thumb|This [[Douglas O-46 bears the Spearhead insignia of Wilbur Wright Field (1931-1942) on its fuselage.]]
Wilbur Wright Field was a military installation and an airfield used as a World War I pilot, mechanic, and armorer training facility, and under different designations, conducted United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces flight testing. Located near Riverside, Ohio, the site is officially "Area B" of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and includes the National Museum of the United States Air Force built on the airfield.
History
World War I
Wilbur Wright Field was established in 1917 for World War I on of land adjacent to the Mad River which included the 1910 Wright Brothers' Huffman Prairie Flying Field and that was leased to the Army by the Miami Conservancy District. Logistics support to Wilbur Wright Field was by the adjacent Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot established in January 1918 and which also supplied three other Midwest Signal Corps aviation schools. A Signal Corps Aviation School began in June 1917 for providing combat pilots to the Western Front in France, and the field housed an aviation mechanic's school and an armorer's school. On 19 June 1918, Lt. Frank Stuart Patterson at the airfield was testing machine gun/propeller synchronization when a tie rod failure broke the wings off his Airco DH.4M<!--, AS-32098, --> while diving from . Also in 1918, McCook Field near Dayton between Keowee Street and the Great Miami River began using space and mechanics at Wilbur Wright Field. Following World War I, the training school at Wilbur Wright Field was discontinued.
- 42d Aero Squadron, August 1917
: Redesignated Squadron "I"; October 1918-February 1919
- 44th Aero Squadron, August 1917
: Redesignated Squadron "K"; October 1918
: Redesignated Squadron "P"; November 1918-April 1919
- 231st Aero Squadron (II), April 1918
: Redesignated Squadron "A", July–December 1918; Assigned to Armorers' School
- 246th Aero Squadron (II), May 1918
: Redesignated Squadron "L", October 1918-February 1919
- 342d Aero Squadron, August 1918
: Redesignated Squadron "M" October 1918
: Redesignated Squadron "Q" November 1918-April 1919
- 507th Aero Squadron, July 1918-April 1919
- 512th Aero Squadron (Supply), July 1918-April 1919
- 669th Aero Squadron (Supply), May 1918-April 1919
- 678th Aero Squadron (Supply), February 1918-April 1919
- 851st Aero Squadron, March 1918
: Re-designated Squadron "B" July 1918-April 1919
Combat units trained at Wilbur Wright Field In June 1923, an Air Service TC-1 airship "was wrecked in a storm at Wilbur Wright Field" and by 1924, the field had "an interlock system" radio beacon using Morse code command guidance (dash-dot "N" for port, dot-dash "A" for starboard) illuminating instrument board lights. The Field Service Section at Wilbur Wright Field merged with McCook's Engineering Division to form the Materiel Division on 15 October 1926 ("moved to Wright Field when McCook Field closed in 1927"). The Air Service's "control station for the model airway"—which scheduled military flights of the Airways Section—moved to Wilbur Wright Field from McCook Field in the late 1920s (originally "at Bolling Field until 1925").
Redesignations
The Fairfield Air Depot formed when the leased area of Wilbur Wright Field and the Army-owned land of the Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot merged soon after World War I. For an aerial war game of 1929, "Fairfield" was the headquarters of the Blue air force; a Blue "airdrome north of Dayton at Troy" was strafed on May 16 ("a raid on the airdrome at Fairfield" was later expected)<!-- 2 Blue planes collided on May 17-->, "Dayton" was the May 21 takeoff site for a round-trip bomber attack on New York, and "target areas at Fairfield" were used for live bombing on May 25. A provisional division was "assembled at Dayton" on May 16, 1931, for maneuvers in which "Maj. Henry H. Arnold, division G-4 (Supply), had stocks at Pittsburgh; Cleveland; Buffalo; Middletown, Pennsylvania; Aberdeen, Maryland; and Bolling Field to service units as they flew eastward." The depot remained active until 1946.
By November 1930, "the laboratory at Wright Field" had planes fitted as flying laboratories (e.g., B-19 "flying laboratory" with "8-foot tires"), and the equipment of the 1929 Full Flight Laboratory (closed out by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, which had established the principle of safe fog flying) was moved to Wright Field by the end of 1931. Materiel Division’s Fog Flying Unit under First Lt. Albert F. Hegenberger used the equipment for blind landings.
Patterson Field
Patterson Field, named for Frank Stuart Patterson, was designated on 6 July 1931 as the area of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam (including Fairfield Air Depot, Huffman Prairie, and Wright Field's airfield). Patterson Field became the location of the Materiel Division of the Air Corps and a key logistics center, and in 1935, quarters were built at Patterson Field, which in 1939 still "was without runways...heavier aircraft met difficulty in landing in inclement weather." Wright Field retained the land west of the Huffman Dam and became the research and development center of the Air Corps.
Prewar events
Engineering and flight activities of the two installations after the designation of Patterson Field included numerous aviation achievements and failures prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor:
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%; text-align: left; width: auto;"
|-
! Date
! Field
! Event
|-
| 1932 May
| Patterson
| Blind landings at Patterson Field were conducted by the Fog Flying Unit using a variation of Doolitte's landing system from Mitchel Field.
|-
| 1933-01
| Wright
| Both metal, two-place, low-wing monoplanes from Consolidated Aircraft (Y lP-25 for pursuit, XA-11 for attack) crashed during tests.
|-
| 1933-05
| Patterson
| The Blue air force flew a simulated attack on Fort Knox representing "a rail and supply center" (the Red force's 1st Pursuit Group "maintained surveillance of Patterson Field" and relayed bombers' take off via a transport plane circling near Cincinnati.).
|-
| 1933-07
| Wright
| The Materiel Division 1st course on the Mark XV Norden bombsight instructed "a few officers in care, maintenance, and operation" (2nd class finished September 1, 1934.)
|-
| 1935-08-28
| Wright
| "Automatic radio navigation equipment comprising Sperry automatic pilot mechanically linked to standard radio compass" tested by Equipment Branch.
|-
|
| Wright
| The "Flying Fortress" prototype "Boeing 299 crashed during testing [after] no one had unlocked the rudder and elevator controls", killing the Flying Division chief and Boeing test pilot.
|-
| 1935-12-31
|
| "Device insuring automatic fuel transfer in airplanes with reserve fuel tanks developed by Air Corps Materiel Division."
|-
| 1936 fall
| Wright
| Douglas Aircraft "delivered the first B-18 to Wright Field".
|-
| 1936-12
| Wright
| The XB-15, "largest bombardment plane to date, from Boeing Plant at Seattle" arrived for testing.
|-
| 1937-05-20
| Patterson
| The 10th Transport Group with Maj. Hugh A. Bivins commander (the group was headquartered as a Regular Army group.) was activated as the Air Corps' "operational transport unit" with C-27s and C-33s<!--USAAC article-->
|-
| 1937-09-01
| Patterson
| The Air Corps Weather School began—20 of 25 in the first class graduated January 28.
|-
| 1939-04-20
| Patterson
| "Air Corps school for autogiro training and maintenance opens".
|-
| 1939-05
| Wright
| "First 4-blade controllable-pitch propeller known to be built in U. S. is installed on a P-36A".
|-
| 1939-07-30
| Wright
| World record (payload): "Maj. C. V. Haynes and Capt. W. D. Old fly Army Boeing B-15 to 8200 ft. with...15½ tons".
|-
| 1940-06
| Wright
| Construction began at Wright Field for World War II ($48,817,078 through September 1945), "the most extensive of all AAF command facilities."
|-
| 1941-06
| Wright
| Dayton's Price Brothers Company began constructing 2 concrete USACE runways: NW-SE next to the flight line and E-W along the southern edge of the property (completed February 1942). A SW-NE runway was completed in 1944.
|-
| 1941-06-21
| Patterson
| Air Corps Ferrying Command opened an "installation point" at Patterson Field (moved to Romulus, Michigan by August).
|-
| 1941-10-17<!-- & -->
| Patterson
| Air Service Command established under the Materiel Division, OCAC, from the "Air Corps Provisional Maintenance Comd" formed on March 15, 1941 (renamed Air Corps Maintenance Command April 29,<!--p. 15--> elevated from provisional status on 30 June). ASC was removed from the Material Div on 11 December; "stored, overhauled, and repaired AAF aircraft and equipment" in World War II; and developed a network of base facilities [including] 11 air depots. (moved to Washington DC on December 15, but returned to Patterson Field on December 15, 1942.)
|-
|}<!--
World War II
Early in 1941, anticipating the testing of the Douglas B-19 heavy bomber, the decision was made to install two concrete runways at Wright Field (Northwest-Southeast next to the flight line, and East-West along the southern edge of the property). The Army Corps of Engineers was assigned the project, with the Price Brothers Company of Dayton named the prime contractor. Construction began in June 1941 and was completed by the middle of February 1942. During construction, intelligence reports indicated that the German Luftwaffe was experimenting with inclined runways, and construction of an inclined runway with a 10% grade was added to the Wright Field project, more or less perpendicular to the NW-SE runway. Completed shortly after the standard runways, it became a familiar sight to Dayton residents. A triangular arrangement of runways was completed in 1944 with the addition of a SW-NE runway connecting the other two, on which the present National Museum of the United States Air Force is located. -->
AAF and USAF base
The Army Air Forces Technical Base was formed on December 15, 1945, when Wright Field, Patterson Field, Dayton Army Air Field in Vandalia and Clinton County AAF in Wilmington merged. After the USAF was created, the base was renamed Air Force Technical Base in December 1947 and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in January 1948.. The former Wright Field became Area B of the combined installation, the southern portion of Patterson Field became Area A, and the northern portion of Patterson Field, including the jet runway built in 1946–47, Area C.<!--
In 1951, congestion at the base forced all local flying activities to be limited to the Wright Field (Area B) flight line, which in February 1958 was closed to all jet aircraft. Even so, the next year Area B still experienced 44,699 takeoffs and landings, or 24% of the air activity at WPAFB. Finally, noise and congested airspace forced all military aircraft operations at Area B to cease in 1963. General aviation activities, typically of single-engine civilian aircraft, continued until the early 1970s. The flight line has been temporarily opened since 1971 on a case-by-case basis to accommodate the final flights/arrivals/landings of aircraft destined for the collection of the Air Force Museum, now the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The museum opened its present location in 1971 in the triangular runway area of the base and has since expanded, and maintains an annex in a hangar on Wright Field proper.-->