Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
Wright-Patterson's history as a military installation dates from World War I. Its aviation history, however, began in 1904-1905 when Wilbur and Orville Wright used an 84-acre plot of land, known as the Huffman Prairie Flying Field, for their experimental test flights. Here the Wright Brothers solved the final secrets of aerodynamics, learned to fly, and developed the first truly practical airplane-their 1905 Flyer. They returned to the Huffman Prairie Flying Field in 1910 to operate a pilot training school-The Wright Company School of Aviation- and a flight exhibition company. When their operations ended in 1916, aviation had become a reality and a rich tradition of invention, operations, and education had been established on this sacred soil. The Huffman Prairie Flying Field was officially designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990 and became part of the newly created Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park two years later.
When the United States entered World War I in 1917, three military installations were established in the Dayton area. Two of these would become part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The third was located near downtown Dayton. Their original missions-logistics, research and development, and military education-are the same missions that have been performed at Wright-Patterson to this day.
Wilbur Wright Field and the Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot were adjacent installations located at what is today Area C of the base. Wilbur Wright Field was situated on a 2,075-acre tract of land adjacent to the Mad River that was leased to the Army by the Miami Conservancy District. The lease included the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. A Signal Corps Aviation School was established at the new airfield and began operations in June 1917 as a training school for pilots. The field also housed an aviation mechanic's school and a school for armorers.
The Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot was constructed on forty acres of land purchased by the Army from the Miami Conservancy District. The land bordered Wilbur Wright Field. The depot provided logistics support to Wilbur Wright Field and three other Signal Corps aviation schools located in the Midwest. Each day the depot received, stored, and issued equipment and supplies to Signal Corps aviation schools in the region.
The third World War I military installation was McCook Field. This 254-acre complex located just north of downtown Dayton between Keowee Street and the Great Miami River. It was named for the Fighting McCook family of Civil War fame who once owned part of the land. McCook Field was the temporary home of the U.S. Army Signal Corps' Airplane Engineering Division. As an engineering and research facility, McCook Field has been described as "the single most influential agency in the early years of American air power." McCook's engineers and technicians researched, developed, manufactured, tested, and evaluated military aircraft and all of their associated components and equipment.
Cooperation between the two geographically separated flying fields began in 1918 when Wilbur Wright Field agreed to let McCook Field use hangar and shop space as well as its enlisted mechanics to assemble and maintain airplanes and engines. Wilbur Wright Field's expansive and relatively isolated open flying field also proved ideal for testing the Air Service's experimental aircraft and the larger, more powerful models developed during the 1920s.
Following World War I, the training school at Wilbur Wright Field was discontinued. Wilbur Wright Field and the depot soon merged to form the Fairfield Air Depot. The depot remained active until 1946.
McCook Field remained in operation until 1927. The field's limited size could not accommodate the larger, more sophisticated aircraft that quickly emerged after World War I. The warning-"This Field is Small, Use It All!"-was painted atop the airfield's hangars. When the Air Corps announced its intention to close McCook Field, local businessmen and citizens protested. The field offered a stable and expanding economic base for the community, and was also a great source of pride to the city that considered itself the birthplace of aviation. Under the leadership of the Patterson family (who had founded The National Cash Register Company), prominent citizens formed the Dayton Air Service Committee, Inc. This organization mounted a massive public campaign that raised $425,000 in two days. It used the money to purchase 4,520.47 acres of land northeast of Dayton, including Wilbur Wright Field and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. In 1924, the Committee presented the deeds to President Calvin Coolidge for the construction of a new aviation engineering center. The entire acreage (including the Fairfield Air Depot) was designated Wright Field in honor of both Wright brothers.
Between 1925 and 1927, modern new facilities were built on the portion of Wright Field west of Huffman Dam to house all of the functions being relocated from old McCook Field. Orville Wright raised the flag over the new engineering center at the official dedication ceremony on October 12, 1927. The name "Wright Field" soon became synonymous with developments in the field of aeronautical engineering, a reputation that Wright-Patterson retains to the present day. This new portion of Wright Field became the headquarters of the Materiel Division, the main branch of the Army Air Corps responsible for developing advanced aircraft, equipment, and accessories. The Division also procured and provided maintenance for all of these systems and was charged with managing the extensive Air Corps depot system.
Wright Field incorporated the entire installation. Many citizens in the local community, however, believed that part of the field should honor the Patterson family in some way as recognition for their leadership in keeping the engineering center in Dayton. This happened on July 1, 1931, when the portion of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam was redesignated "Patterson Field" in honor of Lieutenant Frank Stuart Patterson.
Frank Stuart Patterson, born in Dayton, Ohio, on November 6, 1897, was the son of Frank Jefferson Patterson and Julia Shaw Patterson. The elder Patterson and his brother, John H. Patterson, founded The National Cash Register Company and figured prominently in local Dayton history. Frank Stuart attended Yale University, but graduated "in absentia" in the spring of 1918 because he, like many of his fellow classmates, had joined the Army. He enlisted in May 1917 and was commissioned in September as a first lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps with the aeronautical rating of pilot. Lieutenant Patterson was assigned to the 137th Aero Squadron as a test pilot at Wilbur Wright Field the following May. On June 19, 1918, little more than a month after his arrival, Lieutenant Patterson and his aerial observer, Lieutenant LeRoy Amos Swan, went aloft in their DH-4 to test newly installed machine guns synchronizers. They completed two trials successfully, but during a steep dive on the third test the airplane's wings collapsed and the aircraft crashed, killing both crewmen.
Patterson Field consisted of the land known today as Areas A and C of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. It included the Fairfield Air Depot and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. Patterson Field soon became the Army's center for aviation logistics, maintenance, and supply. Although Wright Field and Patterson Field were now two separate installations, their missions continued to be closely intertwined.
Both fields experienced dramatic expansion during World War II, in terms of real estate as well as structures. Employment at the fields jumped from approximately 3,700 in December 1939 to over 50,000 at the war's peak.. Wright Field grew from a modest installation with approximately 30 buildings to a 2,064-acre facility with some 300 buildings and the Air Corps' first modern paved runways. The original part of the field became saturated with office and laboratory buildings and test facilities. The Hilltop area was acquired from private landowners in 1943-1944 to provide housing and services for the thousands of troops assigned to Wright Field.
The outbreak of World War II provided a crucial test for the Materiel Division. Since 1926 the Division had managed its experimental, engineering, and procurement functions with limited peacetime appropriations. Changes were required within the Division to accommodate the massive wartime Air Corps expansion program. The functions of the Division were ultimately broken into two separate commands, the Materiel Command and the Air Service Command. The Materiel Command, headquartered at Wright Field, was responsible for the procurement of airplanes and equipment in production quantities and for sustaining an accelerated program of testing and development. The Air Service Command, located on Patterson Field, assumed responsibility for all logistics functions, including maintenance and supply.
The separation of these functions soon proved cumbersome and confusing. The Army Air Forces addressed this problem in August 1944 when it inactivated the two commands and reunited their functions in the newly established Air Technical Service Command. This action made Wright Field subordinate to the new headquarters at Patterson Field and had a psychologically divisive effect on the installation. To solve the problem, the portion of Patterson Field from Huffman Dam through the Brick Quarters (including the command headquarters in Building 10262) was reassigned from Patterson Field to Wright Field. To avoid confusing the two areas of Wright Field, the former Patterson Field portion was designated "Area A" of Wright Field and the original Wright Field became "Area B".
Patterson Field likewise saw the growth of hundreds of barracks and their supporting mess halls, chapels, hospital facilities, clubs, and recreational facilities. Two densely populated housing and service areas across Highway 444, Wood City and Skyway Park, were geographically separated from the central core of Patterson Field and developed almost self-sufficient community status. (Wood City was acquired in 1924 as part of the original donation of land to the government but was used primarily as just a radio range until World War II. Skyway Park was acquired in 1943.) They supported the vast numbers of recruits who enlisted and were trained at the two fields as well as thousands of civilian laborers, especially single women recruited to work at the depot. Skyway Park was demolished after the war. Wood City was eventually transformed into Kittyhawk Center, the base's modern commercial and recreation center.
Patterson Field and Wright Field remained separate installations throughout World War II. As the war drew to a close, base leaders quickly recognized the need to make the most efficient use of their facilities. In 1945 they integrated the master plans for both fields and increasingly administrated the functions and services of the two fields as a single installation. This practice was formalized in December 1945 with the establishment of the Army Air Forces Technical Base, Dayton, Ohio, which provided base operational support to the combined bases. On January 13, 1948, the newly created U.S. Air Force officially merged Wright and Patterson Fields to create Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. To facilitate daily management, Patterson Field became "Area C" and Skyway Park became "Area D" of the installation. Area D was donated to the State of Ohio in 1963 for the creation of Wright State University.
Today Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is arguably the most important base in the Air Force. From its beginnings as the Wright brothers' testing field, it has evolved into the headquarters for the Air Force's worldwide worldwide logistics system and all Air Force systems development and procurement, the aeronautical engineering center, a major research laboratory complex, the heart of Air Force graduate education, location of the second largest Air Force medical center, and home of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Wright-Patterson's age and history coupled with its vital air power missions, and significant functional architecture make it one of the Air Force's most historic bases.
ORIGIN OF WRIGHT FIELD
McCook Field was a temporary installation constructed in 1917. It was soon apparent that the field's 254 acres, hemmed in by rivers and residential neighborhoods, could not indefinitely accommodate the larger, more sophisticated aircraft that emerged after World War I. By 1920, larger airplanes had to be flight-tested at Wilbur Wright Field (now Area C). McCook Field's tight quarters produced a warning painted on its hangar roof: "This Field is Small, Use It All!" The field also lacked a rail line. Furthermore, the rent increased each year and the landowners wanted to convert their property to more profitable use.
When the Air Corps announced its intention to move McCook Field out of Dayton, local businessmen and citizens protested. The field provided a stable economic base for the community, attracted top scientists, engineers, and skilled workmen to the area, and was a great source of pride to the city that considered itself the birthplace of aviation and the center of aviation technology in the United States.
John H. Patterson, founder and Chairman of The National Cash Register Company, immediately took charge. He lobbied Congress to increase Air Service appropriations so the essential work done at McCook would continue and he negotiated with War Department officials to permanently relocate McCook activities to some other site near Dayton. When he died in May 1922, his son, Frederick Beck Patterson, assumed the lead. Frederick formed the Dayton Air Service Committee with fellow distinguished citizens who spent freely of their time and money supporting the project. By October 1922, they had convinced the Air Service to accept a new site near Dayton.
The Committee launched a massive public campaign on October 31 and November 1, 1922 to raise the funds needed to purchase the land. In 48 hours the campaign raised $400,000 for the land and an additional $25,000 to erect an official memorial to the Wright brothers (the Wright Memorial). The Committee purchased 4,520.47 acres of land northeast of Dayton, including the sites of Wilbur Wright Field (which was being leased by the government) and the Fairfield Air Depot, and presented the deeds to President Calvin Coolidge on August 17, 1924.
The entire acreage was initially designated Wright Field, in honor of both Wilbur and Orville Wright. The official dedication ceremonies for Wright Field were held October 12, 1927. Orville Wright attended and raised the first flag over the facility. (Wilbur had died in 1912). The Wright Field dedication established three precedents: the first Army installation named for two civilians who had never served in the military; the first installation named for a living individual; and the first time the honoree was present for his own Memorialization ceremony.
Prepared by
Office of the Historian, 88th Air Base Wing; 1940 Allbrook Drive, Building 30001, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio 45433-5344, Comm (937) 257-6493, DSN 787-6493