2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum, and the 75th anniversary of the Naval Air Station Patuxent River. To commemorate this momentous year in our history, we will be telling the story of the history of both the museum and the base in a 12 part series written and researched by our museum volunteers.
Pax History Part One – Why Did the Navy Come to Cedar Point, Maryland?
Contributed by Dan Dickey
The Start of Naval Aviation
The Navy purchased its first airplane – the Curtiss A-1 TRIAD in 1911 which had the capability of landing on land and water. Why was the Navy interested in this airplane?
Captain Washington Irving Chambers, USN, in the Bureau of Navigation, was the first officer to oversee the Navy’s aviation program and was considered a visionary as to how he could use airplanes to defend the country. Among his many accomplishments was arranging for the first landing and takeoff of an airplane from a navy ship. He first approached the Wright brothers about landing on a ship and they said it was too difficult. However, when he approached pioneer aviator Eugene Ely, the 23 year old, owner of the A-1, indicated he would do it. On November 14, 1910 Eugene took off in the pusher Curtiss A-1 aircraft equipped with ailerons, from a temporary platform installed on the light cruiser USS Birmingham in Hampton Roads Va. On January 18, 1911 Ely landed his airplane on a temporary platform on the USS Pennsylvania anchored in the San Francisco Bay by using a tail hook system still in use today. This was the beginning of Naval Aviation.
Navy Consolidation of Assets and Cedar Point
From 1921 to 1959 the Bureau of Aeronautics was the U.S. Navy material support organization which was responsible for Naval Aviation and the purchase and test of Naval aircraft. Under the leadership of RADM John H Towers as Chief of BuAir from 1939 – 1942 the air arm of the Navy grew from 2,000 planes to 39,000. He was responsible for starting a rigorous pilot training program and for the testing of experimental airplanes. Flight testing was being conducted at several distant widely separated locations: [1]
- Naval Air Station Anacostia (Formerly the Anacostia Experimental Flying Field), was near Washington D.C., and potentially across from Reagan Airport (formerly National Airport). Airplanes were tested for performance, general characteristics, gun installations and radio operations;
- National Proving Ground Dahlgren where airplanes were tested for flying qualities, spins, dives, and bomb delivery.
- Hampton Roads, at Norfolk NAS for rough water and accelerated service tests.
- Washington Navy Yard for sea plane catapulting,
- Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia for catapulting and deck landing. [2]
In the late 1930s the Department of Aeronautics realized that because of the increased number of airplanes and the diverse locations of the various test areas that it was time for aircraft testing be moved to a more spacious remote location and to consolidate the testing agencies. In September 1941 the BuAir Chief RADM John H. Towers, formed a Navy board to search for a site for the new Flight Test Center with the following requirements:
- Accessible to the Bureau of Aeronautics,
- Facilities for operating land planes and sea planes, and free from congested aircraft operating ranges,
- Accessible by short direct air route to the ocean,
- Adequate security could be maintained
- Separated from present or prospective airways
- No serious conflict with existing or prospective Army development
- Adequate railroad connections[3]
The navy board reviewed potential sites from New York to Charleston, South Carolina. After a detailed search the board submitted on 6 November 1941 the selection of three sites that met the requirements:
Cedar Point, Maryland, at the mouth of the Patuxent River, most nearly fulfilled all the
requirements for a Test Center, Priests Point on the Mary’s River off the Potomac River was the most suitable alternate site, Durant Neck on Albemarle Sound, south of the Elizabeth City, North Carolina is deemed the third best. The site selection board then recommended:
“Immediate purchase or condemnation of a tract of land embracing about 2400 acres on Cedar Point, Maryland bounded as follows: Patuxent River from Cedar Point to Hog Point to Fishing Point to Millstone Landing; Chesapeake Bay from Cedar point to Pine Hill Run; and from the bay shore line along Pine Hill back to Millstone Landing on the Patuxent River.[4]
Discussions with St. Mary’s County government started. From the Navy standpoint, there was a certain level of urgency since the Navy was aware that war was building in Europe and that it was only a matter of time before the United States would be involved. But it was the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 that spurred the Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to make the decision to quickly procure the Cedar Point property through eminent domain to build the Naval Air Station.
On 22 December RADM John Towers selected Cedar Point as the future location for the Experimental Aircraft Test Center and was approved by the Secretary of the Navy Mr. Frank Knox – the Navy was coming.[5]
[1] Wikipedia – John Henry Towers
[2] Accumulation of Command Histories from 1942 – 1945.
[3] Chief BuAer Conf. Ltr. To Commander D.S Fahrney, USN, Aer-PL-1-VGM, A16-1, F1-5(4), NA5 C4382, Dated 10 September 1941
[4] Commander D.S. Fahrney, USN, Conf, ltr to Chief, BuAer, Aer-E-15-FZ/AFW, A16-1, F1-5(4), 00/Faharney, D.S., Dated 6 November 1941
[5] Chief, BuAer conf. ltr. To SecNav, Aer-PL-3-EC, F1-5(1), dated 22 December 1941
paxmuseum469984064.wordpress.com 