Miller Army Airfield

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Outline map with Miller Army Airfield
Sports field. In the background one of the former two double hangars. View to the southeast.

Miller Army Airfield was a US Department of Defense military facility on Staten Island , one of New York's five boroughs . The thereon, 75.7  ha large airfield was provided to 1969 only for national defense. After the Second World War , missiles were serviced here in addition to its function as an airfield. Today, a large part of the area is used as a green area for sports. Separate areas are available for cricket , soccer , baseball and softball , and there is also a bocce court , playgrounds and a separate picnic area. The aircraft hangar is a listed building because it represents the construction of the earliest aircraft hangars in the USA .

location

The narrow side of the rectangular area borders the beach on the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast . Hylan Boulevard, the most important traffic axis within New Dorp on Staten Island, runs along the narrow side of the land . Parts of the area are reserved for offices, shops and the New Dorp High School . The two long sides of the site are now completely built on with single-family houses.

The location was considered ideal from a military point of view, as both land and sea planes could land and be accommodated there. The area was divided into three parts: hangar, administration and housing .

history

The property came from the legacy of railroad magnate William Henry Vanderbilt . With the end of the First World War , there was a growing awareness in the USA of stronger defense efforts. Miller Field is one of seven flying areas that were installed at the time to defend the east coast.

The name of the military base was named in honor of Captain James Ely Miller awarded (1883-1918), who in 1918 over the forests of Corbeny in Laon first American pilot in World War I liked was. A bronze commemorative plaque given to his mother on the occasion of his death still hangs on the administration building.

The site was established between 1919 and 1921 as a naval defense site to protect New York Bay and the ports of New York City . Initially around forty buildings were built, which belonged to the three divisions hangar , administration and housing . This location was chosen because it allowed both the defense of the New York harbor area and the stationing of sea and land-based aircraft. It thus consolidated the defenses between Fort Wadsworth and Fort Hancock on the west side of the confluence of the Hudson River . The airfield had two two -aisled hangars for seaplanes and a lighthouse.

The land cost was $ 100,000 and the infrastructure cost was $ 1.35 million. Initially, the 27th Division of the Air Corps of the National Guard and a squadron of the army were stationed .

Important greats in aviation history have landed here, such as Charles Lindbergh and Richard Evelyn Byrd . Byrd started his great South Pole crossing here in 1929.

Little west of the site was well received on December 16, 1960 in the aircraft collision of New York City , a Douglas DC-8 of United Air Lines with a Lockheed Super Constellation of TWA together. The majority of the Constellation wreckage fell in the northwest corner of Miller Airfield. With 134 casualties (all 128 occupants of both machines and six people in Brooklyn , where the DC-8 crashed), it was the worst airplane accident in the United States at the time, even before the plane collision over the Grand Canyon in June 1956, in which 128 people died. When determining the course of the accident, the recordings of a flight recorder on board the DC-8 were evaluated for the first time .

hangar

Construction drawing of the double hall, rear side, built in 1921, extension in 1939
The second double hangar from the front, which has now been dismantled. State 1999

The double aircraft hangar made of reinforced concrete, measuring 67 × 48 meters, was given building number 38. It was used to accommodate both land and sea aircraft. At the front there are large sectoral doors that can be opened individually. All windows are provided with wire reinforcement. Some of the early American aircraft were tested here in close cooperation with the aviation industry.

In 1938/39 the hall was completely rebuilt because there were no more seaplanes in use. From that time on, 300 men were stationed at Miller Army Airfield.

The hall is now considered to be one of the earliest such structures in the USA. and represents the most important building complex on the site, through which the early history and function of the entire area is pointed out. This incident resulted in the site being listed as a Historic District on the United States' National Directory of Historic Places .

Until its decommissioning in 1969, Nike missiles were also stored and repaired on the site , which were used, among other things, at the Fort Hancock air force base . Since 1972 the site has been part of the Gateway National Recreation Area , which was founded at the time .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d HABS NY, 43-NEDO, 4B- (sheet 1 of 11) - Miller Field, Seaplane Hangar, New Dorp Lane, Staten Island, New Dorp, Richmond County, NY
  2. ↑ James Ely Miller on findagrave.com
  3. ↑ Miller's biography on legion.org
  4. ^ Aviation industry took flight here , September 12, 2010
  5. ^ Miller Field. A recreational area and former Army Air Corps base on Staten Island
  6. ^ Miller Army Air Field Historic District on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 19, 2019.

Coordinates: 40 ° 34 ′ 10 ″  N , 74 ° 6 ′ 0 ″  W.