Aviation in Rhode Island

Aviation in Rhode Island
	Aviation in the United States
	Rhode Island State Flag
Airports
Commercial – primary	1
Commercial – non-primary	2
General aviation	1
Other public-use airports	1
Military and other airports	0
First flight
	1856 - Balloon

Last updated May 04, 2019

Aviation in Rhode Island is the aeronautical history of that American New England state.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

New England is a region composed of six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Events

1896, Edson Fessenden Gallaudet demonstrated a wing warping glider four years before the Wright Brothers. The glider is on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
1916, Providence born pilot, Godfrey DeCourcelles Chevalier participates in the first production catapult launches.

Edson Fessenden Gallaudet American aerospace engineer (1871–1945)

Edson Fessenden Gallaudet in Pine Orchard, Connecticut) was a pioneer in the field of aviation, being the first person to experiment with warped wings in 1896. In 1898 he built a warping-wing kite to test his invention of a warping-wing mechanism; this kite survives and is on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. In 1911 he obtained US pilot's license No. 32 with the Aero Club of America, flying a Wright biplane in Garden City, New York. Also in 1911 he earned a pilot's brevet with the Aero Club of France flying a Nieuport monoplane.

Aircraft Manufacturers

Gallaudet Aircraft Company (–1923), Merged with Consolidated Aircraft in 1923.
Textron, Providence, Rhode Island, (1923–) is a conglomerate that includes Bell Helicopter, E-Z-GO, Cessna Aircraft Company, and Greenlee, among others.

The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation was founded in 1923 by Reuben H. Fleet in Buffalo, New York, the result of the Gallaudet Aircraft Company's liquidation and Fleet's purchase of designs from the Dayton-Wright Company as the subsidiary was being closed by its parent corporation, General Motors. Consolidated became famous, during the 1920s and 1930s, for its line of flying boats. The most successful of the Consolidated patrol boats was the PBY Catalina, which was produced throughout World War II and used extensively by the Allies. Equally famous was the B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber which, like the Catalina, saw action in both the Pacific and European theaters.

Textron American industrial conglomerate

Textron is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Helicopter, Textron Aviation, and Lycoming Engines. It was founded by Royal Little in 1923 as the Special Yarns Company. In 2018, Textron employed over 37,000 people worldwide. The company ranked 208th on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.

Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of "God's merciful Providence" which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.

Airports

T. F. Green Airport has nearly four million passenger movements per year.
List of Airports in Rhode Island

T. F. Green Airport Public airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, United States

T. F. Green International Airport is a public international airport in Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, six miles (9.7 km) south of the state's capital and largest city of Providence. Opened in 1931, the airport was named for former Rhode Island governor and longtime senator Theodore Francis Green. Rebuilt in 1996, the renovated main terminal was named for former Rhode Island governor Bruce Sundlun. It was the first state-owned airport in the United States.

Commercial Service

New England Airlines provides regional air service.

New England Airlines is a regional airline based in Westerly, Rhode Island, USA. With a main base at Westerly State Airport, it provides scheduled service to Block Island and operates charters to other destinations.

Organizations

Rhode Island Pilots Association - is headquartered in Warwick, Rhode Island.^[2]

Government and Military

All flight operations in Rhode Island are conducted within FAA oversight.^[3]
The Rhode Island Air National Guard was founded 1915 operating two Curtiss flying boats.
Former Governor Bruce Sundlun served as a Boeing B-17 gunner in World War II. Later becoming a partner in Executive Jet Aviation.
The Rhode Island Airport Corporation operates a Bell 407 Helicopter in support of all state agencies.
The Rhode Island Airport Corporation enforces the provisions of the Uniform Aeronautical Regulatory Act (UAR).

Museums

Quonset Air Museum ^[4]

Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame is managing the John F. Kennedy Aircraft Carrier Project.^[5]

Gallery

T.F. Green Airport

Related Research Articles

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Articles related to aviation include:

Quonset Point, also known simply as Quonset, is a small peninsula in Narragansett Bay in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Its name is widely known from the Quonset hut, which was first manufactured there. Quonset is an Algonquian word meaning "small, long place".

Lawrence Dale Bell American industrialist

Lawrence Dale "Larry" Bell was an American industrialist and founder of Bell Aircraft Corporation.

Bruce Sundlun was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as 71st Governor of Rhode Island between 1991 and 1995.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Aviation museum in Virginia, United States

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, also called the Udvar-Hazy Center, is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM)'s annex at Washington Dulles International Airport in the Chantilly area of Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It holds numerous exhibits, including the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Enola Gay.

North Central State Airport is a public use airport in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The airport is owned by the State of Rhode Island and opened for service in 1951. It serves the city of Pawtucket and is located three nautical miles (6 km) east of its central business district. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a local general aviation facility.

Quonset State Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located on Quonset Point, in northeastern North Kingstown, Rhode Island, adjacent to Narragansett Bay. It is a general aviation airport and there is no scheduled airline service available. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a regional general aviation facility.

Newport State Airport is a state owned, public use airport in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. It serves the city of Newport and is located two nautical miles (4 km) northeast of its central business district. This airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility. There is no scheduled airline service available, but it once was served by Air New England.

North Palm Beach County Airport, also known as North County Airport, is an uncontrolled general aviation airport located 12 nautical miles (22 km) northwest of West Palm Beach off the Bee Line Highway in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The airport is owned by Palm Beach County and operated by the Palm Beach County Airports Department.

Westerly State Airport airport in Rhode Island, United States of America

Westerly State Airport is a public use airport in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. It serves the town of Westerly and is located two nautical miles (4 km) southeast of its central business district. It is primarily a general aviation airport, but there is also scheduled airline service to Block Island provided by New England Airlines.

Scholes International Airport at Galveston is a city-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Galveston, a city in Galveston County, Texas, United States. The airport is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a reliever airport.

Kulusuk Airport is an airport in Kulusuk, a settlement on an island of the same name off the shore of the North Atlantic in the Sermersooq municipality in southeastern Greenland.

Block Island State Airport is a public use airport located on Block Island, in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The airport is owned by the State of Rhode Island. It is primarily a general aviation airport, but there is also scheduled airline service to Westerly State Airport. The airport opened in 1950.

Denton Enterprise Airport, also known as Denton Airport and previously Denton Municipal Airport, is a city-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) west of the central business district of Denton, a city in Denton County, Texas, United States.

Quonset Point Air National Guard Station is the home base of the Rhode Island Air National Guard 143d Airlift Wing. Naval Air Station Quonset Point was a United States Naval Base in Quonset Point, Rhode Island that was deactivated in 1974. Next to NAS Quonset Point was Camp Endicott at Davisville, home of the Naval Construction Battalions known as the Seabees. Quonset Point also gave its name to the Quonset hut, a standardized temporary structure used by the U.S. military starting in World War II. Former US President Richard M. Nixon went through basic naval officer training at Quonset Point in 1942.

Providence Airport was an airfield operational in the mid-20th century in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

The Quonset Air Museum was an aerospace museum located at Quonset Point Air National Guard Station in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Maryland's first aeronautical event was the flight of 13-year-old Edward Warren from Baltimore in Peter Carne's tethered hot air balloon in 1784.

Elizabeth Haas Pfister was an American aviator.

References

↑ "Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.
↑ "Rhode Island Pilots Association" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.
↑ Ri
↑ "Quonset Air Museum". Archived from the original on 2015-09-16. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
↑ "USS John F. Kennedy" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.

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[1] "Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.

[2] "Rhode Island Pilots Association" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.

[3] Ri

[4] "Quonset Air Museum". Archived from the original on 2015-09-16. Retrieved 26 September 2015.

[5] "USS John F. Kennedy" . Retrieved 26 December 2011.