The Sperry Test Airfield

Long Island was involved in military aviation during World War I. Sperry had several plants and test fields along the South Shore of Long Island. The activity in Copiague occurred in 1917 and 1918.

The aerial torpedo was a secret guided missile tested in Copiague¹. The world’s first guided missile actually looked like a biplane. The “aerial torpedo” featured a Sperry gyro-stabilizer. This automatic pilot enabled it to fly, laden with explosives, without a human pilot on board. World War I ended before the “aerial torpedo” could be used². (Photo of the aerial torpedo located in “Picture History of Aviation on Long Island” book) by Dade.

Naval history and NASA web sites state that parts were delivered to and testing was done at Copiague. The test field may have been located at the end of Great Neck Road and south of Montauk Highway³. But, a plaque located in Amityville states that the first guided missile was demonstrated there.

Other Long Island Sites

There was a secret test field in Amityville in 1918. A plaque under the bushes at Ocean Avenue and Unqua/Richmond in Amityville states:

FIRST GUIDED MISSILE
September 11, 1916
Here Lawrence B. Sperry first demonstrated
to the US Navy personnel the Sperry Aerial
Torpedo - the first guided missile
Presented by Sperry Gyroscope Company during 1960, Centennial year of Dr. Elmer A. Sperry, scientist and inventor.

There was a plant in Farmingdale. It was the site of seaplane construction (1918-1920). The plant was located on the corner of Route 110 and Conklin Street⁵. There may have been another plant located near the Farmingdale train station. A Sperry Street remains near the train station today (year 2007).

At Bay Shore, there was a base for testing hydro-aeroplanes⁶.

Copiague Timeline: Nov. 1917 to Nov. 1918

1917 Nov 10 ^7,8

A Navy “flying bomb,” manufactured by the Curtiss Company, was delivered to the Sperry Flying Field at Copiague, Long Island, for test. Also called an aerial torpedo, the flying bomb was designed for automatic operation carrying 1,000 pounds of explosive with a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 90 miles per hour. In addition to this specially designed aircraft, N-9's were also converted for automatic operations as flying bombs that were closely related to the guided missile of today.

1918 March 6 ^9,10

“An unmanned flying-bomb type plane was successfully launched and flown for 1,000 yards at the Sperry Flying Field, Copiague, Long Island. The launching device was a falling weight type catapult. The flying bomb test of March 6, 1918, marks the first entirely successful flight of an automatic missile in this country, if not the world,” Rear Admiral Delmar Fahrney and Robert Strobell, deputy curator of the National Air Museum, wrote in Aero Digest magazine in July 1954.

1918 September 23 ^11,12

The flywheel catapult, a forerunner of those later to be installed aboard the Lexington and Saratoga, was used successfully to launch a flying bomb at Copiague, Long Island. Development of this catapult by the Sperry Company had been undertaken in connection with the Bureau of Ordnance flying bomb project.

1918 November 17 ¹³

A pilotless N-9 training plane, converted to an automatic flying machine, was successfully launched at Copiague, Long Island, and flew a prescribed course. The distance gear failed to land the airplane at a preset range of 14,500 yards. The plane was last seen over the Bay Shore Air Station at an altitude of 4,000 feet, flying eastward.

Footnotes

1. Lightfoot, Frederick S., Martin, Linda B., Weidman, Bette S. Suffolk County, Long Island in Early Photographs 1867-1951. Dover Publications, New York. 1984. Page 72.

2. Dade, George C. And Strand, Frank. Picture History of Aviation on Long Island 1908-1938. Dover Publications, new York. 1989. Page 98.

3. Eide, Elizabeth. Copiague-Your Town and Mine. Board of Education , Copiague Public Schools, Copiague, NY ©Elizabeth Eide 1973 Page 39-40.

4. Lightfoot, Frederick S., Martin, Linda B., Weidman, Bette S. Suffolk County, Long Island in Early Photographs 1867-1951. Dover Publications, New York. 1984. Page 72.

5. ibid. Page 72.

6. ibid. Page 72.

7. http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/avchr2.htm

8. Kaiser, William K., editor. The Development of the aerospace Industry on Long Island, Volume 3 (1833-1965). Hofstra University. 1968. Page 11.

9. http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/avchr2.htm

10. Kaiser, William K., editor. The Development of the aerospace Industry on Long Island, Volume 3 (1833-1965). Hofstra University. 1968. Page 13.

11. http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/avchr2.htm

12. Kaiser, William K., editor. The Development of the aerospace Industry on Long Island, Volume 3 (1833-1965). Hofstra University. 1968. Page 15.

13. http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/avchr2.htm

Information about the “flying bomb”
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/sperry-fb.html

The “flying bomb”and other Navy things
http://www.history.navy.mil/download/ww1-10.pdf

Search for the word “Amityville” on this site
http://www.earlyradiohistory.us/1963hw29.htm

Search for Copiague and Amityville on this NASA site
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Timeline/1915-19.html

This site contains the Copiague Activity
http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/avchr2.htm