[2] It was formerly the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Calverton which was owned by the United States Navy and used to assemble, test, refit and retrofit jets built by the Grumman Corporation on Long Island.

[5] In 2021, The Town Board of Riverhead approved the airport to be the venue of Division 1 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) drag racing events.

[8] In 1996, the wreckage of TWA Flight 800, which had exploded, disintegrated and crashed about 20 miles (32 km) south of the airport, was reconstructed in a hangar and is stored by the NTSB to be used as an accident investigation teaching aid.

By the end of 2021, as it is now considered technically obsolete and in respect of the crash victims' families, the wreckage was dismantled, and almost all salvaged parts of the wrecked Boeing 747-131 had been recycled or sent in landfills or scrapped.

In the 1998 transactions, East End Aircraft Long Island Corporation was given 10 acres (40,000 m2) on Highway 25 which it is developing into the Grumman Memorial Park[9] and Aerospace Museum.

[22] The airport contains the largest remaining grassland on Long Island, providing documented breeding and/or foraging habitat for numerous grassland birds, including at least one New York State endangered species (the short-eared owl)[23][24][25][26][27] including five New York State Species of Special Concern (common nighthawk, grasshopper sparrow, vesper sparrow, horned lark, and whip-poor-will).

[26] EPCAL contains 10 kettle hole ponds which are documented breeding sites for the eastern tiger salamander, a New York State endangered species.