Amphibious Aircraft Development
Water, not land, drew aviation to Port Washington, Long Island. Indeed, other than the roads leading to this aquatic air field, there was never a single paved runway. Like the Hempstead Plains, the flat expanse of Manhasset Bay fronting it, evoking nautical images, became inextricably tied to aeronautical development during the first half of the 20th century. Its calm, deep waters – centrally located only 15 miles from New York City, yet at the threshold of the Atlantic Ocean and thus the European continent – proved the ideal breeding ground for craft that combined the buoyancy of the boat with the aerodynamics of the airplane.

Wealthy aristocrats, such as Guggenheim and Vanderbilt, who engaged in yachting on the waters that were overlooked by their opulent, North Shore mansions, were endowed with significant wealth for the activity, logically sublimating the sport to flying and transitioning from "floating-craft" to "air-craft." Nautical designers, facilitating this change, equally progressed to this new technology, and Port Washington›s Manhasset Bay, like Nassau County’s Hempstead Plains, rapidly became the cradle of seaplane aviation.

Glenn Curtiss, soon to become synonymous with this branch, both designed and successfully tested the first dual-mode, sea-and-sky airframe, the "F" Boat, here in 1912, inherently expressed in its very name, the "Port Washington." Its succeeding, larger and improved-performance "M" (for "modified") version met the U.S. Navy’s specifications for such a seaplane and resulted in an order five years later, in 1917.

Having already constructed a seaplane base here the previous year, with workshops, hangars, and ramps, Curtiss was able to offer an array of related services, including floatplane testing, pilot training and public familiarization rides. This branch was officially established in July when 12 men from Yale University, forming the First Yale Aviation Unit, received Naval pilot training here from Curtiss School Instructor David McCulloch in an "F" Boat. The fleet later encompassed "M" Boat, N-9, and R-9 aircraft.

If Manhasset Bay had been a mirror, it would have reflected an increasing number of speed, altitude and distance records written above it. In October of 1919, for instance, Caleb Bragg, a local resident, attained a 19,100-foot altitude in a Loening Monoplane, while David McCulloch himself climbed 400 feet . . .