Franklin Square's Own NASA Astronaut Mike Massimino Honored

Video: https://youtu.be/CstJNJDOh68

NASA Astronaut and Author, Michael J. Massimino, Aviation Pioneers & Developers, Louis & Connie Mancuso, and Aviatrix and Newsday Founder, Alicia Patterson will be honored, as the Class of 2018 Inductees, at Long Island’s Annual Air & Space Hall of Fame Luncheon presented by Curtis-Wright Corporation on Thursday, June 21st, 2018, from 12:30pm – 2:00 pm at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City.

Each year the Long Island Air & Space Hall of Fame honors and inducts those individuals who have played a major role in advancing aeronautical and technological achievement. Proceeds generated from the luncheon support the Cradle of Aviation Museum’s efforts to educate school children throughout the region on the role that Long Island has played and will continue to play in aerospace history.

Additionally, in conjunction with the Museum’s dynamic, multi-year “Countdown to Apollo at 50” program, which celebrates one of the greatest achievements in US History of man landing on the moon, NASA Astronaut, Michael J. Massimino will be providing a free lecture to the public at 7:00pm at the museum. Reservations are required and can be made by calling 516-572-4066.

About the Class of 2018 Inductees

Michael J. Massimino Born in Oceanside and raised in Franklin Square, Mike graduated from Carey High School and went on to an engineering degree from Columbia University in 1984. By 1992 he obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. After working as an engineer on human-machine interfaces for several organizations, he was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1996. He flew on two Space Shuttle missions, STS-109 in 2002 and STS-125 in 2009. During both missions he successfully completed spacewalks in order to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Currently a Professor at Columbia University, Mike has appeared on the television show The Big Bang Theory as a recurring character playing himself. Mike is an author and the first person to tweet from space.

Louis & Connie Mancuso Born in Brooklyn in 1919, Louis graduated from Farmingdale High School. After first learning to fly, he eventually became a flight instructor in the late 1930s. During World War Two he was a flight instructor for Royal Air Force (RAF) cadets at Embry Riddle in Florida. While there, he married Connie Savino. During the war Connie worked as a riveter for Republic Aviation. After the war, Lou purchased a Piper Cub and cleared 50 acres of land, a wedding gift from Connie’s parents, creating Deer Park Airport. Lou and Connie founded Mid Island Air Service there in 1946 and expanded it to Brookhaven Airport in the 1960s. After Deer Park Airport closed in 1974, Mid Island relocated to a new facility at Islip MacArthur Airport. Since the 1940s thousands of people have learned to fly at Mid Island and it has grown to one of the largest flight school operations on Long Island.

Alicia Patterson After growing up in the Chicago area, Alicia learned to fly at Curtiss Field, Valley Stream, in 1929. She quickly attained distinction as a pilot and became the first person to communicate via radio from a glider. In the early 1930s she set numerous inter-city speed records and by 1931 became only the 10th licensed woman Transport Pilot in America. She eventually settled in Sands Point with her husband Harry Guggenheim and on her honeymoon visited Dr. Goddard’s rocket laboratory in New Mexico. In 1940 she founded Newsday as she saw huge growth potential for a new daily newspaper on Long Island. She steadily grew Newsday into the country’s largest suburban newspaper and remained as editor and publisher until her death in 1963.

About Curtiss-Wright Curtiss-Wright Corporation’s history dates back to the dawn of aviation. Curtiss-Wright was created through the merger of companies originally founded by Orville and Wilbur Wright, and Glenn Curtiss, aviation pioneers whose technological innovations in flying in the early 1900s paved the way for the establishment of commercial aviation as a viable mode of transportation and the air superiority that remains the backbone of America’s defenses a century later. Today, Curtiss-Wright is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company employs approximately 9,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.curtisswright.com.

The Cradle of Aviation Museum and Education Center is home to over 75 planes and spacecraft representing over 100 years of aviation history and Long Island’s only Giant Screen Dome Theater. The Museum was recently recognized and listed on New York State’s National Register of Historic Places as a significant part of American history. The museum is located on Museum Row, Charles Lindbergh Blvd., in East Garden City. For more information call (516) 572-4111 or visit www.cradleofaviation.org.