Connecticut is rich in history when it comes to aviation.  Some of the biggest aviation manufacturers are located in Connecticut including: Sikorsky, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, and Pratt & Whitney.  There are dozens of smaller companies that supply all sorts of parts and support to the aviation industry.  Connecticut is not only home to Bradley International Airport, but to many small local air fields as well.  There is Candlelight Farms Airport in New Milford, Groton-New London Airport, Markham Municipal Airport in Meriden, Ripley Field Airport in Litchfield  to name a few, along with many heliports throughout the state.  Most of the larger hospitals have heliports, and many companies also have their own heliports.

Connecticut is fortunate to have a wonderful air musuem – The New England Air Museum in Windsor Locks.   And the Cheshire Library is fortunate to offer a pass for reduced admission to this museum, courtesy of the Friends of the Cheshire Public Library.  For more information on this pass, click here.

The library also offers an extensive collection of materials about aviation.  For a list of titles, click here.  Below is a tiny sampling:

Chasing Icarus

Area 51 Black Jets

Fly By Wire: the geese, the glide, the miracle on the Hudson

Birdmen: the Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss and the right to control the skies

The Aviator’s Wife – Melanie Benjamin (Fiction)

Fly By Night – Ward Larson (Fiction)

Against Wind and Tide – Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Biography)

The Aviator   (DVD)

If you are interested in building paper airplanes, the library offers these titles.