1927 - First transatlantic passenger flight by Clarence D. Chamberlin from Roosevelt Field to Eisleben, Germany.
1929 - First "blind" instrument flight by Jimmy Doolittle at Mitchel Field. Instruments developed by the Sperry and Kollsman companies of Long Island.
The Cradle of Aviation Museum's first curator, William K. Kaiser, participated in an "aviation first" as one of the pilots on the first transatlantic crossing of non-rigid airships in 1944 as a young ensign in the United States Navy. For his educational contributions and curatorial work at the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Kaiser was named a Jimmy Doolittle Fellow and an Ira Eaker Fellow by the Air Force Association Aerospace Education Foundation in 1986.
Museum origins
The first Cradle of Aviation Museum Newsletters were published periodically by the Friends of Nassau County Museum when the air museum itself was still just a dream of Kaiser and George C. Dade, the museum's first director. Along with Henry Anholzer of Pan American Airlines and a team of volunteers, they acquired and restored numerous aircraft. These aircraft reflected some of Long Island's aviation firsts and its local aerospace industry. The first acquisition was a World War I Curtiss JN-4D discovered in an Iowa pig barn by Dade in 1973. Apparently, Lindbergh later confirmed that this was his very first airplane. According to their Spring 1979 newsletter, the museum also had a Ryan Brougham, Republic P-47N Thunderbolt, Republic Seabee, Grumman F-11A Tiger, and a Grumman Lunar Module spacecraft. These aircraft were destined to occupy hangars 3 & 4 of Mitchel Air Force Base which was acquired by Nassau County when the base closed in 1961. The museum originally opened with just a handful of aircraft in the un-restored hangars in 1980. A major renovation and expansion program in the late 1990s allowed the museum to re-open in a state-of-the-art facility in 2002.
Aircraft
Today the museum contains over 60 aircraft and scale models of airplanes from various time periods, including Charles Lindbergh's Curtiss Jenny in which he barnstormed, the A-10 Thunderbolt II and Grumman F-14 Tomcat, and an actual unused Apollo Lunar Module, LM-13. LM-13 was scheduled to land on the Moon with the Apollo 18 mission, but the mission was cancelled and it remained on Earth, close to its birthplace in the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation facility in nearby Bethpage, New York. Many of the tour guides and restoration workers formerly worked at Grumman, which contributed much to the museum. The museum is one of the more popular Air and Space museums in the United States and is well known for its innovative installations, including unique audio-visual, hands-on and interactive exhibits. The museum's longtime curator, Joshua Stoff, is a well-respected author in aviation circles. In addition to the museum itself, the complex houses the JET BLUE DOME theater featuring IMAX 70 millimeter format films as well as a state-of-the-art digital planetarium, and the Red Planet Cafe, decorated to look like a space station on Mars. The museum continues to install new exhibitry related to various Long Island topics to this day.
Firefighter Museum
Within the same building, the Cradle of Aviation Museum houses the Nassau County Firefighter's Museum and Education Center. It is a nearly 10,000 square foot interactive facility where individuals, families and groups can experience first-hand the proud tradition of firefighting in the surrounding communities. Visitors can also trace the history of firefighting in Nassau County with hands-on exhibits that feature antique and contemporary fire apparatus and gear.
