Flushing Pic Needed

[simonovman]

I thought for my next project I should try to fix up Flushing Airport, since that's located right across the bay from North Beach. This should be a much simpler job, basically just AFCAD work to put in the runways and then stick in a hangar or two.

Flushing Airport was quite a considerable one in the thirties and a rival of North Beach. I have text information that shows it had four runways - all of them dirt, but of respectable length - as well as other data.

What I don't have is any idea of the arrangement of the runways. With four runways the possibilities are nearly endless so I don't want to guess.

What I need is at least one picture - a photo or even a drawing - that would give me at least some rough idea of the layout.

So far all I have found is a photo dated 1946, and it is obvious that the place had been drastically rearranged and developed since the thirties - probably by the military - so it's no help. All the other photos are from later years, when Flushing had only a single runway.

(FS9 gets it wrong too; it shows an active airport there, when in fact Flushing Airport has been closed for years - the runway is largely under water and the place is reverting to swampland. There was some controversy over this; they even had demonstrators.)

If anybody has or can point me to a picture of Flushing Airport as it was in the thirties, I will try to whip up a simple representation. Then we will have two period airfields right within sight of each other - in fact the traffic might get interesting.

I am leaving tomorrow morning, going off into the woods for about a week and then when I get back I've got to leave again for a university speaking engagement. So it will be after the first of the month before I can do anything about this. Meantime if you've got anything just leave a PM for me, or post it in here.

Thanks.

[gunney]

Simonovman. These might help.

Jim "Gunney" Golden



<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/gunney/hangar3.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/gunney/hangar2a.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/gunney/hangar2a.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/gunney/chetflush3.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">
<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a305/gunney/flush7.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">

[simonovman]

Thanks. I'd seen the photos before; they're from the period after the airport was closed down, and long before that it had been cut back drastically to a single-runway operation - I think as far back as the forties or fifties.

The diagram, however, is really helpful. It only shows two runways, but that's more than I had; and if all else fails I ought to be able to reconstruct something halfway plausible with that for a start. (Since I know the directions and lengths of all the runways, there's not that many choices where they could go.)

I sort of suspect that the airport property may have gotten trimmed some when Robert Moses put the Whitestone expressway through there. I don't have any evidence of that, it's just an impression from looking at the pictures. The one I've got from '47 shows the expressway clearly in the foreground and it looks as if maybe it cut off a corner there. By that time the airport was no longer a major player anyway, having been shot down first by the competition from North Beach and then La Guardia. They wouldn't have had enough business going on to really need four runways any more, especially with the Depression on; if the city did buy up a chunk of their land they were probably glad to get the money.

So I thank you for this diagram; with it I think I can do the job even if nothing else turns up. At least I can come up with something better than what's there right now.

And I think while I'm at it I'll go ahead and take out the Bronx-Whitestone bridge, which wasn't there till '39.

[simonovman]

Where'd you get the map? Is there a date for it?

[gunney]

Here is the link to the diagram www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/FLUSHING%20AIRPORT/flush.html

My father worked at EDO Aircraft during WW2 which made floats for floatplanes. It was located at the airport, or very near it, and had a seaplane runway just off the shore. I was born and raised in Flushing. I remember the early terminal at LGA and a highlight of our day was looking up and seeing a TWA Constellation flying. Just a few years ago :-)