Updated: The 1940 Membership of the Long Island Aviation Club
In my effort to collect everything related to the Vanderbilt Cup Races and the Long Island Motor Parkway, years ago I purchased the 1940 membership book of the Aviation Country Club of Long Island (Long Island Aviation Club). It turns out to be an important research tool for Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck of the Texas Woman's University.
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Dr. Kate Landdeck:
Dear Mr. Kroplick,
I am a historian writing a book on the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II - following the women from the 1920s to 2017. I have been working on the project for about 25 years now (I'm also a history professor at Texas Woman's University) and am in the final stages of finally getting it published (Crown Publishing - a division of Penguin-Random House).
I write to you today to thank you for your terrific work on the LIACC on your website. I knew very little about it and loved the pictures and good information you provided. I also teach American History and loved learning the connection to Levittown - which I have taught about for years but never knew this connection to aviation or to the women I've studied for so long.
As I work to prove how well so many of the early women pilots knew each other before World War II I've come to realize that several belonged to the Club - particularly Nancy Love and Betty Gillies. You have peaked my interest though, in your posting of two pages of the Club's membership book from 1940. I am anxious to know who else might have been a member.
Do you know where I might access the membership book? The Cradle of Aviation Museum says they do not have a copy.
Again, thanks for your terrific website. It has been both fun and educational!
Take Care,
Kate Landdeck
Katherine Sharp Landdeck, Ph.D.
In response to Dr. Landdeck's request I provided her copies of the following membership list. Dr, Landdeck kindly provided a brief summary of several of the elite members.
Dr. Kate Landdeck:
I cannot begin to tell you how important this document is to me and my work.
I am still going through the list, but will happily share the "who's who" with you when I am done. For now, here are a few to get you started:
I think you get the idea! An incredibly elite group!! -- I will send you the entire list once I go through it.
1940 Membership List of the Long Island Aviation Club
Walter Beech- who began Beechcraft Aviation - still fabulous airplanes.
Jacqueline Cochran- First woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean leading to the formation Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs)
Powel Crosley, Jr. - of Crosley Radio (nearly everyone's radios in this time period were Crosley's and he innovated radios in cars) and owner of Cincinnati Reds
Four members of the Du Pont family: Louisa Carpenter, Felix Du Pont Jr. and his wife, and Richard Du Pont. Felix and Richard were both pilots and went on to found Allegheny Airways which became U.S. Air.
Marshall Field III - heir to Marshall Fields, founder of "Chicago Sun" newspaper, owned Simon & Schuster Publishing for a time
L. R. Grumman - founder of Grumman Aviation - terrific planes and today Northrop-Grumman
Roger Wolfe Kahn- Jazz musician and son of Otto Kahn
William L. Mitchell- Vice-President,Design for General Motors
Henry S. Morgan - son of J.P. Morgan and founder of Morgan-Stanley
Elmer A. Sperry, Jr.- the son of inventor Elmer Sperry
Gar Wood - inventor and championship motorboat builder
Comments
I noted Elmer A. Sperry, Jr. I checked to determine if he was “Sperry’s” son (Sperry Gyroscope).
You whizzed right by Roger W(olff/olfe), Kahn (noted jazz musician and aviator, Otto’s son), Wallis Bird (recent posts), and Jackie Cochrane (founder of the WASPs), Robert L(ion). Gardiner (Island - “Lord of the Manor”), Grover Loeing (“father” of Grumman A/C), William L. Mitchell (GM Design VP), and Gar Wood (mahogany speedboats), not to mention a wonderfully-apt Mr. “Vroom”! Sam, III
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Howard Kroplick I
Sam III, great catches!
Updated bios of more members based on below comments.
Another great piece of history/memorabilia, Howard.
Thanks for sharing.
James C. Reddig was Ass’t. Chief Engineer for Grover Loening Aircraft Company when he joined the Aviation Country Club c. 1930. After the closing of Loening’s business, he designed the stainless-steel Sea Bird amphibious aircraft for Fleetwings, in Bristol, PA.
Yeeks! Better late than never! The Wallis Bird link took me back to your auction posts and I see I was ‘way off on that Mercedes. Look at the double Mercedes stars on the radiator shell - that makes it a pre-merger car, probably 1927 or possibly early 1928 and so a Mercedes S-modell, NOT a later Mercedes-Benz SS, which sported the present wreathed M_B logo. As to the Crosley link, I suggest that his cars deserve far more than a mere sentence. HK - since you are now a seaplane buff, you might enjoy this Fleetwings Sea Bird video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_KNbIjc4tU> Sam, III
1933 picture of member and at that time Governor of the Long Island Aviation Club, Thomas Eastman at the start of a “seaplane cruise” in Sands Point. According to the Membership List above, in 1940 Eastman was on the Flying and Membership Committees. (Aero Digest, Aug. 1933)
Here’s a membership listing from 1930, from “The Aircraft Yearbook”, an industry publication.
Art, Did not see the name of Aline Rhonie Brooks on either membership list. Read that she joined in 1930’s. Club thought Aline was a male name. ( her husband, Peter, was also a flier.) Dropped Brooks after he died, early 1940,s. Fascinating woman, socialite, lived in Sands Point, took flying lessons as a teenager, married several times, went to Europe beginning of WW 11, help set up field hospitals in France, then flew war planes in England from factories to military bases, before coming back to the States to do the same here. Painted an aviation mural on an interior hanger wall at Roosevelt Field that measured 12’x100’. Said to have about 500 life size images of individuals connected to aviation. (studied under Mexican muralist Diego Rivera), Mural was removed before the hanger was taken down. Understand Cradle of Aviation now has it.
No WONDER the name rang a bell! “Aline ‘Pat’ Rhonie Hofheimer Brooks (August 16, 1909 – January 7, 1963) - - - is also known for her aviation history mural which is now located at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology.” Vaughn was previously Casey Jones’ famed Academy of Aeronautics, still there in Elmhurst (Elmhoist?), across GCP from LGA. See attached. Sam, III
Aline Rhonie’s mural “The Pre-Lindbergh Era of Flying on Long Island” was purchased by the Long Island Early Fliers Club (LIEFC) after her death. It was then placed on a long term loan the the Nassau County Division of Museum Services. It was stored in several of our collections facilities through the decades, finally winding up in storage at the County’s Sands Point Preserve. Parts of it was at one point displayed at the Cradle of Aviation Museum (CAM) in the early 1980’s, where we had hoped the entire mural could eventually be displayed. Unfortunately, this was never to be. Around 2006, the LIEFC ended the loan and arranged for the mural to be donated to the Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology in Queens, where is was promised to be displayed in its entirety. I don’t know if this ever happened. I know this to be accurate as in the 1980’s I was the Ass’t Curator at CAM and involved in its display, and then as the Museum Registrar for the Nassau County Division of Museum Services I was responsible for its return to the LIEFC prior to my retirement in 2011. I took the attached photos on November 29, 2005 while in storage at Sands Point. [Part 1 of photos]
Part 2 of photos
Part 3 of photos Note that to our surprise there were also some unfinished panels stored in the custom fitted blanket coverings. Everything was in good condition considering its age, and the fact they originally were in an hanger!
I never realized it was that readily demountable. For a work of this magnitude, I wonder if anyone ever published a “catalogue” and index? Yu can easily pick out the Wrights and Earle Ovington. Reminds me in a way of the big “mural” I posted on the inner back wall of the Roosevelt Raceway grandstand for a Girl Scout jamboree ca. 1975; it was a set of cutouts of all the major whales and dolphins in reduced scale (quarter?) with a Brownie Scout silhouette for comparison. Does anyone remember it or did anyone take pix? Sam, III
Sam, there was a booklet published along with a key to everyone shown. Also, the aircraft are clearly identifiable. I hated to see it go!
Now that you mention it, Gary, I vaguely remember that. OK, people; who has or can find a copy we can reproduce and share? At the very least, can we get a full copy of the mural? HK can have a ball with Mystery Fotos of the airplanes! Hey, while we’re on aviation murals, how about this one by Eugene Choderow (shown - and August Henkel), Oil on Canvas, Floyd Bennett Airport, W.P.A. Federal Art Project, Chodorow at work on a panel of his mural, PRIMITIVE CONCEPTS OF AVIATION, installed in the Administration Building of the Floyd Bennett Airport in Brooklyn. Is it still there? Again, copies and details? Also, weren’t there such at the Marine Air Terminal at LGA? Sam, III
Gary, Thanks for the very definitive and first hand post on the mural, especially the color photos. Sam, Early on there was some doubt the mural, which was painted over a three year period starting in 1935, could be safely removed since it was applied directly to the brick wall of Hanger F. Some 25 years after she painted it, Aline Rhonie herself got involved and was determined to save it. She hired an Italian art restoration specialist, Leonetto Tintori, and paid him $18,000 to remove it from the hanger wall which he did in 1962. As he was taking down sections, she setup shop nearby and did some restoration work. Not only that, she invited artist groups to observe her. All interested parties had to do was to call PI 7-0050 for an appointment.
Oh, this nostalgia bit is getting overwhelming! “PI 7-”? PIoneer 7-? I had PIoneer 7- lines ‘way back - West Hempstead or Mineola! Then 747- in Westbury. Next? [By the way, for telecom freaks, PI 7-0050 was originally PIoneer 50. When I first met my late ex, her number had just been upgraded from FRanklin 44.] Sam, III