A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION AT ESSINGTON

摘要

Local seaplane pilots arrived by car and by seaplane last June to celebrate 100 years of seaplane operations at 9N2, the Essington, Philadelphia, Seaplane Base. Essington is the oldest airport of any kind in Pennsylvania, and though seaplanes were flown from other locations before 1915, Essington may be the oldest continuously operated seaplane base in the world. (Operations were suspended during WWⅡ due to its proximity to the Atlantic coastline). A Searey from Ocean City, New Jersey, was the first to splash down on the Delaware River sealane and try the newly smoothed gravel ramp, becoming the first seaplane to arrive on Essington soil for many years. Over the last decade most operations utilized the floating dock because the ramp was in disrepair.