Manufacturing and Long Island

Long Island is clearly part of the North American Manufacturing Core, although as the 20th Century drew to a close manufacturing became a lesser part of Long Islands economy. Refelcting the trend shown in Table 5.2. One of the main reasons for this is due to one of the largest manufacturing industries closing down, the aircraft industry. Grumman, and Fairchild no longer manufacture on Long Island as they did during the earlier part of the 20th Century.

You typically would not think of Long Island as a place for manufacturing as it has no minerals, steel mills, or other things associated with light and heavy manufacturing but Long Island did have its own industries that were helped by its proximity to water and ports. Whaling is one such industry. Whaling was popular on the east end of Long Island, Southhampton, and Easthampton as well as Sag Harbor were huge whaling centers. Schocking I am sure that the hamptons so posh and exclusive these days was once a bustling whaling community. The whales were harvested for blubber, to be used as oil for lamps and to make candles. If you think about the time period 1640-1870 electricty was not around the primary means of lighting was candles and oil lamps. This was a huge industry for Long Island. (http://www.kioli.org/longisland/random/long-islands-whaling-history/)

As the area moved into the 20th Century aircraft manufacturing was an integral part of life on Long Island. Charles Lindberg took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island in 1927 for his flight to Paris.

Companies such as Grumman Aircraft, which had a huge manufacturing facility 15 minutes from my hometown, and employed a large number of people in my neighborhood, as well as Republic, Fairchild, Sikosky, Sperry and Curtiss all had headquarters and plants on Long Island.

Republic, had a massive plant in Farmindale to assemble aircraft, right next to Fairchild Field, which is still one of the busiest airports in NY State. Below is a photo of one of thier assembly plants in Farmingdale, for FC-2 planes, as well as in later years the F-105 jet.

 

Here is a clip of the F-105 Thunderchief in action in Vietnam.

 

Here is a great Video of the A-10 Thunderbolt manufactured by Fairchild-Republic on Long Island.

Republic also made aircraft during wartime, and as a result the factory/assembly facilities had a very unique feature. Since Long Island is along the Atlantic Ocean and during WWII this put us closest to the war in Europe, the assembly plants all were connected by underground tunnels, massive in size so as to move aircraft and parts without exposing them to potential dangers above ground, as well as to keep movements secret. Sadly the Fairchild facilites were torn down and now a giant shopping complex sits on the land. When I was still in high school I had a chance to tour the empty facilites and tunnels, the massive scope and complexity of it was astounding.

Grumman Corporation was a huge part of Long Island industry. Grumman factories worked round the clock to produce planes for WWII, the F-4 Wildcat. They made 12,000 Hellcats during the war, more than any other single factory in the United States. Grumman went on to help design and build the Lunar Excursion Module, that brought Neil Armstrong to the moon, and perhaps one of its most remembered legacy's was the Navy's F-14 Tomcat 712 of which was produced on Long Island. Most of you probably would know the F-14 as the plane in Top Gun with Tom Cruise.

LEM Module on the Moon

Assembly Line Photos of the F-14 in 1973

Here is an awesome video of F-14's.

I must give credit for the pictures and information details to the following, if you have an interest please check out the links and read more.

http://www.grummanpark.org/Default.htm

http://www.fbhsli.org/Aircraft_Industry.htm

I am sure that you have figured out I love the aircraft industry on Long Island and its legacy. I grew up with it, and wanted to share it with you all. I hope you enjoyed.