Located in Stratford at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport, the Connecticut Air and Space Center was founded by George Gunther in 1998, after the Stratford Army Engine Plant closed.
It currently occupies the research and design hangar where Chance Vought conducted its flight testing between 1944 and 1948. As one of only a few museums housed in a portion of an original World War II factory, it seeks to “honor the pioneers, founders, workers, and companies from Connecticut; preserve the aircraft, vehicles, and artifacts they used; and educate future generations about this significant local collective history.”
Its Sikorsky Memorial Airport location is itself synonymous with Connecticut aviation development, having been the spawning ground for the first four-engine airplane, as well as seaplanes, flying boats, the first rotary-wing helicopter, and the production of countless thousands of engines.
Early Aviation Roots
The airfield’s predecessor was the Avon racetrack, a flat expanse on which takeoffs and landings of early aircraft could be conducted. But the area’s first true airport, straddling Long Island Sound, took root nearby.
Initial construction, encompassing a converted farmhouse, two hangars, and the state’s first commercial service terminal, gave it structure, and a 5 July 1929 dedication gave it a name—Bridgeport Airport.
Like a magnet, it attracted soon-to-be-famous aviators, such as Igor I Sikorsky, who established his own airplane manufacturing company there, and Glenn H. Curtiss, who initiated the Curtiss Flying School.
Four years later, Scottish aviators Jim Mollison and Amy Johnson placed the first stain there when they crash-landed during their transatlantic flight from Wales to New York, precariously low on fuel.
Helicopter Innovation and the World War II Era
While the Wright Brothers will be forever associated with inventing the first heavier-than-air aircraft, Sikorsky took the title as the inventor of the first practical, rotary-wing helicopter, which made its maiden ascent in the form of the VS-300 on 14 September 1939. Although it fulfilled its proof-of-concept intention, it required significant development and refinement before it could fulfill its “practical” purpose.
During World War II, the single-engine, gull-wing Chance Vought F4U Corsair, churned out by the thousands there, was integral in Pacific theater victory.
In 1972, the airfield was renamed Igor Sikorsky Memorial Airport.
Many of these Connecticut aviation milestones can be inspected and interpreted in the museum.
Gustave Whitehead and Early Flight Claims
The seed that grew into the state’s aviation contributions was planted by German-born Gustave Whitehead—or “Weisskopf” in its original language—when he built and flew, according to controversial claims, the world’s first heavier-than-air type, the Whitehead No. 21, over Bridgeport on August 14, 1901, predating the Wright Brothers of Kitty Hawk fame by 2.4 years.
Although no photographs documented the event, numerous witness accounts did, and four days after it occurred, the Bridgeport Sunday Herald reported it. In its 100th edition, Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, the virtual aviation version of the Bible, credited Gustave Whitehead with constructing and flying the first such machine.
Almost a century later, Andy Kosch, of the Connecticut Air and Space Center, built his own replica, the No.21B, and successfully flew it some 20 times in the field outside of the museum, its longest stretch measuring 330 feet, but he remained in ground effect in all of them.
Deviating from the original design, he employed two ultralight aircraft engines, which replaced the original steam and acetylene ones; used different fabric coverings; and introduced a greater landing gear track to improve ground stability.
Whether official credit will ever be shifted from the Wright Brothers to Gustave Whitehead remains to be seen.
The Corsair: Centerpiece of the Collection
The centerpiece of the museum is an FG-1D Corsair, considered the official state aircraft. Although its primary role was to engage in air-to-air combat with the Japanese Zero fighter during World War II and it was credited with Pacific theater victory, along with the Grumman Hellcat, it was also used as a night fighter and fighter-bomber at the end of it and throughout the Korean conflict.
Of the 12,571 produced, Brewster and Goodyear license-built the type to meet insatiable demand, the latter accounting for 1,997 examples.
The museum’s FG-1D, produced at Goodyear’s Akron, Ohio, factory, was pedestal-mounted outside and braved the elements for 37 years before it was moved inside in 2008 to begin its extensive restoration process.
Civil Aviation Exhibits
The focus from the military to the civil branch of aviation can be shifted with an inspection of the Connecticut Air and Space Center’s Cessna 150L, a high-wing, single-engine, two-place type that served as both a private pilot trainer and the foundation of the succeeding C-152.
“Mostly it’s a great airplane to get in and go flying,” according to the Connecticut Air and Space Center’s website. “For the person who wants an economical airplane, the Cessna 150 just cannot be beat.”
The donated example, registered N7021G, is a 1973 model.
If it seems small in comparison to other types, an initial glance at the display next to it redefines the concept of size and prompts the question, “Is it a tiny airplane or a large toy?”
That display, designated the BD-5 and designed by Jim Bede, seems to have all the features of an airborne machine—an aluminum frame and fiberglass panel fuselage, tiny straight wings, a tailplane, a canopied cockpit in which its pilot and only occupant sits in a semi-reclined position, and an engine behind him that turns a two-bladed, tail-installed propeller in pusher configuration.
It was sold in kit form by the Bede Aircraft Corporation in the early 1970s, but it was hardly successful. At 358.8 pounds, its turbine version holds the world’s record as the smallest jet.
The Connecticut Air and Space Center’s BD-5 was once owned by Reinhart May and was donated by his wife after his final earthly departure.
Sikorsky Legacy and Helicopter Collection
Aside from being synonymous with Gustave Whitehead and the Chance Vought Corsair, Bridgeport will forever be associated with Sikorsky, and the museum certainly counts several of his designs in its collection.
“For pilots who prefer propellers over their heads instead of in front of their noses, Sikorsky Memorial Airport…is a must-see historic field,” points out Dennis K. Johnson in his “Sikorsky Memorial Airport” article in AOPA Pilot magazine (December 2019). “Since 1929, it’s been home to the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a helicopter manufacturing company…”
One of his designs on display, the S-52, was the first rotary craft to have featured an all-metal rotor blade and initially took to the sky on February 12, 1947. Of its many versions, the HO5S-1 was operated by the US Navy and Marine Corps, the HO5S-1G by the US Coast Guard, and the YH-18A by the US Army.
As opposed to earlier helicopters in which stretcher cases and medical evacuees were externally carried and thus exposed to the elements, it accommodated internal litter patients, as used during the end of the Korean War.
The Sikorsky S-55/UH-19B Chickasaw, which is also on display, was originally a testbed for subsequent, advanced features. Aside from having been instrumental in its role as a multi-purpose rotary craft vehicle operated by the US Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, it was similarly flown by Denmark, Portugal, Greece, and Turkey in Europe, Israel in the Middle East, South Africa, and Chile in South America, and license-built by Westland, SNCASE in France, and Mitsubishi in Japan.
“The H-19 Chickasaw holds the distinction of being the US Army’s first true transport helicopter and, as such, played an important role in the initial formulation of Army doctrine regarding air mobility and the battlefield employment of troop-carrying helicopters,” according to the Connecticut Air and Space Center’s website.
The Air Force’s 50 H-19As, primarily deployed on rescue and evacuation missions, were used during the Korean War and at the beginning of the Vietnam conflict.
The Sikorsky’s S-60 “Flying Crane”
The Sikorsky S-60 “Flying Crane” on display, at an early stage of restoration, was significant on both a personal and design level. In terms of the former, it was the last aircraft Igor Sikorsky himself constructed and tested. In terms of the latter, it was essentially a frame consisting of a nose-mounted cockpit, podded piston engines, and main and tail rotors, while the huge space below it accommodated sling-hoisted outsize cargo loads or a rectangular pod internally housing passengers or smaller freight shipments. It was used as a testbed for the subsequently successful S-64 Skycrane.
The Hughes OH-6A “Cayuse”
Finally, the Hughes OH-6A “Cayuse” in the Connecticut Air and Space Center’s collection, initially designated Model 369 in conceptual form, constituted the Hughes Tool Company Aircraft Division’s submission for the Army’s 1960 Light Observation Helicopter (LOH) Technical Specification 153 requirement, competing with designs from a dozen other companies.
First flying on 27 February 1963, it entered service three years later, at which time it set 23 world helicopter records for speed, distance, and time-to-climb.
The museum’s example, serial number 67-16477, played many roles, among them a military one in Vietnam, as a stunt flyer with the Army, and as a surveillance aircraft with the Air National Guard.
After a two-year restoration, the OH-6A on display was donated for the purpose of honoring Vietnam veterans.
The Historic Curtiss Flying School Building
Attached to the museum is the derelict, empty shell that was built in 1929 and once housed the Curtiss Flying School. Visited over the years by notable aviators Igor Sikorsky, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes, and Juan Trippe of Pan American, it is slated to become the museum’s post-renovation showcase, for which a 98-year lease from the Town of Stratford, the City of Bridgeport, and the necessary funding have already been obtained.
A visit to the Connecticut Air and Space Center, especially because of its Sikorsky Memorial Airport location, offers a journey through the area’s rich aviation heritage, from the disputed “first-to-fly” Whitehead design to the military Corsair fighter, entailing both traditional and vertical flight realms.
IF YOU GO
LOCATION: 225 B Main St., Stratford, CT
HOURS: Saturdays & Sundays from 10AM to 4PM
WEBSITE: ctairandspace.org
