The Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley encompasses much of the early history of aviation in Alabama, including Monroe Park where aerial experimenter John Fowler displayed his flying machine designs, nearby fairgrounds used for early aerial exhibitions, and Legion Field, developed in 1917 in an area known as The Flats as Mobile's first flying field. Within the current Aeroplex stood the city's first municipal airport, Bates Field, dedicated in November 1929. In July 1939, the War Department acquired 1,362 acres including Bates Field to build a military aviation depot, first designated the Southeast Air Depot and later named for military aviator Wendell Holsworth Brookley. It supported military aviation operations in five southeastern states and the Caribbean and was the only military aviation depot in the United States with access to air, rail, sea, and highway transportation. During the Second World War, more than 16,000 men and women worked there. After the war, Brookley Field became the base of the United States Air Force fleet of Douglas C-74 Globemaster aircraft, which took part in the Berlin Airlift and other material support missions, while aircraft and crews from the facility set numerous records for non-stop flights. Redesignated Brookley Air Force Base in 1947, it served as headquarters of the Mobile Air Materiel Area and the Brookley Field Ocean Terminal, supported military operations around the world, and ultimately grew to more than 2,000 acres and the largest runway complex in Alabama. The facility was decommissioned in July 1969 and returned to the City of Mobile. In 2012, Airbus chose the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley for its U.S. Manufacturing Facility, the company's first commercial aircraft production site in America, and today the Aeroplex remains an integral part of Alabama's aviation and aerospace industry.