Bayport Aerodrome

Bayport Aerodrome functions as a rare surviving grass-strip airfield on suburban Long Island, preserved as both an operating airport and a living history site. Established in 1945 on Curtis Davis’s former cornfield and later known as Davis Field and Edwards Airport, it illustrates the post–World War II transition from wartime flying experience to civilian general aviation. The founding of the Bayport Aerodrome Society in 1972 and the subsequent battle against proposed residential and waste-disposal development highlight an unusual preservation story in which local aviators, lease holders, and the Town of Islip combined legal and political pressure to keep an active historic airfield intact. The single turf runway, lack of control tower, and absence of instrument approaches maintain conditions similar to the mid-20th-century light aviation environment. For military aviation enthusiasts, the focus on antique aircraft, grassroots flying culture, and the field’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008 provide a tangible link between wartime-trained pilots, evolving small-airport infrastructure, and modern historic-aircraft operations in a densely developed coastal region.