Flying Field to Air Force Base

The site began in 1917 as Wilbur Wright Field, a World War I Army Signal Corps post. It expanded through the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s as the United States' needs for aeronautical research, development, and logistics grew. After the creation of a separate United States Air Force in 1947, the Wright brothers’ flying field and aviation school became part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Over generations, American military aircraft, from spruce-and-canvas flying machines to high-tech jets, were tested and flown here in the same airspace where the Wright brothers worked.

Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio · United States