Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Greene County, Ohio — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Biplanes to Rocket Science
In the early 1920s, McCook Field near downtown Dayton proved too small to be safe for further experimental aircraft work. Community leaders formed the Dayton Air Service Committee, buying the lands surrounding this bluff and donating them to the federal government in 1924. Wright Field was then built, keeping the Army Air Corps engineering braintrust in town.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base remains America's premier center for aeronautical research, development and acquisition, continuing engineering traditions that Orville and Wilbur Wright started when they first learned how to fly over these same fields in 1904.
Erected by Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
Location. 39° 47.713′ N, 84° 5.315′ W. Marker is in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in Greene County. Marker can be reached from Memorial Road. Touch for map. The memorial center is off Kauffman Avenue, off South Broad Street (CR 444). Marker is at or near this postal address: 2380 Memorial Road, Dayton OH 45433, United States of America.
Other nearby markers. Cow Pasture to Flight School (a few steps from this marker); In Case of Floods ... (a few steps from this marker); Final Honors (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); Huffman Dam (about 600 feet away); Wright Field (approx. 0.8 miles away); Mormon Migration, Kirkland Camp / Facts About Kirkland Camp (approx. 0.9 miles away); The Belly Tank (approx. 1.3 miles away); American Air Forces in England, WWII (approx. 1.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
More about this marker. The background of the marker is a satellite photo of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with portions of the base complex indicated. "Wright Field (1927) - Combat aircraft for World War II were designed at Wright Field. Experimental warplanes were test-flown from both fields in the 1940s." "Patterson Field (1917) - The airfield you see ahead honors Lt. Frank S. Patterson, a test pilot killed in a crash in 1918. At that time, the base was called Wilbur Wright Field."
Photos surrounding this satellite image include a portrait of Lt. Frank Patterson, the space shuttle, a P-51 Fighter from World War II, and a set of space suits. The later carries the caption, "Spacesuits worn by early astronauts, such as Ohioan John Glen, were developed at
Also see . . . Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park. Includes several locations within the Dayton area associated with the Wright brothers and aviation history. (Submitted on January 9, 2008, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia.)
Categories. • Air & Space •
Credits. This page was last revised on June 16, 2016. This page originally submitted on January 9, 2008, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia. This page has been viewed 1,190 times since then and 23 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on January 9, 2008, by Craig Swain of Leesburg, Virginia.