The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Stratford’s Curtiss Hangar is worthy of preservation
Standing beside Sikorsky Airport in Stratford is the shell of the erstwhile Curtiss Hangar, the hub of America's early aviation history.
“Our goal is to restore this historic landmark to its original state,” said Mark Corvino, president of the Connecticut Air & Space Center, also in Stratford.
Corvino pointed to the faded and chipped name Curtiss scrolled on the façade, “Glenn Curtiss was just one of the aviation greats to come here when early aircraft were designed and tested. The technologies developed here can be found in today's aircraft.”
The hangar was part of the building complex erected in 1929 for the Curtiss Flying Service. In 1938 Igor Sikorsky made the first successful helicopter flight with the world's only certified unique piston helicopter engine, designed by the Lycoming Co.
“Then Avco Lycoming developed a turbine engine for helicopters. These engines powered the helicopters deployed in Vietnam and became the standard in today's helicopter propulsion,” said Corvino.
Another aviation pioneer, Chance Vought, merged his company with Sikorsky's in 1939. Innovations in aviation technologies were developed and applied to both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Vought specialized in carrierbased aircraft as he made aviation history in 1922 with the first takeoff and landing on the first aircraft carrier. Vought designed the Corsair fighter for both landbased air strips and aircraft carrier decks during World War II and Korea.
“CASC is in the process of restoring one of these Corsairs,” Corvino noted. “We asked World War II pilots who flew Corsairs for the accuracy in the replication of all the details unique to this aircraft.”
Corvino went on to say more than 6,000 Corsair planes were built across the street for these wars, pointing to the shuttered assembly plant that still stands there.
“More than 10,000 employees built these planes, many of them women who worked in all trades.”
Other pioneers who utilized the Curtiss hangar included Charles Lindbergh, who worked with Vought to develop a fuel metering system to extend the range of carrier-based Corsairs in the Pacific theatre, and Amelia Earhart, who took award-winning grade-school children for a ride in her famous Electra aircraft.
Other notables in early aviation history also had their aircraft serviced at this hangar were Juan Trippe, founder of Trans World Airlines, and Howard Hughes, a record-setting pilot who transacted business with Sikorsky.
“Recently, there's another first,” Corvino recounted with a smile, “An exact replica of the flier built by Gustav Whitehead in 1901 also flew for a short distance just over there in 1986.”
“The place where you are standing now is the cornerstone of many achievements in early aviation, a place that may be soon forgotten for all time. It should be enshrined in American history,” Corvino concluded.
Ron Kurtz lives in Monroe.