RE: Floyd Bennet Field History, please?
What do you want to know?
FBF was New York City's first municipal airport, dedicated on May 23, 1931. It's named after the pilot who flew Admiral Richard Byrd over the North Pole. It was never a commercial success, because at the time it was too far from Manhattan; but it had long concrete runways and favorable winds that made it a perfect "jumping off" spot for many, many record-breaking flights by some of the most notable aviators of the "Golden Age".
In a way, it is responsible for the existence of both LaGuardia and JFKIA. Mayor LaGuardia wanted an airport more convenient to the inner city, and so became the airport in 1939 that carries his name. LaGuardia was a man with vision, and realized that as the city grew, and with commercial air travel coming into its own, that more space was needed than LaGuardia airport could provide. Because it had never been a money maker, the city decided to sell FBF in order to purchase the land across Jamaica Bay, as the city was financially unable to finance another airport because of the construction of LaGuardia. In 1941 FBF was sold to the Navy for $9 million, and the land occupied by Jamaica Seaplane Airport was purchased to develop as a new commercial center, which came to be called Idlewild, and later JFK International Airport.
I'm a big fan of the history at FBF, and JFKIA; my stepdad was Financial Planner for JFKIA during the 60's and 70's, and he had a lot of stuff about both fields, and I'm a big fan of Golden Age flyers and planes. One of the best stories about FBF has to do with the murals that were painted in the Admin Building as a WPA project, but that's a long tale.