Airports To Alexander, Archibald (New Jersey)

Airports. New Jersey’s first major airport was Newark International (now known as Newark Liberty International Airport). Built by the city of Newark on sixty-eight acres of marshland, it opened for commercial service on October 1,1928. It quickly became the busiest airport in the world, the major airline and airmail terminal for the East Coast. In addition to its commercial use, the airport also housed many private planes and was a terminal point for many historic flights, such as a transcontinental speed test and round-the-world trips. In 1939, a disagreement between the city of Newark and several of the airlines, combined with the opening of La Guardia Field in New York, led to most of the airlines’ moving to the newer airport. This left only one airline at Newark, which ceased operations the following year. At the same time, World War II had started in Europe, and the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 allowed for the transfer of weapons, aircraft, and other equipment to nations whose defense was considered vital to the United States. Newark Airport’s close proximity to the Port of Newark attracted the attention of War Department planners, who viewed Newark as a potential key staging site for shipments of cargo to overseas ports. It was not long before Lend-Lease aircraft were flown to Newark, where they were prepared for shipment, and placed on ships at the port. Following the U.S. entry into World War II, Newark was closed to civilian aircraft and became a major facility for receiving, assembling, recording, and delivering Army Air Forces cargo to the ports of New York. By the end of the war, thousands of aircraft and vehicles and tons of other cargo had passed through Newark on the way to front lines all over the world.


The war also brought new construction of several large airports in New Jersey as part of the buildup in national defense. On the eve of the war, the Civil Aeronautical Authority began to construct hundreds of new airports throughout the country. They were built as civilian airports, but designed to be quickly converted for military use, should they be needed. The first of these to be completed was Millville Airport in Cumberland County, earning it the title "The Nation’s First Defense Airport.” New airports were also constructed at Pomona, Atlantic County (Atlantic City), and Rio Grande, Cape May County (Wildwood). All three of these massive airports were subsequently taken over by the military and used as flight training bases. Additional airports were built near General Motors’ Eastern Aircraft Division aircraft plants at Linden and West Trenton for flight testing new Wildcat and Avenger aircraft made for the U.S. Navy. Following the war, Newark, Millville, and Wildwood were returned to civilian control. Atlantic City remained a U.S. Navy base until 1958, though it began operating commercial flights in 1947.

Today, thousands of passengers and tons of cargo pass through commercial airports at Newark, Atlantic City, and Trenton. Forty-seven primary and secondary general aviation airports provide facilities for industrial, corporate, and sport aviation.

The Division of Aeronautics, Department of Transportation, is responsible for the licensing and development of airports and their associated safety programs. It publishes annual aeronautical charts, maps, and related data, and a New Jersey Airport Directory that lists fifty-three airports located in New Jersey open for use by the public. Sixteen of these airports are publicly owned, while thirty-five are privately owned and operated, and two (McGuire Air Force Base and Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Center) are government facilities.

Aerial view of Cape May County Airport, Wildwood, 1945.

Aerial view of Cape May County Airport, Wildwood, 1945.

When heliports, balloon ports, and sky-dive and free-fall facilities are added to the fifty-three airports, the number of "Licensed Aeronautical Facilities” in New Jersey is 542. Included are eighty-four privately owned airfields and strips in New Jersey, which are not open to the public. Forty of those eighty-four are designated "restricted use” airports, meaning that their use by their owners is conditional upon state and other dictates. And forty-four (thirty-nine for airplanes and five for seaplanes) of the eighty-four are designated "special use” airports, meaning that only specific aircraft and pilots may use them. There are 4,762 aircraft in New Jersey registered with the FAA, and 13,291 New Jersey residents currently hold FAA certificates. (All figures are as of 2000.)

Airports in New Jersey

Aeroflex-Andover Airport

Andover

Alexandria Field

Pittstown (Franklin Twp.-Hunterdon)

Allaire Airport

Belmar

Atlantic City International Airport

Atlantic City

Bader Field Blairstown Airport

Atlantic City Blairstown

Buck’s Airport

Bridgeton

Camden County Airport

Berlin

Cape May County Airport

Wildwood

Central Jersey Regional Airport

Hillsborough

Cross Keys Airport

Cross Keys (Monroe Twp.-Gloucester)

Eagle’s Nest Airport

West Creek (Eagleswood Twp.)

Essex County Airport

Caldwell

Flying W Airport

Lumberton

Greenwood Lake Airport

West Milford

Hackettstown Airport

Hackettstown

Hammonton Municipal Airport

Hammonton

Kroelinger Airport

Vineland

Lakehurst NAEC Lakewood Airport

Lakehurst Lakewood

LiCaizi Airport

Bridgeton

Lincoln Park Airport

Lincoln Park

Linden Airport

Linden

Little Ferry Seaplane Base

Little Ferry

McGuire Air Force Base

Wrightstown

Marlboro Airport

Matawan

Robert J. Miller Airpark

Toms River

Millville Municipal Airport

Millville

Morristown Municipal Airport

Morristown

 

tmp7-14_thumb[1]

Newark Liberty International Airport

Newark

Newton Airport

Newton

Ocean City Municipal Airport

Ocean City

Old Bridge Airport

Old Bridge

Oldmans Airport

Pedricktown (Oldmans Twp.)

Pemberton Airport

Pemberton

Piney Hollow Airstrip

Hammonton

Princeton Airport

Princeton

Red Lion Airport

Vincentown (Southampton Twp.)

Red Wing Airport

Jobstown (Springfield Twp.)

Rudy’s Airport

Vineland

Sky Manor Airport

Pittstown (Franklin Twp.-Hunterdon)

Solberg-Hunterdon Airport

Readington

Somerset Airport

Bedminster

Southern Cross Airport

Franklinville (Franklin Twp.-Gloucester)

South Jersey Regional Airport

Mount Holly

Sussex Airport

Sussex

Teterboro Airport

Teterboro

Trenton-Mercer County Airport

Trenton

Trenton-Robbinsville

Robbinsville (Washington

Airport

Twp.-Mercer)

Trinca Airport

Andover

Twin Pine Airport

Pennington

Vineland-Downstown Airport

Vineland

Woodbine Municipal Airport

Woodbine

Airships. New Jersey has been closely tied to the history of rigid airships and blimps in the United States for forty years. In May 1919 the navy purchased 1,700 acres in the village of Lakehurst for use as a dirigible field. The air station and its principal airship hangar were completed in 1921. After World War I the navy envisioned rigid airships for use as long-range scouts. Nonrigid airships (blimps) were to be used for antisubmarine work. The performance of nonrigid blimps in World War I had been impressive, with 13,600 hours in the air covering over 400,000 miles of patrol duty.

Lakehurst commenced operations with rigid airships with the arrival of USS Shenandoah (ZR-i) in 1923, the first rigid airship to use nonflammable helium, and later with the arrival of USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in 1924. The USS Los Angeles was built by the German Zeppelin company and was delivered as part of war compensation by Germany. Lakehurst was the principal landing point for transAtlantic dirigibles, and it was the starting and ending point of the first around-the-world flight of a rigid airship, the Graf Zeppelin, in i929.

Crashes of dirigibles, usually brought on by adverse weather conditions, brought into question the viability of airships for military and commercial purposes. Three navy dirigibles crashed, all with loss of life: the USS Shenandoah in 1925, the USS Akron in 1933, and the USS Macon in 1935. More spectacular was the fiery crash of the German dirigible Hindenburg at Lakehurst on May 6, 1937. This crash was caught on film and there were news reporters on scene to capture the horror. Although the Hindenburg was designed to use nonflammable helium, the American monopoly on this gas and its unwillingness to release it for export resulted in the Hindenburg using flammable hydrogen instead.

With the advent of World War II and the threat of German submarines to the American East Coast, the use of blimps and dirigibles by the navy was increased. Lakehurst became home to many of the new squadrons. In all, i35 K-Class dirigibles were built for the navy during World War II. After the war, Lakehurst continued as the center of naval lighter-than-air activity. In the 1950s dirigibles were used to extend radar coverage to provide early air defense warning. At the beginning of the i960s, the navy had twenty-seven nonrigid airships in service, the majority of which were based at Lakehurst. By 1964 the completion of the radar early warning system and the advent of long-range antisubmarine fixed-wing aircraft ended the practical usefulness of the navy airships. All of the squadrons were disbanded.

In 1958 the Naval Air Test Facility was established at Lakehurst. Later, in i977, Lake-hurst changed designations and became the Naval Air Engineering Center. It currently develops and tests all aircraft launch and recovery equipment, including catapults, arresting gear, jet blast deflectors, and visual landing aids. It also develops important aviation support equipment used for aircraft handling, servicing, and propulsion/avionics.

Albert Music Hall. Located in Waretown, the Albert Music Hall is run by the Pinelands Cultural Society with the goal of preserving and stimulating interest in the Pine Barrens musical heritage. It was named after two brothers, Joe and George Albert, who lived in a cabin known as the Home Place near the Forked River Mountains. A handful of musicians would gather to pick and sing on their back porch every Saturday night until 1974, when George Albert died. The "Sounds of the Jersey Pines” was then moved to the Waretown Auction building and the local elementary school until Albert Music Hall was dedicated and officially opened on January 5, i997. Concerts are held Saturday nights.

Aldrin, Edwin E. "Buzz" (b. Jan. 20, 1930). Astronaut, second man on the Moon. Born and raised in Montclair, Buzz Aldrin attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point upon graduation from Montclair High School. After graduating third in his class at West Point, he served as a combat pilot in Korea for the U.S. Air Force. During that time, he shot down two MIG i5 aircraft and flew sixty-six combat missions in F-86s. Later, he earned a doctoral degree in aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

NASA selected Aldrin as an astronaut in 1963. On November ii, 1966, he and command pilot James Lovell were launched into space in the Gemini 12 spacecraft on a four-day flight that brought the Gemini program to a successful close. In July 1969, he served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission. Aldrin followed Neil Armstrong onto the lunar surface on July 20, i969. He retired from NASA in July i97i and has since written books and spoken about the need to continue exploring space. He is married to the former Lois Driggs Cannon of Phoenix. Their combined family includes six grown children and one grandson.

Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin walks on the Moon, July 20,1969.

Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin walks on the Moon, July 20,1969.

Archibald Alexander.

Archibald Alexander.

Alexander, Archibald (b. Apr. 17, 1772; d. Oct. 22, 1851). Presbyterian pastor, educator, and author. Founding professor Princeton Theological Seminary. Archibald Alexander was born to William and Ann Reid Alexander, near Lexington, Virginia. Licensed and ordained a Christian minister by the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia, Alexander served as a rural pastor and itinerant frontier missionary in Ohio and Virginia. In 1796 he accepted the presidency of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he served for ten years. He married Janetta Waddell in 1802. Alexander was then called to become pastor of the Third Presbyterian (Pine Street) Church in Philadelphia in 1807, the same year he was elected moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

Over the next five years he helped draft a constitution for a new Presbyterian theological seminary in Princeton. Elected its first professor, he was formally installed on August 12, 1812. He remained at that post until his death. Alexander oversaw the gradual enlargement of the seminary’s student body, which grew to two hundred by midcentury; the faculty, which added six professors; and the seminary’s facilities, including both academic buildings and a chapel. During his tenure he published eight books and dozens of articles, reviews, and sermons on biblical history, theology, biography,Alexander, Cosmo (b. 1724; d. Aug. 25, 1772). Portrait painter. Because of debt, Cosmo Alexander borrowed money from his brother, Charles, for his passage from his native Scotland to the colonies. He painted portraits of his countrymen, first in Philadelphia and New York. In 1768 New Jersey’s royal governor William Franklin invited Alexander to the governor’s mansion in Burlington. There he earned ninety guineas doing commission work. The next year Alexander went to Newport, Rhode Island, where fourteen-year-old Gilbert Stuart watched him paint Portrait of Dr. William Hunter. Stuart accompanied Alexander back to Edinburgh in 1771 to further his studies with the master, but Alexander died the next year.

Next post:

Previous post: