Yet more keen links one might want to share

[glatt]

Originally Posted by zippyt

Check this out , Abandoned and Little known air fields
Hell there is an old air field ( Well the impression of one ) Not far from here !!!

I love this site. It's got the only real mention of my Uncle Joe's airfield on Long Island that I've seen. He owned/ran Zahn's airport for years before retiring (scroll down to see a picture of Joe Zahn, my grandmother's brother.) It was always fun visiting him. He had a big house on a canal/waterway. We'd visit and he's take us out on his big boat onto the sound. I never got a tour of the airport, but he was big into flying. Had a cabin up in the Adirondacks decorated with old wooden propellers. He was a great guy and had cool toys to show us kids.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's pretty interesting, glatt. Starting in the 30s and building up to....

The business expanded, and Zahn's Airport became at the time the largest privately airport in America.......
.....It eventually grew into the region's largest general aviation airport, with more than 200 resident aircraft & helicopters.

A 1953 article in Flying Magazine described Zahn's Airport as having a 4,200' paved runway, which was described as "handling DC-3s with ease."
The airfield had a total of 35 T-hangars & two larger concrete hangars. Two more concrete hangars (described as "being large enough to house four DC-3s) were under construction, as was a 3,000' east/west runway & runway lights.

A National Guard unit had 40 L-19s & two Navions based at Zahn's, and it had a new hangar under construction for 10 helicopters which were planned to be based at Zahn's.

On a good Sunday afternoon it was not unusual to be 8th or 10th on downwind with every mix from J-3s to twins. "With that traffic, after moving to the Comanche I learned a lot about slow flight.”

We're talking serious operation here, not a grass clearing in the outback.
And then.....

Zahn's was bought by the town in 1980 & turned into an industrial park.

What? Just like that? Gone?
NO no no, there has to be more to it. There has to be a story. People fed up with the noise.... angry public meetings..... behind the scenes meetings and skullduggery...... the Mafia, the FBI, Soviet spies, connected competitors. Something?

[Griff]

Maybe MaggieL is in the know, but I always figured lawsuits insurance and such changed the trajectery of cheap flight for the masses and killed the local airstrips.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Griff

Maybe MaggieL is in the know, but I always figured lawsuits insurance and such changed the trajectery of cheap flight for the masses and killed the local airstrips.

The expansion of suburbia hasn't helped, either.

People who moved into my town within the last few years keep trying to supress the expansion of/close down an airport that has been there since 1930, and has historic importance (The AOPA was formed there), not to mention local public safety importance (the medevac helicopter is based there).

They've successfully killed the building of a hospital, which probably means that flushed with their success, they'll take another try at Wings.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's pretty interesting, glatt. Starting in the 30s and building up to....
We're talking serious operation here, not a grass clearing in the outback.
And then..... What? Just like that? Gone?
NO no no, there has to be more to it. There has to be a story. People fed up with the noise.... angry public meetings..... behind the scenes meetings and skullduggery...... the Mafia, the FBI, Soviet spies, connected competitors. Something?

I wish I knew more about it. I was just a kid. This website has taught me more than family history has. I remember Uncle Joe, and I knew he had an airport on Long Island. That's about it.