The public safety requiring, and the advantages of uniform regulation making it desirable, in the interest of aeronautical progress, that a person engaging within this state in operating aircraft, in any form of avigation for which a license to operate aircraft issued by the United States government would then be required if such avigation were interstate, should have the qualifications necessary for obtaining and holding such a license, it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in operating aircraft within the state, in any such form of avigation, unless he have such a license.
New York Legal Code