Qualla: Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway

Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Douglas Corrigan filed his flight plan for California, pointed his patched-together Curtiss Robin down Runway 6-24, and took off from Floyd Bennett Field on July 17, 1938. He landed in Dublin, Ireland, twenty-eight hours later, claiming his compass had malfunctioned. The authorities had denied him permission to cross the Atlantic, so he simply went the wrong way on purpose and never admitted otherwise. "Wrong Way" Corrigan became a folk hero overnight, but his stunt was only one chapter in the extraordinary life of an airport that New York City built on a garbage island, watched fail as a commercial venture, and then handed over to the Navy, which used it to hunt German submarines and process twenty thousand aircraft bound for the Pacific Theater.

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Image: Public domain

Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway: An Airport Conjured from Sand

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dehumidifier24, CC BY-SA 4.0. Before Floyd Bennett Field existed, Barren Island was exactly what its name suggested: an isolated spit of land in Jamaica Bay that had housed a garbage incinerator, a glue factory, and a few thousand residents who lived among the refuse. When aviation engineer Clarence Chamberli...

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Image: Dehumidifier24 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway: The Busiest Airport Nobody Flew From

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suiseiseki, CC BY-SA 3.0. Floyd Bennett Field became an impossible contradiction: the second-busiest airport in the United States by number of flights in 1933 with 51,828 arrivals and departures, yet a commercial ghost town. That same year, Newark Airport served 120,000 airline passengers to Floyd Bennett...

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Image: Suiseiseki | CC BY-SA 3.0

Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway: A Golden Age Launchpad

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:ktr101, CC BY-SA 4.0. What Floyd Bennett Field lacked in commercial passengers, it made up for in daring. The airport's modern facilities, unobstructed approaches, and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean made it the departure point of choice for record-breaking pilots during aviation's golden age. In Augu...

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Image: User:ktr101 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway: From Civilian Tarmac to Submarine Hunter

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USN, Public domain. The Navy had been renting hangars at Floyd Bennett Field since 1931, paying one dollar per year. When war loomed, the military took over entirely. On May 26, 1941, all civilian operations ceased, and a week later, Naval Air Station New York opened with an air show attended by thi...

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Image: USN | Public domain

Floyd Bennett Field: New York's Forgotten Runway: Runways Returning to Grassland

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0. President Nixon supported turning Floyd Bennett Field into a national park, and in October 1972 it became part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The National Park Service, lacking the funds to maintain the massive infrastructure, let much of the field revert to nature. Gra...

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Image: Rhododendrites | CC BY-SA 4.0