The Wright Move: The Foundation of the Future of Wright-Patterson AFB

  • Published
  • By Kevin M. Rusnak, AFLCMC Chief Historian
Throughout the history of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB has been synonymous with ground-breaking research, development, and acquisitions.  But 100 years ago today - April 13, 1926 - it was home to a more literal ground-breaking: the formal start of construction on what’s now WPAFB Area B but was known for many years as Wright Field.

That mission and the base’s operations did not start on that date, however, but in fact had been on-going for nearly a decade. In the summer of 1917, just two months after the American entry into World War I, the Army Signal Corps opened a pilot and airplane mechanic training facility known as “Wilbur Wright Field” on the site of the modern WPAFB Area A.  A few months later, the adjacent Fairfield Aviation Supply Depot opened to serve as a logistics hub for the region’s bases.

To the west, just north of the Mad River from downtown Dayton, the Signal Corps opened McCook Field in December 1917.  As the center for its technical operations under the new Airplane Engineering Division, its mission included research, development, testing and evaluation, and oversight of the acquisition of airplanes, engines, and related equipment – all functions conducted under the auspices of today’s Air Force Materiel Command, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Air Force Research Laboratory, National Air & Space Intelligence Center, and Air Force Test Center. That organization was crucial for the US to catch up to the European powers in aviation technology, which had advanced considerably during the previous three years of warfare.

By the time World War I ended in November 1918, the American air armada had expanded from fewer than 200 planes and just a few hundred pilots to thousands of aircraft and tens of thousands of air crewmen.  After the armistice, however, the entire military then experienced a dramatic demobilization that sent millions of men back to their civilian lives, closed many bases around the country, and disposed of billions of dollars’ worth of now-surplus war equipment – the unceremonious burning of brand new, American-built wood-and-cloth biplanes shipped to Europe was dubbed “the Billion Dollar Bonfire.”

Dayton’s Air Service fields were largely spared from that fate. Congress, not wanting to repeat the pre-War humiliation of being the country that was the “first to fly” but then fell woefully behind in aviation technology, kept McCook Field’s doors open to continue its R&D work, albeit with a drastically reduced budget. Wilbur Wright Field closed as a training base but now served instead as flight test auxiliary station for McCook and continued to support the Fairfield Air Depot, which also remained open.

Over the next several years, Congress, the Army, and local leadership questioned whether the Engineering Division at McCook Field would stay in Dayton or move to more suitable facilities.  Most of its buildings had been constructed in a rush for the war, with little thought given to long-term viability, which now plagued both the work and workers there. It was also on a very small piece of ground that was leased yearly. Several plane crashes into nearby neighborhood made it obvious that McCook Field was both too small for newer, more powerful airplanes and that it was much too close to a population center for safe operations.

In 1922, it was apparent that McCook Field’s future was limited and its operations would move elsewhere.  The leading political and business leadership of Dayton quickly rallied to “Save McCook!” that fall, rather than having it move out of the area, by developing a plan to buy the land in and around Wilbur Wright Field (it had been leased to that point) and donate it to the government as the new home of the Engineering Division. In just days, they had raised nearly a half-million dollars in donations for that purpose, and then successfully convinced the Army and Congress to proceed.

It took several years for the local real estate complexities to get untangled. President Calvin Coolidge accepted the donated land in 1924 on behalf of the war department, but Congress delayed appropriating funds for the new construction and move until the next year. Preliminary site surveys and work began in the spring of 1925, as did the debates over a name for the property. In the end, the entire site was dubbed “Wright Field” in honor of both Orville and Wilbur Wright, who were of course from Dayton.
The Army Air Service and the Army Constructing Quartermaster General hosted a formal groundbreaking ceremony with local dignitaries at 10:00am on Tuesday, April 13th, 1926. Among them was Frederick B. Patterson, son of the founder of the large local, but internationally-renown, National Cash Register company, who had spearheaded the campaign to keep McCook Field in Dayton. He had the privilege of “pulling the lever” on a steam shovel to lift the first ceremonial scoop of dirt for the Field.

But the most honored VIPs were Orville Wright, who had made the first piloted airplane flight in 1903, and his sister Katharine Wright. Their brother Wilbur had died in 1912. As was his habit, Orville did not make any public remarks, but posed for photos with his sister, Patterson, McCook head Maj John Curry, and others. 

The ceremony occurred on the new portion of Wright Field that is now Area B, in the area of the first two buildings to be constructed – the Administration Building (now Building 11) and the Laboratory Building (Building 16). 

The total land donated measured over 4500 acres, making it the largest airfield in the world at that time. The base would later be expanded to meet new needs, especially during World War II. It was also split into two parts in 1931, with the old Wilbur Wright Field section becoming Patterson Field (named for Frank Stuart Patterson, cousin to John Patterson, who was a test pilot that perished there during World War I) and the newer portion retaining the Wright Field name. After WWII, the fields were ultimately reunited as Wright-Patterson AFB.

Initial construction was completed for the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony in October 1927, by which time most of McCook Field’s people and equipment had made the trek eastward to their new home for the next century…and counting.