Lufbery Aerodrome
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 WWI 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
In the months before the November elections, little happened 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 U.S. 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.
Russell Rhine [email protected]
Sources
- Meroke RC Club — www.meroke.com
- Lufbery aerodrome dedicated at Cedar Creek — http://bit.ly/bSy1tZ
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
