Cradle of Aviation Museum Curator Joshua Stoff, Museum President Andrew Parton and Vaughn College Assistant Vice President Maureen Kiggins at Tuesday’s ceremony. Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
March 7, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology has donated a historic 126-foot aviation mural housed at its Astoria campus to the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island.
The mural, which is almost 100 years old and predates the Charles Lindbergh era of flying on Long Island, features 600 pilots and 268 types of aircraft and covers the period 1909-1927. Lindbergh, an aviation icon, became the first person to complete a solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, flying from New York to Paris.
Vaughn College donated the mural to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, located on Charles Lindbergh Boulevard in Uniondale, at a ceremony at the college’s Astoria campus on Tuesday.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
Painted by pilot and artist Aline Rhonie, the mural took four years to complete and has been housed at Vaughn College’s Astoria campus at 43-05 20th Ave. since 2006. The mural was originally housed at Hangar F at the iconic Roosevelt Field on Long Island but was removed from the hangar after it was scheduled to be razed. It eventually made its way to Vaughn College through a donation from the Long Island Early Fliers Foundation.
Roosevelt Field, a takeoff point for many of the most famous flights in early aviation history, was used by Lindbergh for his famous transatlantic flight and was later used by other aviation icons including Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post.
The mural, which includes two of Vaughn College’s founders, George Vaughn, a World War I Ace, and Casey Jones, a WWII Barnstormer, will be preserved at the Cradle of Aviation for generations and “essentially return home”, the college said.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
Vaughn College said the mural is significant in telling the story of the early aviators who flocked to Long Island and the area’s deep roots in aviation history.
The college added that the mural also symbolizes aviation pioneers who paved the way for future pilots, mechanics, and other professionals.
Maureen Kiggins, Assistant Vice President of Vaughn College, said at Tuesday’s ceremony that the college was “very excited” to be handing the mural over to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, stating that the mural will now be on display to the public near its original home at Roosevelt Field.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
“The mural is important to us because Vaughn is an aviation College, and two of our founders are actually depicted in the mural,” Kiggins said Tuesday. “But we are very happy it’s going to the cradle, where more people will be able to view this incredible piece of artwork.”
Andrew Parton, President of the Cradle of Aviation Museum, added that the acquisition of the mural represents an opportunity for the museum to preserve and protect a “great piece of aviation history.”
“We’re able to take something that’s one of the last pieces of Roosevelt Field’s history as an airport and salvage this beautiful mural that we’ll be able to protect and keep at the museum for generations to see,” Parton said.
Museum Curator Joshua Stoff described Roosevelt Field as the largest and busiest civilian airport in the 1920s and 1930s and stated that all historic flights from the period either started or ended there, noting that Lindbergh himself took off from the airport on his iconic flight to Paris in 1927.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud
Roosevelt Field ceased operating as an airport in the 1950s when it was replaced by a shopping mall. The mural was removed and stored for decades before it eventually made its way to Vaughn College.
Stoff said the mural includes a key identifying each aviator depicted, including an acknowledgment of their achievements.
“It’s really an interesting document from the mid-30s, one of the few surviving artifacts from Roosevelt Field, when it was an airport,” Stoff said during Tuesday’s ceremony.
Photo: Ramy Mahmoud.
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