Lufbery Aerodrome - 2010/09

September 2010 25
ONE OF THE problems facing our hobby
is the loss of flying fields. We, members of
the Meroke Radio Control Club (Merokes),
have been confronted by a number of issues
in the past few years that have jeopardized
the future of our site. Located at the far end
of Cedar Creek Park in Seaford, New York,
it is one of the few flying fields to survive
on Long Island.
Slightly more than a year ago, two of our
members—Ernie Schack and Bob Cook—
brought an interesting fact to my attention.
In the early 1900s, during World War I,
there was a military training facility for
pilots on the spot where our flying site is
today. What made it more interesting was
that the field was named after a
distinguished WW I flying ace: Major Raoul
Lufbery.
Born of American and French parents,
Lufbery made a
name for himself
while flying with
the Lafayette
Escadrille. His first
air-combat kill was
recorded in August
1916 and he went on
to record a total of
17 kills, all across
enemy territory.
Once the US
entered the war,
Lufbery joined the
infamous 94th Aero
Squadron in the
newly formed
American Air
Service. With his
combat experience,
he spent time as a
flight instructor and
taught Captain
Eddie Rickenbacker,
who went on to
become the top
American ace of the
war, how to fly in combat.
On the morning of May 19, 1918,
Lufbery borrowed a pilot’s Nieuport and
chased after a German reconnaissance
airplane that was flying a low-level
photographic mission over the airfield of the
94th Aero Squadron, near Nancy, France.
During this pursuit, a tracer bullet from the
Albatros ripped into the Nieuport’s fuel tank
and it burst into flames.
Lufbery jumped from his airplane at a
height of 200 feet, to avoid the slow torture
of being burned to a crisp. The movie
Flyboys, released in 2006, was loosely based
on his life.
On July 31, 1918, the military services of
the US commissioned four new airfields to
be established on Long Island. One of those,
Lufbery Field, was a facility at which to
train new pilots for eventual deployment to
the war in Europe.
Approximately 200 military personnel
were stationed at the site, along with 12
Curtiss Jennys. It was situated in the area
where we now fly our RC models. A year
the county before the November elections,
little happened in the next few months
regarding our proposal. After the elections
and a great deal of behind-the-scenes work,
our proposal was passed on to the county’s
legal department.
Two of the county’s legislators, whose
constituents live in the area surrounding
Cedar Creek Park, jumped headfirst into
supporting our plan to name the field after
Major Lufbery. It was a true bipartisan
effort; they were able to quickly move the
proposal along.
At the first county legislature meeting in
December 2009, our committee attended to
present our proposal to the legislative
committee responsible for voting for and, it
was hoped, passing our proposal on to the
entire county legislature.
The day’s meeting started at 10 a.m., but
we didn’t get to the
podium to present
until almost 8:00
p.m. The legislative
committee voted
unanimously to have
our proposal made
into a resolution to
be voted on later in
the month.
We received a
great holiday
present, when the
entire legislature
voted unanimously
to approve the
resolution on the
Monday before
Christmas. We now
officially have the
rights to name our
flying field “Lufbery
Aerodrome.”
Many aviation
historians consider
Long Island the true
birthplace of aviation in the US. On the
morning of July 17, 1909, Glenn Curtiss
guided his delicate “aeroplane,” the Gold Bug,
into the air above the Mineola Fairgrounds.
For the following 100 years, Long Island was
the scene of intense aviation activity.
We initiated our efforts during the
centennial year of Long Island Aviation and
hoped to reach our goal by the year’s end. We
did so with a few days to spare.
We are now left with a few fun tasks after
a hard-fought battle. We have honored a Great
War hero, and we hope that Lufbery
Aerodrome will remain an RC flying field for
a long time. MA
Russell Rhine
[email protected]
Sources:
Meroke RC Club
www.meroke.com
Lufbery aerodrome dedicated at Cedar Creek:
http://bit.ly/bSy1tZ
after Lufbery Field was opened, it was
closed because of the armistice.
Josh Soren, president of the Wantagh
Historical and Preservation Society on Long
Island, has a few photos of the field. He
allowed me to digitally scan the fragile
original prints.
With that in mind, we Merokes decided
to give some historical perspective to our
field, and we hope that it will allow us to
keep the facility active for a long time.
The Meroke RC Club formed a
committee that is chaired by Charlie Lando,
to pursue our goal of renaming the site. As
the editor of the Merokes’ newsletter, Smoke
Signals, I had already researched Major
Lufbery and the field named in his honor.
After a few meetings and a seemingly
endless amount of telephone calls and
e-mails, we had a finished proposal. To
strengthen our case, we solicited letters of
support from a few prominent people within
Nassau County, including Josh Soren and
Andrew Parton, executive director of the
Cradle of Aviation Museum, which is
located a few miles from Lufbery Field.
Once completed, our proposal and letters
of support were sent to Tom Suozzi, the
then-Nassau County executive. In
retrospect, our timing might not have been
optimal. There was a pending issue of
adding facilities to Cedar Creek Park,
including a go-kart track that could have
jeopardized the field.
Our proposal for a name change was not
a pressing issue for Mr. Suozzi, because he
was involved in his campaign for a third
term in office and many other county
matters.
With the local residents in an uproar, the
plans for the park eventually fizzled. Mr.
Suozzi passed our proposal on to
Commissioner of Parks Jose Lopez.
With the increased political tensions in
09sig1x_00MSTRPG.QXD 7/22/10 9:33 AM Page 25