ESAM Commemorates 90 Years of History and Innovation at the Schenectady County Airport!

On July 28, 1927 when Charles Lindbergh visited the field that was to become the Schenectady County Airport, he was arguably the most famous person in the world. Just two month earlier, on May 20-21, 1927, he had flown the Atlantic solo and non-stop from Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Le Bourget Field, Paris. In Schenectady, he and his airplane, The Spirit of St. Louis, attracted a crowd of 25,000 people. While we didn’t have 25,000 at the museum’s commemoration of the 90th anniversary of Lindbergh’s visit and the 90th anniversary of the opening of the Schenectady County Airport, we did have thousands of people enjoying the museum’s activities on July 28th and 29th. The events began on Friday with an entertaining performance by the Musicians of Ma’alwyck followed by a presentation by Charles Lindbergh living history performer Tim Clark. Town of Glenville Supervisor Chris Koetzle also spoke at the event which was part of the Town of Glenville’s Summer Celebration series. Saturday July 29th was filled with events from morning to night. ESAM’s Fly-In breakfast drew a large crowd who enjoyed the wide variety of tasty food available. After breakfast the Community Room was transformed into a display area for many local organizations to advertise their activities: The Costumer, Schenectady County Historical Society, MiSci, Saratoga Automobile Museum and the Helderberg Earth and Sky Observatory. During the day museum and air park tours were offered, Lindbergh’s Franklin car was on display, Tim Clark again made his Charles Lindbergh presentation, a flyover and fly in was performed by two SNJ-4s, a Yak and an F4U Corsair. Food and Simulated Reality Vehicle rides were available. In the evening Georgie Wonder’s Orchestra played at a lovely hangar dance.