Exploring an Abandoned Aerospace Factory | Forgotten Buffalo NY

[@Dwendele]

Wow, I could have spent hours in the pattern shop! I used to do pattern making for Alamo Ironworks in San Antonio TX. There's millions of dollars worth of patterns in there!

[@williamquigley5836]

I spent the first 18 years of my working life in a foundry so much of this is very familiar to me, kind of like stepping back in time. Utterly fascinating. Thank for the tour.

[@kennethanderson-co7fw]

I am impressed about your knowledge of manufacturing

[@panicingturtle2707]

Its so crazy to see a factor completely cleaned out. Obviously theres stuff left behind but these factories are filled to the brim of cells of equipment and barely any walk space. Very cool!

[@thomasmoje5926]

Just love finding these old treasures in Western New York..many years ago my daughter, grandson and I went mountain biking and ran across an old decommissioned Nike missile base..the property was not posted so we did bit of exploring it was fascinating many of the old buildings are still there including the maintenance shop with the original unit insignias still on the walls. The bomb shelter was still there also. A leftover derelict from the 'cold war era'.

[@alexensminger3220]

Was that in western NY? Im from there and would love to check that out

[@thomasmoje5926]

@@alexensminger3220 Yes..eastern side of Niagara Falls, New York State along Niagara Falls Boulevard (N.Y. Rt 62) at intersection of Tuscarora Road. The former Bell Aerospace complex is still there. It is located on the property adjacent to the Niagara Falls International Airport.

[@lorddonk9806]

@@thomasmoje5926 are there a lot of police patrolling the area

[@thomasmoje5926]

@@lorddonk9806 Thanks for the heads up unfortunately a lot of old abandoned places become hang outs evidenced by broken bottles, empty cans and assorted garbage left by people. Still fascinating to explore a lot of places 'off the path'. I also prefer to have others with me when exploring because in these days 'you never know'.

[@jimsoutdooradventures2748]

Great explore. That place was massive. Thanks for the adventure

[@ozzietadziu]

Curtiss-Wright must have leased the property long before 1951 as they had leased more than half of it to the Bell Aircraft Co. (later Bell Aerospace) during WWII where they produced for the military. My family lived adjacent to it and American Brass. The area was a hubbub of activity during the war.

[@christinehex1238]

I live in Buffalo!! This was very cool to watch! I love exploring and this was great!!

[@armyof100clowns6]

Whatup, fellow 716er!?!?

[@haleyk2376]

Eyyy

[@antx8563]

Grew up in the neighborhood. Many kids would explore it luckily know one was ever hurt but it looks to be in much worse shape now. There was another factory down the street abandoned but I think it's in use now

[@jeremiahsmith700]

In researching it to find an owner, I stumbled across a 300 page PDF that included details from soil tests all around the property. This was because the property is a part of the City of Buffalo's Brownfield program. Doesn't look like they're making much progress towards getting the site cleaned up just yet, but they're definitely headed that way. This building could be gone in the close future which makes this video even better to me.

[@BinkyDoinkus]

12:45. I use to have one of those Harley Davidson toys. One of my first distinguishable memories actually. But mine was black with sticker flames

[@shannonspage9360]

There are actually a lot of old factories in WNY that still have the old machinery in them.

[@danielarcand2624]

This is the channel I've been needing I love shit like this

[@OnceOccupied]

Welcome Dan! I am glad you like the videos 💪🏻

[@laszlopalkonyay4133]

Buffalo is truly a Rust Belt city! It was once one of the most beautiful US cities that fell into poverty after manufacturing jobs left sadly this is why so many people left the rust belt for the sum belt and west coast for job opportunities that frequently they didn’t find. My question is is the Sun Belt and West Coast that attractive? I don’t think so

[@jamesdellaneve9005]

I left Buffalo in 1983. I did contract engineering in aerospace in Georgia, NY, Ct and settled in California. I’ve been in Cali ever since. Cali is a beautiful state. It’s losing people as NY and Illinois are pushing businesses out. Buffalo suffered de-industrialization due to global macro economic factors. Essentially, post WWII recovered countries competed against US industries.

[@laszlopalkonyay4133]

@@jamesdellaneve9005 For some reason I prefer old rust belt cities like Buffalo, Niagara Falls or Syracuse to sun belt cities like Los Angeles or Las Vegas! I think the older large family homes are lot better looking in the old rust belt cities. I also love the snow. I don’t live in the US but have bern reading a lot about its geography.

[@jamesdellaneve9005]

@@laszlopalkonyay4133 I like old houses too. I designed and built my own Tuscan home here in SoCal. I don’t miss the snow. The weather here in the LA area is great. Always dry and no bugs. I wouldn’t want to live in Phoenix. It’s too hot.

[@angiewanders7272]

Great explore!! Really massive factory!! Stay safe out there!!

[@lisarickey5381]

Neat! I looked it up on Sanborn maps - shows what different areas were used for, at least what they were in 1950! 🙂

[@OnceOccupied]

I’m trying to figure out how to look stuff up on the Sanborn maps but I have determined that I’m gonna need help. By the way thanks for the other download I haven’t had a chance to go through yet so I can’t this weekend!

[@exposingpowerfullieslivest5082]

I live in Buffalo, Thanks for the work brother! Great video!

[@tonyplanck5059]

You have good videos and I hope your channel takes off

[@crabcake43011]

That tall vertical structure looks like a paint/coating tunnel. We have one like that where I work.

[@OnceOccupied]

That makes a lot of sense!

[@nicholaszimmer663]

The green tower thing is for case hardening. You would run the cast parts through there blast them with heat and then quickly cool them. This makes the steel harder and more wear resistant then normal cast steel.

[@EastTexasProductions]

I can't tell you a lot about the tall equipment, but I can tell you for sure that the notebooks that said Niagara / Clearing is a brand of presses. All kinds of fabrication presses. Heavy presses, punch presses, on and on. I don't know what that many binders would have been for unless it was operating and safety manuals for each machine they might have had in there. But the brand and types of machines that Clearing and Niagara make are very familiar to me.

[@Luther-1968]

Kind of sad, thinking of how many people made their living from factories like this, coming to work every day, all gone now

[@mtgcardzandreview2756]

Great explore and stay safe as you do.

[@OnceOccupied]

Thanks man 🤜🏻

[@chrischrispypiceynskicritt3164]

Awesome explore bro. Keep it up.

[@buffalovideography]

Great video! Go Bills!!!

[@dougsherk1298]

I live just a few blocks from there did you get a chance to see any of our abandoned grain elevator's while you were here?

[@716_fpv]

The motorcycle is still there as of a week ago. Just went and flew my quad in the last building

[@HamiltonMechanical]

9:29 that's a quote from a song called guarantees by atmosphere

[@OnceOccupied]

I just listed to it. Pretty good.

[@kevinb9327]

Is that the Curtiss-Wright plant? E Ferry & Grider? My mother worked in the plant during WWII.

[@toms6193]

The Otis Elevator Company is a former factory along Northland Avenue in Buffalo, New York. The site was later reused by Curtiss-Wright to manufacture aircraft components.

[@kevinb9327]

@@toms6193 thanks!

[@jdexploresfan3628]

That was a dope explore. Very huge place. Wonder how much toxic ground there is there? Thanks for the awesome video 😃👍

[@OnceOccupied]

Prolly years and years of leakage 🤢 Appreciate it man 🤜🏻

[@HamiltonMechanical]

honestly probably not as much as you'd think for what they were doing. A LOT of asbestos and probably a fair amount of lead, i'm no expert, but I did grow up in a superfund site heavily contaminated with mercury and other strange radioactive substances :)

[@panicingturtle2707]

For sure but most chemicals are turned off or cleaned out after being shut down. But that doesnt mean all of it was taken!

[@user-ef5he2ef1j]

Are you originally from Buffalo? I grew up there and live in Dayton now. Fun to see stuff from both places!

[@OnceOccupied]

No but before the pandemic I traveled a ton for work and would often pass through buffalo where I have a couple friends that live and we would always go on an adventure on my days passing through. That’s why a lot of my most recent videos are all local. I’ll be glad when this is all over so I can get back to adventures all over the US.

[@OnceOccupied]

And by the way welcome to Dayton! If you don’t already you will learn to love it it is really a wonderful city with wonderful people and and amazing history!

[@LJ-zz7bp]

Amherst to Dayton myself...

[@rexoliver7780]

I would imagine the Curtus Wright Turbo-Coumpound aircraft engines that were built there for airliners before jets were used by the airlines.This site would have been too late to use for building aircraft engines for bombers in WW2.

[@tammymullins5240]

Very cool interesting I would have to take a film 📽️ try to find out what was on it interesting 🤔

[@curtislowe4577]

A test pit that can be filled with water (in the subsea industry) is to pressure test something with air or nitrogen and be able to to see where the leak is if there is one. Did Otis make machinery that would be operated submerged? Anyone know what? Or did C-W add the test pit? It could have been used to test pressurized fuselage sections but I didn't get the feeling that this plant would have fabricated fuselages. Or was it a dry high pressure test area that wasn't normally flooded? If something failed during a pressure test then the shrapnel could only go up.

[@zaaayyyy23]

My friend is a graffiti artist, I recognize a few of his tags all around this place "JAFS"

[@fsarfino]

Sick spot to fly FPV drones & I also have a few vids flying this place. The fencing in the one indoor area recently installed killed it a bit tho.

[@matthewjh8385]

Does anyone know what thos building is called

[@lisarickey5381]

Oh! And I wonder if that film was nitrate 35mm video film? Maybe they abandoned because that stuff can spontaneously combust?

[@OnceOccupied]

I tried to figure out what was on the film or an age but sadly all the containers for to rusted!

[@stephenwissel7902]

The cards were microfilm, the reels most likely were reels of microfilm. You place the reel into a read turn it to a plate number to find the info your looking for. We would place 1 D size drawing per card.

[@mikemonteforte9726]

Is this place still there

[@Sneften]

Where exactly is this? i live in buffalo and i want to go but i keep either finding a home depot because google didnt understand my search, or i only get info about what the place was. never where. please help?

[@No2Milk]

Any luck finding this place yet? I am also interested in checking out this Gem 💎

[@No2Milk]

Someone told me to check 612 northland ave I’m on google earth trying to see if that’s the building

[@DefendInPlace]

I bet those binders were for manuals supplied with products the company sold.

[@No2Milk]

Did they build a Home Depot there now?

[@apollorobb]

The fall wouldnt be bad but the landing would suck

[@proxyairfpv]

Bando!!

[@kriskabc123]

It would have been interesting if you had found CEO's place -

[@OnceOccupied]

Ok

[@stanleywilliams5343]

This is a bit depressing. A large American manufacturing plant. Just looks like people quit caring.

[@Skottravels]

Can I ask why the fish eye? Wide angle?

[@OnceOccupied]

Without the wide-angle lens it’s hard to tell the story because you can only look at one part of a room instead of getting an overview. This video was filmed before we upgraded some of our equipment. The videos actually recorded in the last couple months don’t have any fish eye. We are also starting to record in 4K and use a gimbal so the footage is not shaky at all. I still use the GoPro some but I don’t like the fisheye.

[@Skottravels]

@@OnceOccupied I understand now. Thank you!

[@noorraheem7429]

noorur raheem noor , khobar. saudi arabia

[@benullom2301]

What are those things were? Tires... 🤣🤣🤣

[@prismstudios001]

Don’t try this at home. We’re what you call crazy.

[@danielarcand2624]

Damn that place is in bad shape

[@deborahjamison6212]

Is this Dayton ?

[@OnceOccupied]

No it is Buffalo Ny

[@deborahjamison6212]

@@OnceOccupied sorry didn't see that part of the title how crazy I am 😁

[@OnceOccupied]

No worries it happens to the best of us 😜

[@raypruitt9955]

That’s a job that went to Mexico

[@apocyldoomer]

Buffalo is a shithole, massive job losses, what a dump, awesome explore, I shall continue the tour, commented during the beginning of the video, another comment may be posted, be careful out there!!

[@MsChristy20091]

Great video i'm from Buffalo!

[@armyof100clowns6]

716 in the house! 🤘🏻

[@shannonspage9360]

There are actually a lot of old factories in WNY that still have the old machinery in them.