Celebrating a forgotten milestone in the Rockaways
Ceremony & Fort Tilden exhibit mark 100 years since fi rst trans-Atlantic fl ight from Queens
BY TAMMY SCILEPPI
So, you thought Charles
Lindbergh was the first ever
to make that treacherous
and historic trans-Atlantic
flight. Well, turns out
he wasn’t.
May 8 marked the 100th
anniversary of the first
successful trans-Atlantic
flight in 1919 by the U.S. Navy’s
NC-4 flying boat, the very first
aircraft to blaze across the
airways over that huge ocean.
Surprisingly, this
remarkable event happened
eight years before that popular
hero’s memorable Paris flight,
which was cheered on by an
incredulous nation. But for
some reason, folks barely
noticed NC-4’s amazing
expedition; perhaps they didn’t
find the story of the seaplane
as interesting or exciting …
though indeed it was.
Councilman Eric A. Ulrich,
the Queens Historical Society
and the Rockaway Artists
Alliance marked the historic
anniversary on May 8 as they
celebrate NC-4’s historic flight.
The ceremony took place
at the old Rockaway Coast
Guard Station at the nearby
Riis Landing, and will feature
speakers from Navy and Coast
Guard, veterans’ groups, local
schools, bands and a military
flyover, with participation by
the NYPD and FDNY. Family
members of the crews, their
grandchildren and greatgrandchildren,
will be coming
in from all over the country to
join in as well.
“When I learned about
the long forgotten story
behind the world’s first trans-
Atlantic flight, I knew we had
to bring the story out from
behind history’s shadow,”
Ulrich said.
The celebration event
is a reminder of that rocky
journey. After NC-4 was
assembled and took off from
the Rockaway Naval Air
Station in May of 1919, it took
the aircraft about three weeks
to fly across the Atlantic.
Fort Tilden in the Rockaways has an exhibit marking the first trans-
Atlantic flight on its 100th anniversary.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy Seaplane Division One, 1919
There were impossible delays
in weather, engine repairs
and other problems, but the
plane finally made Lisbon
on May 27.
A special free exhibition
– “The Forgotten Fliers of
1919” – is now on view through
Sunday, June 2. It honors this
monumental event and will be
hosted at the Rockaway Artists
Alliance’s Studio T-7 Gallery
in Fort Tilden on Tuesdays,
Thursdays, Saturdays and
Sundays – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The exhibit will present
storyboards telling the tale
of the epic flight, along with
pictures, video, models, diaries
and other artifacts from NC-4.
The aircraft was restored
by the Smithsonian’s National
Air and Space Museum and
the U.S. Navy for its 50th
anniversary and placed
on permanent display at
the National Museum of
Naval Aviation in
Pensacola, Florida.
And thanks to citizens of
the Rockaway community, on
the flight’s 50th anniversary
in 1969, a marker was placed
where it all began.
While no memorial to the
NC Trans-Atlantic Expedition
has ever graced JFK Airport,
every flight that takes off
from its runway 25L overflies
the site of that long-gone
NAS Rockaway.
Few people realize that
it took four presidents until
the NC-4’s courageous crew
of six were honored with
special medals at a White
House ceremony.
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