Aviation Field Yorktown

Aviation Field Yorktown. . From July 1919 until August 1921, the U.S. Navy operated an aviation training school at the U.S. Navy Mine Depot, today’s Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. The school provided the first advanced aviation training for naval pilots in bomb, torpedo, and gunnery operations., Less than a year after its initial closure, the Navy decided the airfield, located in close proximity to a deepwater channel, was needed again in order to conduct experimental aviation tests aboard the USS Langley (CV-1), the Navy’s first full-deck aircraft carrier. On October 17, 1922, while the ship was anchored in the York River, a Vought VE-7SF became the first flight to lift off from the carrier’s deck. A month later, on November 18, a Patrol Torpedo (PT) seaplane was the first to be catapult launched from the Langley. In August 1926, the Navy Mine Depot airfield was closed and the space was converted for munitions storage., Photos courtesy of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.