Airplane Manufacturing in Farmingdale

By Ken Neubeck, Leroy E. Douglas and Long Island Republic Airport Historical Society

Farmingdale, located in west-central Long Island on both sides of the Nassau-Suffolk County border, was an important center of airplane manufacturing from the First World War until almost the end of the Cold War. Aviation pioneers like Lawrence Sperry, Sherman Fairchild, Leroy Grumman, Alexander de Seversky, and Alexander Kartveli directed the manufacture of aircraft, aircraft engines, and key subassemblies as they evolved from the propeller, biplane era to the jet and space age. Farmingdale witnessed the creation of such cutting-edge aircraft as the Sperry Triplane Amphibian and Messenger; the Fairchild FC-2; the Grumman FF-1, JF-1 Duck, and G-22 Gulfhawk; the Seversky P-35; the Republic Aviation P-47, F-84, and F-105; and the Fairchild Republic space shuttle tails and A-10 Warthog. Airplane manufacturing in Farmingdale ended in 1987 with the demise of Fairchild Republic, but this book offers a comprehensive pictorial history of the outstanding achievements of so many talented men and women over seven decades.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Mar 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781439654989

Ken Neubeck

A former engineer for Fairchild Republic, Ken Neubeck is vice president of the Long Island Republic Airport Historical Society (LIRAHS) and author of several books on military aircraft. Leroy E. Douglas is president of the LIRAHS and has published numerous articles and reviews on aviation.

Book preview

(FBHS).

INTRODUCTION

For almost a century, Farmingdale, New York, has been a major center of airplane manufacturing and airport operations. In 1917, the same year that the Curtiss Aircraft Company opened its experimental factory in Garden City, Lawrence Sperry—the founding father of airplane manufacturing in Farmingdale—established his airplane factory in the village. During World War I in 1918, Sperry built two amphibious triplanes for the US Navy, and the (Sydney) Breese Aircraft Company in East Farmingdale built 300 non-flying basic trainers for the US Army. Before Sperry’s tragic death in December 1923, his employees in Farmingdale and South Farmingdale assembled 42 light Messenger aircraft and three sleek R-3 racers for the US Army.

In 1926, Sherman Fairchild established airplane manufacturing and airplane engine production in the former Sperry factory in South Farmingdale. Fairchild’s workers built the innovative FC cabin airplanes and Fairchild Caminez engines in South Farmingdale before moving to a larger and more modern factory complex and flying field in East Farmingdale in 1928. The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression had a devastating impact on airplane manufacturing. Fairchild moved his airplane manufacturing to Hagerstown, Maryland, in 1929, and his airplane engine factories were taken over by the Aviation Corporation and renamed American Airplane & Engine Corporation. But they too succumbed to the depressed demand of the Great Depression in 1931.

In 1932, Grumman Aircraft Corporation moved to East Farmingdale and built its early aircraft (such as FF fighters, JF amphibians, and F3F fighters) for the US Navy in the former Fulton Truck Company factory from 1932 to 1937. In 1934, Sherman Fairchild returned to Farmingdale and resumed building airplane engines in his Ranger Aircraft Engines factory. Ranger Aircraft Engine Division, known as Fairchild Engine Division after 1950, built engines for the US Army and US Navy until the company moved to Deer Park in 1956. From 1939 until 1957, the Liberty Aircraft Finishing Corporation on the former Sperry-Fairchild site in South Farmingdale did important subcontracting work for Grumman and Republic. Also in 1935—a turning point in the takeoff of major airplane manufacture in Farmingdale—Alexander de Seversky moved his airplane manufacturing into the former Fairchild and American factory buildings. There, employees led by his brilliant chief engineer, Alexander Kartveli, built outstanding aircraft, such as the P-35, for the US Army Air Corps.

In 1939, Seversky Aircraft was reorganized as the Republic Aviation Corporation, and Alexander Kartveli and his engineering team developed the powerful P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber. The US government funded the construction of a new, much larger Republic Aviation factory complex in 1941 and the development of a larger Republic Airfield, which allowed the construction and flight testing of 9,087 P-47s between 1942 and 1945. The Thunderbolts played a major role in protecting US Army Air Force bombers over France and Germany during World War II and in devastating German ground targets.

While aviation started in Farmingdale with cloth-covered triplanes and biplanes and prop engines, after World War II, Republic helped move the United States into the jet age with the F-84 and F-84F, which assisted US forces in Korea and NATO nations in the 1950s. Republic then developed the massive F-105 Thunderchief, which was used widely during the Vietnam War. Although Republic had tried to diversify airplane manufacturing with the RC-3 Seabee and the XR-12 Rainbow after World War II, these efforts were not financially successful. As production of the F-105 was winding down in 1965, Sherman Fairchild returned to Farmingdale, acquired Republic, and renamed it Fairchild Hiller and then Fairchild Republic in 1972. Before obtaining major work for the famed Fairchild A-10, Fairchild did subcontracting work with tail assemblies on the McDonnell F-4 Phantom and leading edges for the Boeing 747, as well as producing the vertical stabilizer tails for the space shuttles. While Fairchild Republic workers in Farmingdale constructed wings and fuselages for the A-10, final tail assembly and flight-testing were conducted in Hagerstown, Maryland. The A-10 has provided outstanding wartime service in both Iraq wars, in Afghanistan, and in current US operations against global terrorism. Fairchild Republic built 50 sets of landing gear doors and fairings for the Lockheed C-5B Galaxy between 1982 and 1987. Fairchild tried but failed to win a production contract from the US Air Force for the T-46A trainer, and the company closed its factory doors in 1987, ending 70 years of airplane manufacturing in Farmingdale.

The closing of Fairchild Republic did not end aviation in Farmingdale. Republic Airfield became Republic Airport in 1966 and has been operated as a publicly owned general aviation airport by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (1969–1982) and by the New York State Department of Transportation since 1983. With its two long runways, instrument landing system, control tower, several aviation service businesses, and the impressive American Airpower Museum, Republic Airport plays an important part in the national and global air transportation network. It is an important contributor to the economy of Long Island and the New York metropolitan region. Thus, Republic Airport carries on the tradition of aviation established by Lawrence Sperry in Farmingdale almost a century ago.

One

THE FOUNDATION YEARS

1917–1931

Just 14 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, airplane manufacturing came to Farmingdale, New York, in 1917. For 70 years, from 1917 until 1987, Farmingdale was a leader in airplane manufacturing.