Inside Brooklyn's Historic Hangar: See Vintage Planes Being Restored for Free
An airfield hangar full of retired military aircraft in every stage of repair, and the volunteers keeping the work going.
🛩️ A Working Hangar
Hangar B is a working hangar, not an exhibition hall. Floyd Bennett Field opened in 1931 as New York City's first municipal airport and became a naval air station in 1941. Inside, retired military aircraft stand wherever there is floor space: one in period paint, one with panels off, another down to a fuselage.
Volunteers do the work, and what you see up close is the process, not the finished product: rivet lines, patched skin, propellers still on the engines, stenciled serial numbers you can read.
A park ranger leads a tour at 10:30 a.m. that runs about an hour. It is free and needs no booking. The open house runs 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov 14, Nov 21 and Nov 28.
The Q35 stops at the park entrance, from the 2 (and the 5 at rush hours) at Flatbush Avenue or the A and the Rockaway Park shuttle at Beach 116th Street. From there, Hangar B is about three quarters of a mile along Aviation Road, a 15- to 20-minute walk on a 1,300-acre field.
