Over the last century, many important events in aerospace history have occurred on Long Island. First drawn here by the wide-open plains in central Nassau County, aviators soon made the Island their home. Long Island has helped transform aviation from a dangerous sport to a viable means of commercial transportation. It has also produced a large portion of the nation’s aerial arsenal in time of war. The many record-setting and historic flights that transpired here, and the many aviation companies that developed here made aviation the integral part of our world that it is today.