Port residents the Littys sit on the wing of a Vultee BT13 at the Deer Park Airport (which no longer exists) on Long Island.  For more information on the Deer Park Airport, see "Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields" (scroll down). Photo from

Paul Kotze (second from left) and other volunteers crafted a replica Sperry Messenger plane from original plans for Nassau County's Cradle of Aviation Museum.  Read more about the Sperry Messenger and the replica on the Crade of Aviation website here:

William B. Atwater, early Port Washington aviator, entered races, flew to Bermuda, and set speed records. He also had a bit of legal trouble, according to this New York Times article from August 28, 1915: W.B. ATWATER FACES JAIL; COURT DOUBTS AVIATOR'S

Photo from the collection of Allan Litty.  Taken at the Tom's Point Skyport.

Photo from the collection of Allan Litty. For more information about the Piper J-3 see the Wikipedia entry or the Piper Cub Forum website. Allan Litty said: We'd have air shows.  Could you imagine today, if someone said 'I'm gonna walk a wing,'

Local resident John Philip Sousa, the "march king," composed "The Aviators March" in 1932 to celebrate the local citizen's role in an exciting new era of technology and hope fo the future. The sheet music was published by the Theodore Presser

(l. to r.) Al Meadows, John Martin, Bob Leib, Edward Harrington in front of American Eagle with OX-5 engine. Photo from the collection of Edward Harrington.

At the helm of a DC-8-61 Trans Caribbean Airways jet. Harrington said: For 727 and DC-8 training I was going day and night and so were the airplanes.  I used to call it 'Trans-Exhaustion Airlines'.

Ward Davidson, Jr. (right) was one of Port Washington's youngest aviation enthusiasts at the time.  By the 1930s, entire families had become "airminded."