The American Airplane and Engine Corporation planted its roots in the former Fairchild factory at Republic Airport in 1931.
William Littlewood, General Manager of the original Fairchild Engine factory, and Myron Gould Beard, a pilot and engineer there, ultimately took up employment at then-named American Airways. The former’s first significant assignment was to develop specifications for a cost-effective airliner. An “Airliner,” then, signified no more than a dozen passengers.
In 1931, it was awarded a contract to create four transport ships. In 1932, they made a deal with General Aviation Corporation to take over the final development of the Pilgrim 150 plane. It was a monoplane that cruised at 175mph and could carry 10 passengers.
In 1932, there was a re-organization of the personnel which resulted in the dismissal of 525 employees. La Motte T. Cohu became President and Frank E. Barth became general manager and executive vice-president. There is no other mention of the company past 1932.
Sources:
“The American Airplane and Engine Corporation Pilgrim 100.” World Airline Historical Society, 4 Feb. 2022, https://wahsonline.com/the-american-airplane-and-engine-corporation-pilgrim-100
“American Airplane Co. Reorganization.” The Farmingdale Post. April 8, 1932
“American Airways Planes, 175 M. P. H.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 9, 1932
“Army Gets Contracts, Totaling $2,571,757 for 71 Planes, 92 Engines.” Hartford Courant. August 29, 1931
“Plane Firm Lets 525 Employees Go.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. April 2, 1932
Updated by NK 11/2/22
Breese Aircraft was located on Eastern Parkway. It was created by Sidney S. Breese.
The Breese Penguin was a non-flying airplane trainer that students learned the feel of airplane controls. It had a two-cylinder engine. In 1917, the plane was recommended to the Joint Army and Navy Technical Aircraft Board to be adopted for testing. The company was given a contract in December of that year for 300 Penguins. At the same time, the Board passed a resolution to purchase the prototype from Sidney Breese for $15,000. In January 1918, new trainers had been created and a recommendation was made to the Board that the Penguin was no longer needed. The Board decided that the airplanes be manufactured anyway.
At the time of production, the finalized plans for the plane did not exist. Due to the simplicity of its design, 10 planes were completed without engines by March 22, 1918. There were continuing problems with the engines, causing the company exercising its clause in the contract that the finished airplanes be paid for. At hat time, 30 had been completed. In 1918, Colonel Travis, Chief of Training, stated that the Penguin was obsolete. By October 1918, the last machine left the factory. Most were sent to a supply depot in Texas. By 1920, the 270 Penguins at Houston were reported to be condemned and were to be scrapped.
There is a Breese Penguin on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City.
Source:
Casari, Robert. Encyclopedia of U.S. Military Aircraft. Military Aircraft Publ., 1972
Sherman M. Fairchild was born in Oneonta, New York, in 1895. He was the son of George Winthrop Fairchild, whose time-clock and adding-machine business eventually became the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
Determined to help with the war effort, he and his father went to Washington to see if his experience with cameras might be useful. At the time, the military had aerial cameras that produced poor quality images because the shutter speed could not keep pace with the motion of the airplane. Fairchild developed a camera where the shutter was inside the lens, which produced much clearer images.
Although the Army did not accept his camera until the war had ended, it bought two for training. Fairchild started the Fairchild Aerial Camera Corporation in February 1920 to build his aerial cameras. Soon the Army ordered 20 more and made them its standard aerial camera. Fairchild began using his cameras for mapmaking and aerial surveying and established another company, Fairchild Aerial Surveys, which remained in business until 1965.
Sherman Fairchild formed the Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing Corporation in 1925. That same year, he leased the former Sperry Factory in Farmingdale. His first plane was the FC-1, a high-wing monoplane with a heated enclosed cockpit to protect the pilot and equipment. The plane provided a steady platform, featured folding wings, and used slots and ailerons for stability.
He purchased the former Fulton Truck Factory in 1928 and business was booming. He began developing the Fairchild Flying Field and Fairchild Caminez Engine factory on Conklin Street. The Fairchild Airplane Manufacturing was built that year, as well as a 16,000 square foot hangar. In July of 1928, airplane production was moved from South Farmingdale to East Farmingdale.
The name of the company changed a few times. It became the Fairchild Aircraft Manufacturing & Engine Co. in 1934. In 1936, it was renamed the Fairchild Engine & Airplane Co.
Fairchild purchased the license to manufacture the Fokker F-27 Friendship passenger airplane in 1956, building approximately 200. The F-27 became the first American-built jet airliner in service and, along with the FH-227, became widely used as "feeder" planes for commercial carriers both in the United States and abroad.
In 1961, Fairchild was renamed Fairchild-Stratos Corporation. It built meteoroid detection satellites for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and cameras for the Apollo missions. In 1964, the company acquired Hiller Helicopters, becoming Fairchild Hiller. Fairchild acquired Republic Aviation in September 1965. By 1980, Fairchild was a leading aerospace and electronics company, with major positions also in communications and in commercial and industrial activities. In 1985, company president Emanual Athenakis announced that Fairchild would withdraw from civil aircraft production.
Rising production costs and schedule problems with Fairchild's last aircraft, the T-46, led to the announcement that Fairchild Industries was leaving the aircraft business. Late in 1987, Fairchild dismissed its remaining 3,500 employees at Farmingdale and closed the plant. The company still retained space, electronics, and subcontracting work. A metals firm from Ohio, Banner Industries acquired it in August 1989. The new company was renamed Fairchild Corporation. In 1994, Orbital Sciences Corporation purchased Fairchild Space and Defense Corporation. Orbital sold Fairchild's Defense Unit to the British company, Smiths Industries, in 2000.
Sources:
“Fairchild Aviation History.” PilotFriend, www.pilotfriend.com/aircraft%20performance/fairchild.htm
Pike, John. “Military.” Fairchild Aircraft (Formerly Swearingen Aircraft Corporation), www.globalsecurity.org/military/industry/fairchild.htm
Updated by NK 11/2/22
The founders of Grumman consisted of LeRoy Grumman, Jake Swirbul, and Bill Schwendler. The three men met while working at Loening Aeronautical Engineering Company. When Loening was sold in 1928, the plant moved from New York to Pennsylvania. The three men decided that instead of moving, they would form their own company. They decided to forgo any outside financing and would use what capital they could raise amongst themselves to retain complete control of the company.
The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation filed as a corporation on December 6, 1929. It opened for business on January 2, 1930 and operated out of a small converted automobile garage in Baldwin. To get immediate business, they repaired and rebuilt Loening amphibians already in service.
On November 4, 1931, Grumman moved to Valley Stream. In 1932, Grumman was once again feeling growing pains, and the timing could not have been better, so the search was on again for manufacturing space and further growth. They ended up moving into the former Fulton Motor Truck site in Farmingdale. Toward the end of 1936, Grumman once more needed space. The building in Farmingdale wasn’t in the best of shape, and a 120-acre site was found in Bethpage. Construction began October 26, 1936. They officially moved to the new plant in Bethpage on April 8, 1937.
From the mid-1930s through World War II, Grumman’s increasingly capable radial piston-engine fighters, such as the F6F Hellcat, and torpedo bombers were the standard planes for U.S. aircraft carriers until supplemented by jets during the Korean War. Between December 7, 1941 and August 14, 1945, Grumman delivered 17, 013 planes to the US Navy and was awarded five “E” production stars.
In 1957, only 12 engineers were working on long-term, space-related activities. After Alan Shepard’s historic orbit, studies on manned space flight were now being conducted in earnest at Grumman. Requests for proposals for a moon lander design were issued by NASA, with Grumman submitting its response in September of 1962. On November 7, 1962, NASA announced that the Grumman-proposed engineering concept had been chosen as the winning design. In 1969, Grumman received a contract to build the carrier-based air-superiority fighter F-14 Tomcat. The twin-engine, variable-wing aircraft, which entered service in 1973, became the West’s most advanced and most expensive fighter of the time.
In 1969, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation was re-named Grumman Corporation with four subsidiaries: aerospace, allied, data systems, and international. Northrop acquired Grumman in 1994 and closed most of its facilities on Long Island. On June 22, 2003 the Central Park Historical Society placed an historic marker in Bethpage commemorating when the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation established its facility. On October 4, 2006, the next to last F-14 Tomcat manufactured by Grumman, touched down at Republic Airport.
Sources:
Grumman. “Grumman 50 Years.”
Grummanpark.org, www.grummanpark.org
“Lunar Module.” Cradle of Aviation Museum, www.cradleofaviation.org/history/history/lunar-module.html
“Northrop Grumman Corporation.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Northrop-Grumman-Corporation
Thruelsen, Richard. The Grumman Story. Prager, 1976
Updated by NK 11/2/22
Liberty Aircraft was founded in 1932 by Charles Kirkham and Robert Simon and was known as the Kirkham Engineering and Manufacturing Company. Robert Simon formerly was the factory manager and test pilot for Lawrence Sperry. They began by manufacturing gear boxes, vacuum cylinders, shock struts, propeller hubs, and other aircraft equipment. In 1936, the plant operations were moved to the former Sperry plant on Motor Avenue in Farmingdale. The aircraft division was established in 1938.
In 1940, the firm became Liberty Aircraft Products Corporation. Liberty became the prime subcontractor in the East making aircraft parts for Grumman, Republic, Martin, Curtiss, Fairchild, Brewster, Vought, Sikorsky, and others. It produced aircraft parts and metal finishing work during World War II and the Korean War. In 1940, Charles Kirkham left the company and Robert Simon took over.
In 1941, Liberty acquired stock control of the Autocar Company of Philadelphia. After Pearl Harbor, Liberty produced the parts for the world famous Wildcats, Hellcats, Bearcats, and Avengers planes. During the war, they were the first plant in Nassau County to subscribe one hundred percent for payroll participation of war bond purchases. Once the war ended, Liberty acquired the Highway Trailer Company of Wisconsin and the Davisbilt Company of Cincinnati. The company designed the Phillips Starting Gate for the Roosevelt Raceway.
The company changed names once again, in 1947, becoming the Liberty Products Corporation. Liberty had its last year of independent operation in 1954. Penn-Texas acquired Liberty in 1955 and sold the factory to H. & B. American Machines Co. in 1958. Metal plating and fiberglass product manufacturing were carried out from 1957 to 1984.
The company became known through the East coast as an outstanding producer in the field. After World War II, Liberty manufactured trailers, printing machines, and a wide variety of commercial products. It won the Army-Navy E Production Award in 1943. It closed its doors in 1954.
Sources:
"Liberty Aircraft Sells Factory." Farmingdale Post. January 8, 1958
Long Island: A History of Two Great Counties: Nassau and Suffolk. Volume III. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1949
“Penn-Texas Sells Liberty Aircraft.” New York Times. January 2, 1958
Research by Arthur Kranz
Updated by NK 11/2/22
Republic Aviation Corporation was founded October 1939 out of the old Seversky Aviation Corporation in Farmingdale. After the Board ousted Seversky, W. Wallace Keller was voted in as President.
Republic’s first aircraft deliveries were P-35 fighter planes built for the Swedish government. In 1940, Alexander Kartveli and C. Hart Miller conferred with Auxiliary Air Force Material Command to design the P-35, P-43, and P-47 fighter planes for the American government. Republic was given an order for more than $58,000,000 to build new P-47s that required them to quadruple the size of their factory and build three new runways.
Republic built a new assembly plant in 1940. In 1941, Ralph. S. Damon assumed the Presidency of Republic with Mr. Kellett. Plant expansion continued in Farmingdale and another plant was built in Evansville, Indiana. By the end of 1943, Republic had produced five thousand P-47 Thunderbolts. On September 20, 1944, Republic delivered the ten-thousandth Thunderbolt to the Army Air Forces. At the conclusion of the war, Republic had built 15,329 P-47s.
On December 27, 1945, Republic purchased Aircooled Motors Corporation of Syracuse and became producers of its own engines for personal aircraft manufacturers. A ceremony was held that year for the last P-47N aircraft built in the Farmingdale plant. The aircraft is on display at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City. After the war ended, the US Government ceased funding the P-47 and thousands of workers were laid off. Alexander Kartveli and his team of engineers designed Republic’s debut jet fighter, the XP-84. The F-105 program was a major one for Republic, but it wasn’t enough to keep the company viable. The F-105 was to be Republic Aviation's last independent design. Finances became a major problem by the beginning of the 1960s.
In 1959, a $14 million Research and Development Center was constructed. It was planned by Republic’s scientific, engineering, and development staffs. In the early 1960s, the aerospace company Fairchild, owned by Sherman Fairchild, began purchasing Republic's stock and finally acquired Republic Aviation in July 1965. It was renamed the Fairchild Hiller Division of the Fairchild Corporation. Fairchild won subcontracts to build tail sections of the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat. The company began facing financial problems in 1986 and had to terminate the production of two planes. In 1987, Fairchild closed the division and destroyed the Republic Company’s archives, including the blueprints and plans for all aircraft.
Republic Airfield became Republic Airport on December 7, 1966. In 1969, the MTA took over the airport, enlarged it, installed an instrument landing system, and opened a more modern control tower. The New York State Department of Transportation acquired the airport in 1983. The NYSDOT helped SUNY Farmingdale establish an Aerospace Education Center at the airport, helped the New York State Police locate its Troop L headquarters, and helped establish the American Airpower Museum. In 2000, the Long Island Republic Airport Historical Society worked with the Republic Airport Commission to name the streets adjoining the airport after major companies in the history of the airport. Republic Airport is now a staging area for aircraft participating in the Jones Beach Air Show.
Sources:
Long Island: A History of Two Great Counties: Nassau and Suffolk. Volume III. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1949
Neubeck, Ken. Airplane Manufacturing in Farmingdale. Arcadia Publishing, 2016
“Republic Aviation.” Military Aircraft Historian, www.militaryaircrafthistorian.com/republic_aviation.html
“Republic Aviation Corp. and Seversky Aircraft Co.” Aircraft in Focus, aircraft-in-focus.com/republic
“Republic’s New $14-Million R & D Center.” Farmingdale Post. April 9, 1959
Updated by NK 12/16/22
Alexander de Seversky was born in Russia in 1894. He was a Russian Naval aviator and one of the leading Russian Naval Aces of World War I. He was sent to the United States in 1918 as part of his appointment to the Russian Aviation Commission and decided to stay.
He worked for the United States Air Service as a consultant 1919-1922 and developed a new, more accurate bombsight. Using the money from the sale of his bombsight to the United States Government, he founded the Seversky Aero Corporation in 1922. The company concentrated on making aircraft parts and instruments. It did not survive the stock market crash in 1929. In 1931, he organized a new company, the Seversky Aircraft Corporation with himself as President and Chief Test Pilot. This new company was to specialize in long-range high-speed pursuit planes.
Seversky designed an all metal multi-place monoplane amphibian called the SEV-3. The SEV-3 set a world speed record for piston-engine amphibious airplanes on September 15, 1935, that remains unbroken, flying at a speed just over 230 miles per hour. A distinguishing feature of the SEV-3 was its thin but broad semi-elliptical wing, which would appear on the later P-47 Thunderbolt. In 1930, de Seversky developed the P-43 all metal fighter. Many of the new concepts of that plane are universally accepted construction principles for today’s modern aircraft. Capable of speeds of over 300 miles per hour the new aircraft would give long range and high altitude protection to U.S. bombers which, until then, flew without fighter protection.
The more advanced versions of the amphibian were ultimately sold to the Army Air Corps as Trainers (BT-8) and Fighters (P-35) in the mid-1930s. The company also built the SEV-3XLR, 2-XP, BT-8 Trainer, and SEV1P Fighters. He was also instrumental in the development of the forerunner of the famous P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter of World War II. The design office was responsible for 25 different innovations.
Seversky moved to their new facilities in Farmingdale in 1934. His company never turned a profit. Despite Government purchases the company continually operated in the red, and the Board of Directors voted De Seversky out as President in 1939 and re-organized the company as the Republic Aircraft Corporation.
In 1942, he wrote the book Victory through Air Power, which was made into a movie and became a best seller. After the war, he was awarded the Medal of Merit by President Harry Truman. He also served as a special consultant to the chiefs of staff of the U.S. Air Force and received the Exceptional Service Medal in 1969. In 1952, he formed Seversky Electroatom Corporation, a company focused on protecting the United States from nuclear attack and on extracting radioactive particles from the air.
He was awarded the Harmon Trophy as the Outstanding Aviator for 1939 and 1947. In the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, he wrote and lectured extensively on military theory and airpower, always promoting strategic bombardment and a strong Air Force. He was considered a leading expert on the tactics and strategy of aerial warfare and he considered global airpower as the solution to America’s security needs.
Seversky died on August 24, 1974.
Sources:
Alexander De Seversky, www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Aerospace/Seversky/Aero42.htm“Alexander De Seversky at the Cradle of Aviation Museum.” Cradle of Aviation Museum, www.cradleofaviation.org/history/history/people/alexander_de_seversky.html
“DeSeversky, Alexander Procofieff.” National Aviation Hall of Fame, 29 June 2016, www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/deseversky-alexander
Updated by NK 11/2/22
In early 1917, Lawrence Sperry formed the Sperry Aircraft Company to perfect the gyrostabilizer and develop flight instruments. His father Elmer designed and built the first gyrostabilizer to help the pilot control the airplane’s yaw, pitch, and roll. Before long, he invented the gyroscopic bank and turn indicator, an instrument that is still standard on modern aircraft. Before forming the company, Lawrence conceived of a three-way gyrostabilizer to steer bombing planes and developed the first amphibious flying boat in and added lights to it to make night flights, both in 1915.
Just before America entered World War I, Lawrence became one of the first civilians to receive a commission in the Navy Flying Corps Reserve. Surgery made him inactive, so he took up the development of the aerial torpedo as an answer to the German submarine menace. The Sperry Gyroscope Company concentrated on its controls, while Lawrence worked with aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss on its airframe.
After the war, Lawrence built the Sperry “Messenger”, a small versatile biplane, for the Army Air Service. He later converted six of them into improved aerial torpedoes, and controlled them through radio to hit targets. This achievement earned Lawrence a $40,000 bonus. In 1918, the aerial torpedo made the first entirely successful flight of an automatic missile.
In 1922, Lawrence converted the Messenger into a private sport plane, one that could be kept in an ordinary garage and was easy to fly. That same year, he flew using a Messenger and made the first experiments aimed at testing the feasibility of hooking on to an airship in flight. Lawrence kept improving the Messenger and invented a releasable landing gear and fuselage skids. This enabled the plane to take off, parachute the wheels, and then land in less than one-tenth of the normal distance. In 1923, he entered one in the St. Louis Air Race, placing fourth.
Soon afterwards, Lawrence built the Verville-Sperry Racer for the Air Service. It featured a retractable landing gear and a clean wing design, and later won the grueling 1924 Pulitzer Trophy Race. In December 1923, Lawrence Sperry, in a Messenger, made a forced landing in the English Channel and apparently drowned while trying to swim ashore.
After the death of Lawrence, his father’s firm and his firm merged in 1924. The company became Sperry Corporation in 1933. The company made advanced aircraft navigation equipment for the market, including the Sperry Gyroscope and the Sperry Radio Direction Finder. Sherman Fairchild would later lease the property to form his own company. It is located near where Republic Airport stands now.
In 1955, Sperry acquired Remington Rand and renamed itself Sperry Rand. In 1978, Sperry Rand decided to concentrate on its computing interests, and sold a number of divisions including Remington Rand Systems, Remington Rand Machines, Ford Instrument Company and Sperry Vickers. The company dropped "Rand" from its title and reverted to Sperry Corporation. At about the same time as the Rand acquisition, Sperry Gyroscope decided to open a facility that would almost exclusively produce its marine instruments. After considerable searching and evaluation, a plant was built in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in 1956, Sperry Piedmont Division began producing marine navigation products. It was later renamed Sperry Marine.
In 1986, after the success of a second hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs CEO and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Michael Blumenthal, Sperry Corporation merged with Burroughs Corporation to become Unisys. The name Sperry lives on in the company Sperry Marine, headquartered in New Malden, England. This company, formed in 1997, from three well-known brand names in the marine industry—Sperry Marine, Decca, and C. Plath—is now part of Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Sources:
“Sperry Corporation.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Nov. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperry_Corporation
“Sperry Messenger at the Cradle of Aviation.” Cradle of Aviation Museum, www.cradleofaviation.org/history/exhibits/atrium/sperry_messenger.html
“Sperry Sr., Lawrence Burst.” National Aviation Hall of Fame, www.nationalaviation.org/our-enshrinees/sperry-sr-lawrence-burst
Updated by NK 11/2/22