initially had only two perpendicular runways. The terminal building was topped by an air traffic control tower and featured modern innovations such as underground tunnels extending from the basement to the ramp area. This allowed passengers to comfortably walk from the terminal to their aircraft in any weather. A barber shop, weather room, pilot's lounge, passenger lounge, and restaurant were also part of this modern terminal.
Despite the excellent hangars, runways, and terminal, this airport was a commercial failure due to it's distance from New York City. The travel time from Manhattan Island to Newark Airport was less than the time to Floyd Bennett Field, causing the airlines not to schedule flights to Floyd Bennett Field. The combination of the field's location, it's long runways and very low air traffic made it an ideal airport for use by pilots attempting record-breaking trans-continental and trans-Atlantic
flights during the 1930s.
Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart, Roscoe Turner, and Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan are just a few of the famous pilots of the "Golden Age of Aviation" that used Floyd Bennett Field.
In the Spring of 1941, the U.S. Navy acquired the property (H.R. 10041) and Naval Air Station (NAS) New York was established. The airport played a vital role as a base for coastal patrol aircraft to assist in the defense of New York City during World War II.
During the post-World War II period, Floyd Bennett Field remained as a Naval Air Station.
Once the field was transferred from the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Interior in the early 1970s, the Naval Air Station closed. The U.S. Coast Guard maintained Coast Guard Air Station Brooklyn at Floyd Bennett Field from 1938 until it was recently shut down. The New York City Police Department Aviation Unit remains as the only operational aviation unit at Floyd Bennett Field.
Today, the terminal building (with a 1940s control tower), many original hangars, as well as the taxiways and runways, remain. Floyd Bennett Field is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Contact the park for more information or a schedule of events and activities.