Wright Field History

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From Huffman Prairie To The MoonThe History of Wright-Patterson Air force Base

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CONTENTS

I. HUFFMAN PRAIRIE 1904-1916. ............................................................ I

HUFFMANPRAIRIE:ALOGICALCHOICE .................................................. 3

THESIGNALCORPSMACHINE ............................................................ 5

THOSEDARINGYOUNGMEN .............................................................. 10

ENDOFANERA ........................................................................... 14

II. WILBURWRIGHTFIELD1917-1925 ....................................................... 17

THE EARLY YEARS OF SIGNAL CORPS AVIATION,......................................... 17COMBAT-ORIENTEDPILOTTRAINING ..................................................... 21DAYTON AS A FOCUS OF AIRPLANE PRODUCTION........................................ 23

ESTABLISHMENT OF WILBUR WRIGHT FIELD............................................. 25

FROMTHEGROUNDUP ................................................................... 28FIRST FLYING SEASON .................................................................... 30A“MAJOR”REORGANIZATION ........................................................... 36

AVIATIONMECHANICS’SCHOOL..........................................................4 0AVIATIONARMORERS’SCHOOL ........................................................... 42TESTING .................................................................................. 43

SPRINGFLYING.. ........................................................................ .44

OVER THERE AND BACK .................................................................. 45

III. FAIRFIELD AIR DEPOT 1917-1931......................................................... 51

WORLDWARI’ORIGINS .................................................................... 51

POSTWAR DEMOBILIZATION AND REORGANIZATION. .................................... 54

THE AIR SERVICE SUPPLY AND REPAIR DEPOT............................................ 56ENGINEERINGREPAIRSECTION ........................................................... 58THE FAIRFIELD AIR INTERMEDIATE DEPOT............................................... 59THE PROPERTY, MAINTENANCE, AND COST COMPILATION SECTION.................... 61THE1924ROUND-THE-WORLDFLIGHT....................................................6 3

LOGISTICAL SUPPORTPLANS. ................................................................ 65

THE DO”GLAS WORLD CRUISER.............................................................. 61WORLDFL~GHTCREWS......................................................................~ 9SUCCESS .................................................................................. 70

1924AIRRACES ........................................................................... 72

THEMODELAIRWAY ...................................................................... 78

CREATION OF THE FAIRFIELD AIR DEPOT RESERVATION.................................. 79

THE1931AIRCORPSMANEUVERS.. .................................................... ..8 0THEDESIGNATION OFPATTERSON FIELD................................................. 82

IV. McCOOK FIELD 1917-1927.................................................................. 85

ATIMEOFCRISIS ...................................................................... ...8 5ANALTERNATIVETOLANGLEYFIELD....................................................8 7THE ESTABLISHMENT OF McCOOK FIELD................................................. 89

THE CONSTR”CTION PROCESS............................................................... 91OPERATl”NSBEGlN.........................................................................9 2

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Wilbur Wright Field, winter 1918

II. mBUR WRIGHT FIELD 1917-1925

THE EARLY YEARS OF SIGNALCORPS AVIATION

On August 1, 1907, the Aeronautical Division wasestablished in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of theArmy. The Division was put in charge “of all matterspertaining to milita ry ballooning, air machines, and allkindred subjects on hand.” Assigned to this new agencywere Captain Charles DeForest Chandler, Corporal EdwardWard, and Private First Class Joseph E. Barrett. All threemen were experienced in free balloon operations, as-semblage, and maintenance.

This was especially pertinent, as the Signal Corps airfleet consisted of two free spher ical hydrogen balloons.Frequent ascensions in these spherical lighter-than-air vehi-cles comprised aerial operations during 1907 and most of1908, until August I2 of that year when Lieutenants FrankP. Lahm, Benjamin D. Foulois, and Thomas E. Selfridgebegan receiving training as pilots in the newly-acquiredSignal Corps Dirigible Number One. Described as a “diri-gible balloon.” the aircraft required two men to operate it,and had been purchased from Thomas Scott Baldwin for

$6,750.’The next acquisition of the Aeronautical Division oc-

curred August 2? 1909, when Signal Corps AirplaneNumber One, designed and manufactured by Wilbur andOrville Wright, was purchased for $25,000.* During Oc-tober and November, Lieutenants Lahm and Foulois andLieutenant Freder ic E. Humphreys received pilot trainingin the heavier-than-air machine at College Park , Maryland.

‘See Chapter I for specific details of this period.

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Congress, however, provided no further funds to con-tinue military aeronautics. “Economy was the watchword inWashington and vision was lacking in those who held thepurse-strings.”

Thu s. during 1910 and into the early part of the follow-ing year the Aeronautical Division’s flight operations werelimited to the two free balloons, one dirigible, and oneairplane. Lieutenant Foulois was the Army’s only activepilot, flying at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in Signal CorpsAirplane Number One. He augmented the $150 that Con-gress allotted him for aviation gasoline and repairs from hismeager service salary. Lieutenants Lahm and Humphreyshad returned to their respective branches of the service:Cavalry and Corps of Engineers. The Aeronautical Divi-sion’s total personnel strength stood at 27 me” (both o fficerand enlisted).

The sttuation was different in Europe. Nations therewere far more visionary in recognizing the military poten-

tial of the airplane. In early 191 I, France appropmillion (franc equivalent) for its infant air anations would soo n follow in establishing real aviation as pressures built toward World War I.

Insulated from those pressures, the Unitedawakened more slowly to the potential of military In the opinion of a World War I historian, it was aday in American aviation history” when ConMarch 3, 1911, enacted the Appropriation Act Year 1912, allocating the first money ever for military aviation.’ Even then, the sum total$125,000. Of that amount $25,000 was immediateable and it was used forthwith to purchase fiveplanes, all “pusher-type ” aircraft.* A Wright Ma Cur tiss “m ilitary model” were delivered in Aptenant Foulois at Fort Sam Houston .** When Hytions moved north to College Park in the spring,Wright Aviation Compan y and the Curtiss man

/ ,.*A”p”shei’airpla”e bad the propeller mounted on therearend oftheengine or propeller shaft, th”s”p”shing” the a

“tractor” airplatic had the propeller moun ted o n the forward end of the engine or propeller sha ft, thus pulling the

**The second airplane purchased by the Signal Corps was manufactured by the Glenn Curtiss Com pany. According Lahm, it was designated as a Curt& “Type IV.” The weight wa s 400 Ibs without pilot. It was powered by a” X-cyliat 51.2 horsepowe r. A passenge r co uld be carried by sitting on the lower wing imme diately behind the pilot.

18

COL. CHARLES deFOREST CHANDLER LT. FRANK p. LAHM

As a captain, Charles deForest Chandler was the first Chiefof the Signal Corps Aeronautical Division when it wasestablished August I, 1907. Chandler, a native ofCleveland, Ohio, entered the Army in 1898 as a private. Hequalified as pilot of balloons in 1907, of dirigibles in 1969,and of airplanes in 191 I. He wa s Comm andant of the Signal

Corps Aviation School at College Park, Maryland,191 l-1913. Captain Chandler rose in grade to the rank ofcolonel, and retired in 1920.

Lt. Fran k P. Lahm is pictured here with a tractor-Martin airplane, about 1915. A native of Man sfield, Lahm graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in He was qualified by Wilbur Wright on October 26, 19one of the two first American military airplane pilots. had previously qualified as a pilot of free balloons (

and of dirigibles (1908). He rose to the rank of briggeneral (July 1926) and appointment as Assistant C hithe Amy Air Corps. H e retired from active dutNovember 30, 1941.

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LT. BENJAMIN D. FOULOIS

At Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1910, Lt. Benjamin D.Foulois s its in the “cockpit” of Signal Corp s AirplaneNumber One, manufactured by the Wright bmthen theprevious year. The Arm y’s third airplane pilot, Foul& wa salso the first Arm y dirigible pilot. As abtigadiergeneral, hewas Chief of the Army Air Service in France during WorldWar 1. He later served as Chief of the Materiel Division,Wright Field, in 1929. A s a major general, he was appoint-ed Chief of the Army Air C orps in 193 1, and retired in thatgrade in 1935.

L J

Wright airplane at College Park, ktary,and, October ,xw

each delivered another airplane to the aviation trainingschool. The fifth airplane purchased in the $25,000 pack-age was a Burgess-Wright which also went to the aviationschoo l.* By the end of I91 1 the Signal Corps aviation fleetconsisted of five airplanes (Signal Co rps Airplane Num berOne had retired to the Smithsonian Institution during theyear), two spherical balloons, and Dirigible Num ber One.The I91 I personnel strength of 23 persons included sixairplane pilots. Aircraft and people were concentra ted at theaviation s chool at College Park, Marylan d, during the sum -mer and at the school’s new winter quarters in Augusta,Georgia, during th at seaso n.

Meage r appropriations severe ly restricted the Aero-nautical Division for the next two years as Congress allo-cated only $125,000 and SlOO,OOO for 1912 and 1913.Austere funding notwithstanding, two significant steps for-ward were taken. In January I91 3, the Signal Corps flyingschool was relocated from its College Park. Maryland, andAugusta, Georgia, locations to North Island, San Diego,

*The m anufacturer, W. S. Burgess, was a renowned designer of yachts at Marblehead. Mass . He was the first manufacturer in theUnited States to be licensed by the Wright Company for use of its patents.

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California. “Year-round” flying conditions in southern Cal-ifornia were a major, but not the sole, inducement for thetransfer. The new site marked the Army’s “first permanentaviation schoo l, organized on a solid basis and providing alogical and efficient course of instruction sufficiently com-prehensive in its scope to justify its graduates being ratedmilitary aviators.“’ By mid-year the West Coast school had7 airplanes, 3 instmctors (including the commandant). 14officer students. and 48 enlisted men assigned to serviceand support jobs.

In addition, the military aviation program during 1913reached the point where it was formally recognized for itspotential as part of a field force. The Army prescribed amodel organizational structure for a provisional aero squad-ron. The tables of organization, equipment, and allowancescalled for 20 officers, 90 enlisted men, 8 airplanes, and 6motorcycles for each squadron.’ Available resources weregrowing and by the end of the year Army aviation more thanequalled the strength of one squadron, with I5 ailplanesand I14 commissioned and enlisted personnel, includingI1 qualified pilots* and 9 other officers in pilot training.”

,s

Certainly much progress had been made since 1908, butthe price had often been measured in terms of sacrifice.From 1908 through 1913 military airplane crashes cost thelives of I2 officers, including I non-commissioned officer.

Most of these fatalities had involved pusher-type airplanes.When seven of the fatal accidents occurred in 1913, andthree of these involved Wright Model C pusher airplanes,pilots’ confidence in that type of aircraft was destroyed. OnFebruary 16, 1914, pushers were grounded for furtherinvestigation. In effect, this action eliminated the Wrightfleet, for a board of pilots recommended student training at

North Island be limited to the tractor-type airplanes fleet. including one Curtiss and four Burgess airplan

Progress continued. According to Brig. Gen. FraLahm, the “Army’s wings received official sanon July 18, 1914, when Congress created an AviaSection within the Signal Corps. The new Aviation Sinherited the general mission of the antecedent Anautical Division and in addition received the specisponsibility of “training officers and enlisted men in pertaining to military aviation.”

Despite this recognition, American military awas still in its formative stages at the outbreak of the

War in Europe on July 28, 1914. U.S. strength dicompare well to the pre-war strengths of the major pean powers, in money or in resources allocated. many’s pre-war budget reached $45 million, Russiatalled $22.5 million, France allocated $12 million, AHungary allocated $3 million, Great Britain budslightly more than $1 million, and Italy set aside $800Germany had 2,600 men in uniform flying and/or suing a fleet of 260 airplanes. France had 3,000 mipersonnel and 156 airplanes. Great Britain had 15planes. In stark contrast, the United States Army AvSection’s Fiscal Year 1915 appropriation was $250Assigned personnel totalled 208, and aircraft inventor

23 machines.By March 1916 the clamor from an aroused Ame

public stirred Congress to action. Its fervor was fuelthe embarrassing experience of the 1st Aero Squaduring the Spring of 1916 as the air element of the PuExpedition against Pancho Villa on the Mexican BBowing to public opinion, in March 1916 Congress

*Among the certified pilots were two enlisted men: Sergeant E-4) Vernon N. Burge who received his wings in August 1912,Corporal (E-3) W illiam A. Lamkcy, who graduated in November of that year.

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MAJ. GEN. GEORGE 0. SQUIER

Maj. Gen . George 0 . Squier served as Chief Signal Officer,U.S. Army, from 1917 to 1923. A native of Michigan,Squier graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1887,and was commissioned as a lieutenant of Field Artillery. Helater transferred to the Signal Corp s. General Squier w asone of the few Army officers to earn a Ph.D. after graduat-ing from W est Point, an d distinguished himse lf in the fieldsof electrical science and radio. General Squier retired in1923.

a deficiency appropriation that provided another $500,000for military aeronautics. The National Defense Act of June3, 1916, increased active duty officer strength in the Avia-tion Section to 148 and established a Signal Corp s R eserve(of 297 officers and 2,000 enlisted men) for the AviationSection.

At about the same time, a significant and beneficialaction placed Lt. Cal. George 0. Squier as Officer inCharge of the Aviation Section.* Having just returned fromfour years as a military attach6 to the U.S. Ambassador toGreat Britain, Colonel Squier’s observations concerning the“simply prodigious flying mov eme nt abroad” carried con-siderable weight with Congressmen.

On the strength of his testimony and that of other ex-perts, Congress on August 29, 1916, appropriated$13.881.666 for military aviation and made a suppleme ntalappropriation of $600,000 for the purchase of land to use asflying fields and depots. A massive search was undertakennationwide to find suitable sites.

COMBAT-ORIENTED PILOT TRAINING

Tw o additional problems of major proportion con-fronted the Aviation Section near the eve of the UnitedStates entry into World War I: acquiring and training pilots.On February 3, 1917, when diplomatic relations with Ger-many were severed, none of the I32 planes on hand, nor the293 on order, wa s designed for combat. No American Armypilot had ever flown a combat mission.

To compound the problem of unpreparedness, accord-ing to one historian, “the Aviation Section had no accurateknowledge of the equipme nt of a military airplane.” Noaircraft, for example, had ever been mounted with a ma-chine gun. Aviation personnel had “practically no knowl-edge of radiotelegraphy and telephony , photograp hy,bombing equipm ent, lights for night flying, aviators’clothing, compasse s used in flying, or other aviation instm-merits” that were well known to European military pilots.’

Until 1916 the Arm y’s flying training school at SanDiego, California, had graduated a sufficient numbe r ofpilots for the sma ll fleet. But with increased appropriationsand the likelihood of the nation entering the conflict inEurope, there was an obvious need to expand the flyingtraining program . By the end of Februa ry 1917, four addi-tional pilot training schoo ls had been established: atMineola, Long Island, New York; at Ashbum Field, Chi-cago, Illinois; at Mem phis, Tennessee; and at Essington,Pennsylvania.* *

When the United States, on April 6, 1917, declared waron Germ any, the Aviation Section had 132 airplanes de-ployed among the Signal Corps Aviation Schools (SCAS)and the Ist, 2nd, and 3rd Aero Squadrons.” Total strengthincluded 131 officers , nearly a ll of who m were pilots or

*Less than a year later, Squier was promoted to brigadier general and appointed Chief Signal Officer (February 14, 1917).

**In addition, in November 19 I6 an ambitious program was begun to train civilian pilots in the Signal E nlisted Reserve Corps (SETraining began at the Curtiss C orporation School of Aviation in Newport New s, Virginia, and expanded in December to anotCurtiss school at Miami, Florida. By the end of the program in June 1917, Curtiss had trained 131 enlisted reservists.





student pilots, and 1,087 enlisted men. As mentioned, noneof the airplanes was combat-ready and none of the pilotscombat-trained. Drast ic measures would certainly beneeded if America were to meet French Premier AlexandreRibot’s most urgent request for 4,500 airplanes, 5,000pilots, and 50,000 airplane mechanics to be in his countryby the first part of 1918.9

A gigantic wave of patriotic fervor engulfed America’s

national defense establishment, especially the AviationSection. Hyperbole replaced rationality. Editorials in thenation’s most influential newspapers demanded an almostimmediate air fleet financed by real appropriations. Maj.Gen. George 0. Squier, Chief Signal Officer, in his supportof a proposed $600 million appropriation hill for the Avia -tion Section, talked eloquently about “an army in the air,regiments and brigades of winged cavalry mounted on gas-driven flying horses.““’ Not quite as flowery, but even moreof an exaggeration, was the prophecy of Dr. James S. Ames,an eminent scient ist, that Germany would be defeated“within a few months of the completion of the 22,625planes called for in the S639,000,000 programme, which it

was estimated could be turned out at the rate of 3,500[airplanes] a month.“”To accomplish an “aeronautical miracle,” President

Woodrow Wilson signed an aviation act on July 24, 1917,that provided the Signal Corps with $640 million. It was thelargest single military appropriation in the nation’s history.Although the end results were not as spectacular as had beenenvisioned, this program gave military aeronautics a per-manent and major role in national defense.

Meanwhile, the Aviation Section turned to its British,Canadian, French, and Italian counterparts for direction inestablishing and implementing personnel training and air-craft production programs. For example, the British-Cana-dian system of training flying cadets was adopted. Groundor pre-Right schools were established at six leading Amer-ican universities, including The Ohio State University. The400.hour intensified curriculum prepared 150 men everyeight weeks for admission into primary flying schools. The

curriculum included classroom instruction and stonstration in the theory and principles of flighphotography and reconnaissance, communications meteorology, aircraft engines and airplane structucraft instruments and compasses, and aerial combatThese classes, according to a World War 1 pilot, “greatest value in acclimating the men in aviatiosupplying the all-important theoretical knowledg

actual flying began.“”After graduating from ground schools, cadets mSignal Corps Aviation Schools for actual flyingtion.* This primary instruction lasted a period eight weeks. The actual time between the initial famtion flight with an instructor and graduation as aMilitary Aviator (RMA) with the commission lieutenant depended on the student’s progress. The lum covered three stages of flying and nearly 300 classroom instruction in diversified subjects such aengines and structures, aerial machine guns, photointerpretation, close-order dril l, etc. The three pactual flying involved dual work with an instruct

hours), solo flying (24 flying hours total), and crosflying. From the very beginning “the training prescribed with the utmost care, leaving just aschance as humanly possible. Step-by-step thwent on, always held back until he was doubly skil

Morning calisthenics by Rying cadets at the Wilbur Wright Field Sign al Corps Av iation Schmt, autumn 1917. At ., hangarswhichhoused he Curt&s AemptaneCompany N-4D Jennyand StandardAircraft CompanyV-t biplane rainersusedby

“,, cadet5 n primary Right training. (UPS. ir farce Muruum)-‘a L

*Wilbur Wright Field was one of the tint of these to be established.
















present phase and doubly eager for the next.“” The two-pat final examination was a solo 60.mile cross-countryRight and an altitude test of lO,ooO feet.

After primary flying training, stud ents transferred toone of three other installations for advanced work. At theseinstallations the pilot specialized in pursuit, bomb er, or“army-corps” flying. The last type was reconnaissanceflying in which the pilot “traveled about with the aerialobservers in search of information and photographs+nlyoccasion ally in battle.“”

A final stage of training was labeled post-advanced orpre-combat. This training was done in England, France,and Italy where com bat-typ e airplanes and battle-experi-enced tutors were available.

BetweenJuly 1917andJune 1918 more than 38,lXIOofthe “finest of Ame rica’s youth” volunteered for flying train-ing with the Aviation Section. These young men werecaptivated by the gallant exploits of aerial knights mountingtheir winged steeds into cloudless skies where they wouldwin immortal fame and glory high above the blood-drenched trenches and filthy shell-pocked no-man’s landbetween the serpentine lines. “Constant reports of deaths offamous aviators abroad were far outbalanced by the ro-mance of the [air] service and the opportunities forindividuality.“”

Pdtriotism and enthusiasm were laudable motivators,but more than a willing spirit was required. Strict p hysicaland psychological standards eliminated 18,004 of the38,770candidates. Not the slightest defect was permitted inthe structu re and function of a candida te’s cardio-respirato-ry system , eyes, ears, nose, throat, and other organs. More-over, according to War Department criteria:‘6

The candidate should be naturally athletic and have a repu-tation for reliability. Punctuality and honesty. He shouldhave a cool head in emergencies, good eye for distance,keen ear for familiar sounds, steady hand and solid bodywith plenty of reserve. Hc should ix quick-witted, highlyintelligent and tractable. Imma ture, high strung. overconfi-dent, impatient candidates not desired.

Because the curriculum was exacting in technical studies,mathem atics, and the sciences, the majority of flying cadetswere either college graduates or undergradu ates with ma-jors in fields transferrable to aviation.

DAYTON AS A FOCUS OF AIRPLANEPRODUCTION

The Wright brothers’ aeronautical achievements, theWright Exhibition Company’s aerial demonstrations, andthe Wright Aviation Compan y’s manufacturing and trainingoperations imprinted on the commu nity of Dayton, Ohio, a

perman ent interest in aviation, both civilian and military.As war clouds increased on the nation’s horizon during1914-1916, Dayton’s business leaders became increasinglyattuned to the economic potentialities of a greatly expandedand more powerful military aviation program. When wwas declared in 1917, a group of Miami Valley industrialcaptains, endowed with foresight and armed with clout political and financial circles, took action on Dayto n’sbehalf.

Less than a week after the United States entered WorldWar I, the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company wasorganized.* The impetus for the new company had beengenerated in a meeting between Secretary of War NewtonD. Baker and Ohio Governor JamesM. Cox on the subjectof the national need for increased airplane production .”Governor Cox, a Dayton newspaper mogul and financier,was well acquainted with another talented Dayton industrialist, Edward A. Deeds. D eeds had achieved nationalrenown as an in@xtrialist of good reputation, integrity, anmore than a little patriotism. He was currently serving asmember of the U.S. Munitions Standards Board in Washington.** As such, he could have no part in the actuaownership or management of the Dayton-Wright AirplaneCompa ny. He could, however, lend his expertise in the formof advice and counsel in setting the enterprise on asound

footing.The new company located at Moraine City, south o

Dayton, and began manufacturing DeHavilland DH-4 twoplace biplanes.‘” Under license from the Curtiss Com pany,it also produced JN-4 two-place Jenny trainers. By the enof 1918 the Dayton-Wright Airplane Compan y had manufactured about 3,100 of the total 4,500 DeHavillandDH-4s built in the United States, and 400 JN-4 Jennys.

‘Board members were Harold E. Talbott, Sr. and Harold E. Talbott, Jr. (who later sewed as Secretary of theAir Force from February4. 1953 to August 13, 1955). Charles F. Kettering, Thomas P. Gaddis, George Mead, Carl Sherer, and G. M. Williams. OWright served as a director and as a consulting engineer.

**Deeds was subsequently commissionedas a colonel in the Sign al Corps Reserve. He served as a member of the Aircraft ProductionBoard and as Chief of the Signal Corps Equ ipment Division during World War 1. For further details on his contribution s to aviation, see Chapter IV, M&oak Field.

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While the Dayton-Wright Company manufactured air-planes, one of the company’s more inventive bard mem-hers, Dayton genius Charles F. Kettering, was alsodesigning and building the world’s first “guided missile,”the Kettering Aeria l Torpedo, nicknamed the “Bug.” Thetiny, 300-lb papier-m&h.6airplane with 12.foot cardboardwings, could carry 300 Ibs of exp losivesat 50 mph. Total

--- cost was about S4C0, ncluding a $50, 2-cycle, 40hp en-! -- gin.%The fly ing bombs were launched from a rai l pointed

!- precisely in the direction of the target. Distance, wind

;,I direction and speed, and engine revolutions per minutewere figured into calculations that resulted in the smallairplane’s olding its wings and plunging to earth squarely

# on target. The Rying bomb was first tested on October 2,1918, but was not used in World War I.

KETTERING “BUG”

ESTABLISHMENT OF WILBUR WRIGHTFIELD

In addition to localizing aircraft production, EdwardDeeds was involved in other efforts on behalf of his Daytoncommunity. One of the most significant ofthese was his rolein the selection of a site on Huffman Prairie for use as aflying field and a Signal Corps Aviation School. The WarDepartment named this installation W ilbur Wright Field.

Through personal contacts in the Aviation Section,Deeds was aware of contingency plans to establish newaviation schools when funds became available. The August29, 1916, Congressional appropriation of $13 million formilitary aviation provided funds specifically to acquire landeither through purchase or by lease.

The optimal situation sought was an area sufficientlylarge to accommodate four training squadrons. Deeds knewof such a possible site. It lay in the Mad River flood plainnear the village of Fairfield in Greene County, Ohio, underthe jurisdiction of the Miami Conservancy District, ofwhich Deeds was president. The District was a politicalsubdivision organized in 1915 and chartered by the statelegislature for “building and maintaining flood controlworks in the Miami Valley.” The District’s mission was toprevent. by constructing five retarding dams, a recurrenceof the conditions that led to the disastrous flood of March1913. That catastrophe killed over 400 people in Daytonand the Miami Valley and caused over $100 million in

damages.” The Mad River was a tributary of the Miami,and the site of one of the proposed dams. Huffman Pra irielay on its flood plain.

Mr. Deeds suggested to General Squier, Chief SignalOfficer, that Huffman Prairie and vicinity might be suitablefor an aviation school. The Ohioan pointed out that theWright brothers had trained several dozen pilots at theirSimms Station school in the same locale.

Consequently, Dayton was included in the Signal Corpssurvey of midwestem cities. On April 30, 1917, Maj.Benjamin D. Foulois of the Aviation Section and Lt. Col.C. G. Edgar, Commanding Officer of the Signal CorpsConstruction Department, arrived in Dayton. They wereescorted by Mr. Deeds and Orville Wright on a tour of thearea. Major Foulois was favorably impressed with theHuffman Prairie locale, describing it as “admirably suitedfor aviation purposes.““’ He had been advised that theMiami Conservancy District owned all the land, thus allow-ing the Signal Corps to negotiate with a sole owner foreither lease or purchase of the whole parcel. In addition,Major Foulois reported. the acreage could be acquired “at avery low cost.”

Cost aside, the selection of sites for new trainingschools was a difticult and “most delicate [political] matter,for much pressure was exercised in favor of variouslocalities, and great difficulty was experienced in makingunbiased decisions.“” Selections were therefore proposedby a board of officers for approval by the Chief Signal











Officer and the Secretary of War. In the case of thesite, General Squierrecommended, on May 15, 1Secretary of War Baker approve the rental with purchase about 2,SXl acres, including Huffman Pvicinity.

As a matter of fact, though, the Miami ConsDistrict did not have title to the land. Th e Distrnically held options to purchase and could e xercise of eminent domain as a last resort. It was generallyand quicker to negotiate amicable settlements with owners than to bring legal action against them, asituation at hand time was very sh ort. Deeds senmessages from his suite in the New Willard Hotel ington, D.C ., to the austere D ayton offices of Kuhns, Secretary-Treasurer of the Conservancy Di

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expedite the District’s purchase of the farms. To do so, twoconcessions were offered to the farmers/owners: an inflatedpurchase price and an agreeme nt to allow the disposses sedfamilies to remain in their home s until the end of thegrowm g season or wheneve r construc tion required theirremoval. Prices paid reached a maximum of $40 per acre forwhea t fields, $35 per acre for corn fields, $25 for oats andalfalfa fields, and $5 per acre for pasturage.”

On May 22, 1917, Lt. Ca l. C. G. Edgar as the SignalCorps agent, signed a short-term lease with the MiamiConservancy District for 2,075 acres of land between whatis now Huffman Dam and the City of I&born at a rental of$2O,O CiI for the initial period ending June 30, 1917. TheUnited States agreed to pay $73,000 to the farmer s for theircrops. The agreeme nt also contained the option for renew-ing the lease for one yea beginning July 1, 19 17, to coverZ245.20 acres (including the original 2,075 acres) at arental of $17,600. The United States had the ootion of

On June 6, 1917, the Office of the Chief Signal Officerissued a memorandum stating that the “recently authorizedaviation school” near Dayton, Ohio, w ould be known aWilbur Wright Field, Fairfield, Ohio. Moreo ver, it wadesired that this name be used in referring to the schoolitself.* T he same memorandum named Signal Corps Avia-tion Schools at Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Michigan;and Chanu te Field, R antoul. Illinois.”

Just as it had patterned flying instruction after Canadianand British flying schoo ls, the Signal Co rps Aviation Sec-tion modeled its aviation training fields according to Cana-diandesign. Standard specifications for all SCAS sites weredrawn from Canadian blueprints by a Detroit. Michigan,civilian architectural firm during a crssh IO-day programand rushed to the various Construction Department on-sitesupervising officers . Wilbur Wright F ield was programm edto be one of the four largest U.S . aviation schoo ls, support-ine four school sau adrons and 24 hanears. 1.700 oersonnel

renewing the lease for three years at a cost of $2O,ooO perannum . Another option allowed purchase of all the acreagefor $35O.o00.”

(including 300~Rying cade ts), and up to 144 airplanes.

MONTGOMERY

Map of HuN man Prairie a nd vicinity, Greene Cou nty, Ohio. Shaded area becam e Wilbur Wright Field in 1917

‘There has been contro versy through the years as to the initial name of the installation. Although initial correspondence had referrto “Dayto n Aviation Field” or the “former Wright flying field.” official me moran dums were clearly marked “Wilbur Wfight NO documentary evidence has been found that officially named the Huffman Prairie-Simms Station area as “Wright Field” “Wright Flying F ield.” When asked in 19X2, neither M rs. lvonette Wright M iller nor Mr. Horace Wright, surviving niecenephew of the Wright brothers, could recall that any such title was applied to the Huffm an Prairie area prior to World War

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FROM THE GROUND UP

On the strength of the May 22 interim lease signed byColonel Edgar of the Construction Department, the job ofconve rting a small civilian airfield on Huffm an Prairie intoa maJor military installation was begun. Wilbur WrightField was intended as a two-u nit, four-squadron flying field.Unit One was to be the Signal Corps Aviation School andwas to be in operation by July 15, 1917. Unit Two was tofunction later as an Aviation Armorers’ Schoo l.

Capt. C harles T . Waring arrived on May 25 from Ash-bum Field, Chicago, Illinois, toassume completechargeofthe project. A contractors’ work force of about 3,100 la-borers, together with mules, horses, wheelbarrows,steamshovels, and other machinery, awaited him. Under the pressof wartime conditions, this force labored 24 hours a day,each day in the week, to have the field ready for its firstcontingent of flying cadets scheduled to arrive from Ohio

State University ground-training classrooms on July 1That the airfield was ready on schedule was almost

miracle according to a detailed report published one yelater by the Commande r of Wilbur Wright Field, MArthur E. Wilboum.*

MAJ. ARTHUR E. WILBOURN

Maj. Arthur E. WiIbwmgm duatedfmm the U.S. MilitaryAcademy in tk class of 1908. He was commissioned in theCavalry and placed on special d uty with the Signal Co rps tocommand various flying fields during World War I. Hecommanded the Signal Corps Aviation School and WilburWright Field, Fairfield, Ohio, from Ikcember~30, 1917. tJune 28, 1918. He retired IIS a colonel in 1944.

*Major Wilboum was not the initial Comman der. He did not assume command of the Aviation School and Wilbur Wright FiDecember 30, 1917. However, he authored an extensive “annual report” covering nearly the entire first year of the installUnless otherwise noted, all quotes in this chapter are drawn from this primary source.

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Approximately 1,600 of Wilbur Wright Field’s 2,075acres were in low-lying bottom land along the Mad River.The flat area on the floor of the valley was three-quarters of amile wide and stretched along two miles of the river shore.Elevation above the water level in the rive r varied from zeroto two and one-half feet. Three-quarters of a mile from theriver the land sloped gently upward, with the maximumelevation about 30 feet above the river level.”

Most of the field’s buildings were constructed on theelevated portion of the site, while flying was done from thelevel land near the river. Twelve wooden hangars wereassigned o each Unit and were, of necessity, located on theflightline. Each hangar measured 120 ft by 66 ft and couldbe configured for class instruction, or for maintenance orexperimentation on up to six ailplanes. The hangars bor-dered a large open drainage ditch that crossed the installa-tion in a northeasterly direction. Thus flying operationswere bounded on the south by the main drainage ditch andon the north by the Mad River.

During the first hectic period of construction, someattempts were made to grade the land for better drainage.Major Wilboum, in retrospect, considered these efforts“highly unsatisfactory,” pointing out that some places onthe flying field were sti ll “approximately on a level with theriver.” He believed the drainage problem could have beenresolved had all the low places been graded so as to “drainInto one or two centra lly located reservoirs from whichwater could have been pumped into the river.”

Apparently time constraints did not permit such mea-sures, and “earth was simply hauled from the high points onthe field and dumped into the low places.” Aggravating thesituation were holes and pits made by woodchucks, chip-munks, and other animals. Consequently, the field wasprecariously uneven for student pilots, and during each rainthe countless small depressions in the swampy turf filledwith water. (As noted in Chapter 1, the Wright brothers hadalso complained about the rough and swampy terrain.)

The drainage problem was especially severe around theUnit Two hangars (known as the South Unit). Located at aparticularly low spot between the flying field and the drain-age ditch, they were directly in the path of what l ittle naturaldrainage there was. Water from the flying field often ranaround and through them, especially during storms.

By the middle part of 1918, about $5O,OKl had beenspent in attempts to smooth the surface of the flying field toprevent landing accidents. Drainage was also improved inthe area of the South Unit hangars, though little could bedone about the overall problem.

All roads within the new reservation were laid by theConstruction Division. They were composed of a mixtureof sand and gravel blended with tar. During the 1917-1918winter, however, the roads proved to be “absolutely ineffi-cient,” and gravel sidewalks disappeared altogether. In his

annual report, Major Wilboum noted his efforts to rebuildthe roads and sidewalks using screened gravel with a topcovering of sand, resurfaced and rolled twice.

While the Army improved roadways inside the resewa-tion, it was powerless to do much about off-base roads,which Major Wilboum described as being in “horriblecondition.” Yet for many months Wilbur Wright Field hadto rely almost entirely on its own motor transport for thehauling of all food, clothing, and supplies from Dayton andSpringfield.

As bad as they were, the roads were less trouble than therailroad. The nearest steam railroad depot was at Osbom,three miles away.* Between the railroad and the Post ran anelect ric interurban line. It was deemed “very inefficient,”since the tracks, overhead wires, and pole systems hadcaused fires and were in “poor condition to meet any in-creased demands.” In addition, the company refused tocarry less-than-carload shipments. Major Wilbourn notedthat “since these shipments were urgently needed it wasnecessary to use post transportation to haul them.“** Stateand county officials were not indifferent to the problem,however, and began work in 1918 to assure that good roadswould be available to the installation at all times.

After the rapid pace of the first month, building slowedbut did not stop. Between July 1917 and March 1918, costof construction of the Signal Corps Aviation School andWilbur Wright Field rose to $2,X5 1,694, and a continuingseries of control problems became evident.

The building program had been both massive and hur-ried; it was not surprising that Major Wilbourn found thequality of both materials and workmanship to be inferior.He based this judgment on the “excessive amount of time,labor and materials spent in [repairing] and maintaining thebuildings at this Station from July I, 1917, to May 31,1918.” He could find no record that the Army had everaccepted the erected buildings. Indeed, he commented that“it is not believed that any board could have accepted these

High water fronl the nearby Mad River flows around and through the

Witb”r Wright Field hangars, May 12, ,918. Local Amding w

COnlrnO” during the early bittory Gfttle Ii&t. ,“.A- Air F”‘or<< Museum ,

‘Major Wilboum makes various reference to Osbom being 1% and 3 miles distant.

**Post transport at the time consistedof a Aeetof 40 trucks, 8 touring cars including 2 Cadillacs),4 ambulances, I tire truck, and 20motorcycles with sidecars.

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MAJ. ARTHUR R. CHRISTIEI

Maj. Arthur R. Christie served as the first CommandingOfficer of Wilbur Wright Field, Failfield, Ohio, arrivingIuly6, 1917, from Ashbum Field, Chicago, Illinois. MajorChristie ma de the first test flight fmm Wilbur Wright FieldM July 17, 1917. He sewed as Commande r until Sep.tember 26 , 1917. Christie rose to the rank of lieutenantcolonel and served as chief of Air Service, V Corps, in theSt. Mihiel offensive, during World War 1.

MAJ. LEO G. HEFFERNAN

Maj. Leo G. Heffeman , U.S. Military Academy Class ofI91 I, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in theCavalry. He later transferred to the Air Service and com-

pleted pilot training in Septem ber 1916. In grade of captainand as Commanding Officer, he led the 1.52.man 12th AeroSquadron from Kelly Field, Te xas, to Wilbur Wright Fieldon July 8 , 1917, the first organization to arrive at the hewinstallation. In the grade of major hecomma ded WilburWright Field from December I9 to 24, 1917. He laterserved as an Air S ervice officer with the American Expedi-tionary Forces (AEF) in France. Heffema n retired on dis-ability as a major in 193 3.

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The creation of Wilbur Wright Field and the l%irlield AviationGeneral Sup ply Depo t had a significant impa ct on the surroundingcommun ities in Bath Township, Greene County, Ohio. Most di-rectly affected were the nearby villages of Fairfield and Osbom .

Although the depot and the training schoo ls brought new ac-tivities to the area. the concept of aviation was not new to thepeople of Fairfield and Osbom . Both towns were within two milesof Simm s Station, where the wight bmthen had conducted theirflying experiments in 1904-1905 and operated an aviation schoolfrom 1910.1916.

Simms Station was a stop on the Mad River and Lake ErieRailroad, and consiste d of a wareho use-depot building, probablyaccompaoied by a water tow er. It was also B well-known locallandmark. The 1855 Greene C ounty Atlas listed it as K&slyStation. Mr. John Kneisly owned over 1,200 acres of land in thefertile v alley, and both the depot and a tiny hamlet one mile to thewest oo the banks of the Mad River carried his name. Followinglocal custom , when Mr. W . A. Sim ms later purchased the land, thesmall depot became known as Simm s Station.

According to fintbaod accounts, the Wright brothers’ flightsnear Simm s Station became spectator events for the citizens ofFairfield and Osbao. They frequently made the short ride toSimms Station, and could even rent camp stools from an enterpris-ing area celery farmer. Local enthusiasm for aeronautics was also

undoubtedly tired by the inventiveness and determination of Mr.Charles Snyder, an Oshom inventor and flyer, who designed andbuilt seven airplanes of his own in the years between 1905 and1917. Residents of both Fairfield and Osbom were koown to bpincurably air-minded from the earliest yea rs of the centu ry.

The village of Fablield dated from 1816. and stood at thecrossro ads offourma jor “pikes.” By 1855, Fairfield had apopula-tion of 4@l and was a well-kn&n stop on the stage coach mute.Because the town refused to allow railroads to pass thmugh it,growth stopped in the late ISGU s with the disappearance of thestage coaches.

Around 1900. Faitlield gladly allowed the new Dayton-S pring-field-Urbana electric interurban rail line to pass tbmug b th e centerof town. It was not until World War I and the construction ofWilbur Wright Field and the adjacent depot installation, how ever,that the town w itnessed significant growth.

The village of Osbom, located two miles north of Failfield,dated from 1851 and was named for Mr. E. F. Osbom , a localrailway superintendent. By 1874, according to the Greene CountyAtlas, Osbom counted 700 residents, the largest town in BathTowaship. By 1900, two railroads and the electric interurbanserviced Osbom, sod the town basted three mills, a buggy w hipfactory, an egg case factory, two ban ks, four churches, and its ownwater and electric plants.

The 1913 Miami Valley Rood, however, changed the course ofOsbom history. The flood itselfdid limited damage lo Osbom, buit devastated Dayton and conmnmities to the south. Withim twoyears. the Miami Consetvaoc y District w as formed to prevent recurrence of the disaster, and consequently proposed that fiveeatthen dams be built, including one across the Mad Rivet justsouth of Oshom.





Exercising the right of eminent domain, by 1919 the Con-serva ncy D istrict had purchased all of the land in the flood plainabove the proposed dam, including the entire town of Osbom. TheraOm ads and intenuban line relocated, the three mills closed, andnewspaper headlines of he day proclaimed that ‘THE TOW N OFOSBORN [WAS ] DOOM ED.” These gloomy predictions failedto take into account the spirit of Osbcm residents unwilling to seetheir tmw die.

Without financial help from any government agency, the pea-pie of Osban conceived, formed, and financed The Osbom R e-moval Comp any. The Removal Compan y bought b ack all thebuildings in Osbom fmm the Conservancy District. and purchaseda new site for them in a pocket of land bounded by the relocatedrailroad, the mtenrrba n line, and Hebb k Cree k, adjacent to thevillage of Fairfield. Over a period of three years, Osbom citizensmove d their entire town-a pproxim ately 400 buildings-to thenew location. ‘Ihe planning, engineering, and financing involvedin the pmjee t were unprecedented in the nation, and the unfoldingeffort wa s repotted in national newsreels and magazines.

Meanwhile, America entered World W ar I, and tirtield andO&m swn had new military neighbors. A relationship of cwp-eration and mutual support developed between the military postsand the two towns. The villages supplied workers, horses, ma-chinery, and supplies to help construct the new flying school and

depot. In the years following the war, it was commo n for officersstationed at the installations to make their homes off base and toplay active roles in comm unity affairs. M ilitary families of bothinstaltatirm s sent their children to local schoo ls and attended localchurches.

On the other hand, the military bases provided employmen t.Thmuehout the 1920s and 1930s. the work forces at WilburWright Field a nd the Fairfield d epot (and later Wrigh t an d Patterso nFields) were predominantly comprised of civil service employees,furnishing hundreds of local families with weekly paychecks.

Early newspapers such as the Borh Town ship Herald and ModRiver Volley Journal and the Wilbur Wighr Exhawr documentedthe close relationship tha t existedbe tween themilitary andciviliancommu nities. A regular column in the Herald was devoted to

activities at Wilbur Wright Field, and the society column coveredthe social doings of both on-base and community citizens. Localresidents attended dan ces, movies, and other activities on base,and formed a wide range of organizations and clubs.

During World War II, as the base grew, so did the surroundingcomm unities. Combined civil service employment for bothWright Field and Patterson Field soared to nearly 50,ooO a t theheight of the war. Local commu nities faced the challenge ofproviding housing and service s for the ballwning wor k force , and

local companies, such as the two cement plants, supplied increas-htg anmnts of business and construction materials.

By the end of World War II, the identities of the small villagesof Fairlield and Osbo m had largely disappeared, and a muc hlarger, forward-looking comm unity stead in their stead. As a sigof the future, on January 1, 1950, the towns of Fairfield andOhm officially merged to form the City of Fairbarn, OhioWright-lUtenon’s present-day partner in progress.

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The overa ll effort of the “flying instruction department”was one of the few functions praised in Major Wilboum’sannual report. This sense of purpose was the real legacy ofHoffman Pra irie and has remained the heritage of eachsucceeding installation.

The flying instruction was carried out in two basicaircraft at Wilbur Wright Field and other Signal CorpsAviation Schools. These were the Curtiss Aeroplane Com-

pany’s IN-4D Jenny, powered by the 90-hp Curtiss OX-5engine, and the Standard Aircraft Corporation’s Sl-1 ,powered by 100.hp Hall-Scott A-7 and A-7A engines. Bothwere single-engine biplane trainers, with two open cockpitsmounted in tandem.

The Jenny evolved through the cross-breeding of anEnglish aircraft designed by B. D. Thomas, known asModel I, with a Glenn Cur tiss American design, Model N.The offspring was naturally christened “IN.“ The mostcommon model of the series was the JN-4D.

The Jenny was much easier to fly than the SJ-I , andtherefore saw heavier use (6,000 JN-4Ds were built by theend of I9 18, as opposed to I ,60 I SJ - s) . According to one

historian, about 90 percent of all World War 1 Americanpilots earned their wings in this airplane. After the warended, hundreds of these Jennys became the mainstay“barnstormer” of the 1920s. Dozens of the airplanes werestill being flown in the 1930s from pastures, fairgrounds,race tracks, and other flat (but not necessarily smooth)surfaces. Many a World War II pilot got his first taste ofHying as a youngster with a five-minute flight for one dollarin a Jenny that circled a local pasture at minimum altitude.

Although he praised the instruc tional aspects of theflying program, Major Wilhoum found that the condition of

the associated records varied from haphazard to disastmus.Two weeks after the flying season ended for the year, he wasunable to determine how many airplanes had been assignedon station since July or how much logistic al support hadbeen provided. The records of the Supp ly Department were“in a most chaotic condition” and the accounts of theEngineering Division, which he described as providing the“whole fabric of maintenance and operation of the field,”

were incomplete. Fortunately, enough records had beenmaintained to indicate the amount of night instructionwhich had been given and supported during that first set-son. This information is summarized in the accompanyingtable. In total, the SCAS graduated X2 RMAs and logged5,298 hours and 27 minutes of flight time with the loss ofonly 17 aircraft. At least 85 JN-4Ds and 32 SJ- I s arrived onstation, and 46 Cur tiss and 32 Standards were subsequentlyshipped to other primary bases.

Airplane gasoline consumption was XX.036 gallons; oilusage was 1,900 gallons. Operating expenses totalled$3lO,oOll including local purchases of aviation gasolineand oil, machinery, tools, airplane spare parts, office sup-

plies and equipment, and other items.On December I, the Signal Corps Aviation Sectiondirected that flying instruction activ ities he transferred fromWilbur Wright Field to more “Southern stations” for theduration of the 1917.1918 winter.” Five of these primarytraining fields in the “sunshine belt” were located in Texas(Barron , Carruthers, Kel ly, Love, and Taliaferro). andothers were scattered through Arkansas, Tennessee,Georgia, and Alabama2*

By December 15, all flying activity ceased. In place oftraining pilots, the Wilbur Wright F ield facilities were pre-

WILBUR WRIGHT FIELD SIGNAL CORPS AVIATION SCHOOLFlying Season 1917 JUL &uJ SEp OCT m DECTotal Iostrwtors, Milita ry and 10 20 22 26 28 27

CivilianTotal Flying Cadets 19 169 165 168 148 127

Graduated RMA ; Commissioned 0 9 16 28 20 9Transferred 0 0 I2 28 21 116Discharged 0 1 0 0 2 2

Total Flying Tiie 58 hJs 628 hrs 14% hrs 1386 hrs 1466hIS 262 hrs17 min 22 min 3 min 5 min 59 min 41 min

Total Airplanes in Commission on N/A 17 IN-4D 10 IN-4D II JN-4D 12 JN-4D 26 JN-4lZ

AVerage 16 SJ-1 7 SJ-I 6 SJ-1 11 SJ-1 9 SJ-1Total Accidents 1 2 0 6 3 2

Fatalities 0 1* 0 0 0 0

Destroyed Airpram I 2 8 6 0 0

Periwl for w hich da ta is missing 2 weeks 4 days ,‘l week 1 week none zweeks(- missing (W?,“Il

F- 3 ended)

*hteWliStedman’WSSkBkdWhenStlUCkby~pmpelkI

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pared for use as a temporary school for mechanics and apermanent school for armorers. This respite in flying alsoprovided the SCAS Commandant with an opportunity tostrengthen a rather shaky organizational structure.

A “MAJOR” REORGANIZATION

During the first six months of operation, Wilbur WrightField had live Commanders:

Maj. Arthur R. Christie Jul 6-Sep 26. 1917Lt. Cal. George M. Bomford Sep 27.Dee 19, 1917Maj. Leo G. Heffeman Dee 19-24. 1917Maj. Walter R. Weaver Dee 24-29. 1917Maj. Arthur E. Wilboum Dee 30, 1917-J”” 28, 1918

Major Wilboum, who served as Commander for the firstsix months of 1918, was not perceived in a favorable lightby his peers, one of whom was Major Heffeman. As acaptain, Heffeman had led the first enlisted men onto thepost. As a major, he had preceded Wilboum as Commanderof the post for one week in December. He had thereforespent more time at the young installat ion than almost anyother ofticer, and he kept a diary of his experiences. Henoted that Major Wilbourn was “a very officious type ofofficer and cordially disliked by all who knew him in the AirService . He didn’t last long in the game, chiefly because hecould not be taken up in a plane.“”

Though he apparently had no desire to fly~ven as apassenger-Wilbourn appears to have had a good head formanagement and a strong hand for organization. He left anexcellently-detailed annual report dated May 31, 19 18,which covered operations from the installation’s inception.Though highly critical of the poor state of affairs he foundupon assuming command, he detailed both the situationsand the remedial actions he directed. They were sometimesdrastic, and therefore would have been considered un-popular, but they were effective. By May 31, 1918, thefunction was much improved.

Major W ilbourn gave praise sparingly, but did give itwhere it was due. His chief satisfact ions apparently camefrom the “flying instruction department” and the medicalcorps. He praised the organization and cqnduct of thesefunctions and attributed the bulk of their difficulties tooutside forces. O ther agencies did not fare so well at hishands, and his attention was focused sharply on internalproblems.

Two departments in particular required various degreesof remedial action: Engineering and Supply. “The heart ofWilbur Wright Field,”its Commanding Officer declared,was the Engineering Department. “Upon [it] depends thewhole fabric of maintenance and operation of the field.“i”Yet he was clear ly dismayed by the conduct of thedepartment.

To begin with, Engineeting had charge of a large span ofoperations in 1917.19 IX. To cover the same duty in the1980s would require several separate organizations, includ-ing civ il engineering, airplane field maintenance, organira-tional maintenance, and an aircraft engine training school.

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Civil engineering functions encompassed many ofihe sameresponslbtltttes handled by today’s civil engineers, includ-ing surveying, cartography. drafting, utilit ies (lighting,water, and sewage), steam and emergency e lectrical power,and maintenance ofroads and grounds, ranging from streetsto flower beds.

A major responsibility in 1917 was repair and mainte-nance of buildings. Major Wilboum cited shoddy work-manship, inferior materials, and haste of the constructioneffort as the chief sources of the engineers’ problems anddeclared that a large amount of unnecessary work was beingdone “due to the careless , if not worse, way in which workwas, and is being done, on the Post.” Better quality controland closer supervision during initia l construction wouldhave obviated a significant portion of the repair, replace-ment, and maintenance costs he was forced to assume.Compounding the problem was the “constant friction be-tween the enlisted workmen and those furnished by theConstruction Company” over the question of who was topay for the materials and labor necessary to correct thedefects.

Another principal area of responsibili ty of the Engineer-ing Department was the procurement and support of theaircraft used for training by the SCAS. Major Wilboumdefined the Division’s responsibilities:”

It is rcquirrd to SCCUK ufficient ships; to assemble hemand keep them in proper repair: supply them with fuel andlubricants; record the performance of all mxors, pro-pellers, planes etc., to cart for and replace broken pans:XCUR and rctum wrecks.

Wire and metal work shop, Wilbur Wright Field, January 18. ,918.

fibetages are curtiss m-m Jenny two-place biplan e trainers Row”by Signa t Carps Aviation Sehoo t i”Stl”Ptor pitots and Aying cadets.








In order to carry out these duties, moreo ver, the Engineer-ing Depa rtment had to train its own airplane engine me-chanics, beginning with a “trade test” of enlisted men todetermine their “trade fitness” for this new occup ation.

Histories and maintenan ce records of individual air-planes had not been kept during the six-month flying sca-son. Consequently, the Engineering Department could notdetermine the quality or quantity of work performed; eventhe “in-commission ” rates of aircraft quoted earlier in thischapter were reconstructed after the fact by flying instruc-tion staff from incomplete monthly records.

As far as can be determined, there were several areasthat caused continuing maintenance problems. One, forexam ple, wa s exce ssive failure of propeller blades. Sho rt-ages of propeller hubs compoun ded this situation and near-ly forced ca ncellation of all flying in Septemb er until newparts arrived. When the second flying season opened onApril 15, 1918. the problems remained unsolved andplagued the mechanics throughout the spring.

Serious difficulties also arose with the OX-5 engine inI2 JN-4Ds . At the time Major Wilboum was finishing hisreport in Ma y, airplane mech anics were struggling withleaking e xhaus t va lves in the OX-5 power plant. Apparen tlyan excessive carbon content in the valves made them toohard, or the valve seats in the motors were so soft that thevalves hammered the metal a way. Regardless of the primarycause, Major Wilboum felt the problem indicated that “theassemblers of the motors [in the factory] failed to seatthe valves properly.”

Valves and propellers were not the only parts beset bymanufacturing defects. Airplanes arriving from the CurtissCompany’s Canadian plants were found to be poorly as-sembled. The quality of dope and methods of applicationwere “inferior to a degree” that required shipping I3 of theJN-4Ds to the Aviation Repair D epot at Indianapolis, Indi-ana. The Depo t had to re-dope practically the entire fabricof wings, fuselages, and tails. At the end of May, theEngineering Department fully expected “upwards of 20”more airplanes to arrive from the factory in similarcondltmn.

Major W ilboum was also highly displeased with “themost chaotic condition” of the Supply Depa rtment. All

1917 records were in “very bad shape ,” especially thosepertaining to property acc ounta bility. Large numb ers ofvouchers were missing and dozens of invoices sent by theSupply Department were never returned. No vigorousefforts had been made by the department to prepare Reportsof Survey for missing property. Moreover, attempts of theSupply Officer during the first three month s of 1918 tocorrect the deficiencies and discrepan cies proved futile.Major Wilboum’s remedy was simple. The Supply Officerwas summarily relieved. A board of disinterested officerswas appointed to surve y all Signal Corps property onWilbur Wright Field.

The Quartermaster Department, established in earlyJune 1917, also had its share of problems in each of its fiveelements (administrative, finance, supply, transportation,and reclamation). For exam ple, th e adm inistrative divisionoperated for nearly a year without Quarterm aster Corps-qualified admin istrative enlisted men . Signal Corps sol-diers, unfamiliar with Quarterm aster regulations, policies,and procedu res, had been pressed into service as interimsubstitutes. It was not until March and April 1918 that 32QMC-qu alified enlisted men arrived on station .

3i







a permanent facil ity; the first hospital building, one of thelast on Post to bc completed, was not ready until August 21.

In the meantime, on July IX, a tent was used as anisolation cater when the first illness requiring hospitalira-tion proved to be the highly-communicable scarlet fever.Since the weather was mild, the only hardship this entailedwas an immediate search for a bed net to fend off flies.

Until December 21. 19 17. the installation was prac-tica lly free of communicable disease . On that date somesquadrons arrived from Texas bases bringing ailments suchas measles. mumps, and scarlet fever. The two buildingsthen in use as hospital facilities were soon ovenvhclmed,underscoring a need for additional capacity. By March anaddition to the Unit One hospital building was completedand brought total beds available to 89.

In all, by May 31, 1918. the Medical Department hadtreated 1,873 cases. Of these, only six resulted in death:three from illness and three from accident, including theone flying mishap noted earlier. Fortunately, Wilbur WrightField had escaped the more serious complications of mea-sles, such as pneumonia, which resulted in high death ratesat other bases. The medical staff by mid-1918 included 14physicians and dentists, I I commissioned nurses, and 63enlisted men.

By mid-IY I8 the domestic service “utility” functions of

the field were also nearing satisfactory levels of operation.As mentioned, sanitation problems connected with thelarge temporary work force, such as insects and impurewater, had been addressed. Three driven wells were produc-ing 340,000 gallons of pure water daily. The sewage systemwas nearing satisfactory function. In addition, the DaytonPower and Light Company was meeting the Post’s monthlypower requirement for 660 kilowatts of electricity.

A new telephone system was completed, giving WilburWright Field and adjacent Edirfield Aviation General Supply






Depot 229 instruments.* Cal ls averaged 5,200 a day. For-tunately for the succes s of the cross-country flying pro-gram, the surrounding rural districts were fairly well cov-ered with telephone nets, according to Major Wilboum,and thus provided quick notifications of all landings, forcedor otherwise. A fairly common occurrence was a call from achagrined pilot on his first cross-country flight who hadgotten lost and run out of gas.

AVIATlON MECHANICS’ SCHOOL

While Major Wilbourn was addressing his internalproblems, he had also to attend to his role as host for twoessential Signal Corps activities that began at WilburWright Field in the non-flying winter months from mid-December until April.

The first of these to be organized at the field was anAviation Mechanics’ School. According to Allied manningexperience in Europe, each combat-ready airplane requiredthe support of 47 ground-force personnel, including of-ficers and enlisted men in engineering, supply, administra-tlon, maintenance, etc. The largest single category of thesesupporters was “aviation mechanicians,” who carried theenlisted ranks of:

MSE (master signal electrician, which wouldequate roughly to the modem rank of mastersergeant, or E-7, in charge of squadron airplanemaintenance)

Sergeant First Class (E-6)sergeant (E-4)Corporal (E-3)Private (E-l)

Experienced aviation mechanics were in short supplyafter war was declared in April 1917. The few that existedoutside of the military were already working for unprece-dented wages in the civilian war effort. Experienced motorvehicle mechanics were generally in greater supply, but byfall most of them were also occupied by the war effort,either in the Army or in civilian support functions.

By November 1917, the Aviation Section was in criticalneed of both types of mechanics. As a result, on Novem-ber I the War Department directed that 5,000 mechanics betransferred immediately from the National Army to theAviat ion Section.” The problem then became one of trans-ferring these mechanics’ skil ls to the new area of aviation.This was handled through both short- and long-range pro-gram objectives.

Two programs were set to provide short-tam results.One effort established short-term training schools at thefive northern flying installations (Wilbur Wright Field,Chanute, Scott, Selfridge, and Hazelhurst), during thewinter months when flying instruction was impossible. Theother effort involved private industry. In industrial commu-

nities such as Dayton, selected airplane and engine facto-ries and garages were asked to open their facilities to groupsof 25 soldier-students for on-the-job training. Nearly ascore of companies willingly inconvenienced themselves inthis way, providing training for about 2,ooO men.

instructors for the five temporary schools came fromboth outside and inside the Army. Private companies werecanvassed for experienced foremen who could add theirtechnical competence and supervisory skil ls to the ranks ofSignal Corps instructors. A special evaluation board se-lected 60 foremen for such service . Of these, 17 werecommissioned as first and second lieutenants, 48 joined theenlisted ranks from corporal to MSE, and 5 accepted lower-grade duty. After three weeks of training at Selfridge Fieldm December, they were distributed to the new schools inJanuary as instructors in such specialties as “woods, pro-pellers, wing repair, fabrics, wire work, soldering, tires,alignment, fuselage, motors, and motor transport.“”

Within the Aviation Section, the more highly skilledmechanics were tapped to serve as instructors. This wasparticularly necessary in the interim period between theopening of the schools and the arrival of the newly-orientedinstructors from Selfridge Field.

The situation at Wilbur Wright Field was typical. Theaviation mechanics’ schoo l opened December I7 in thetwelve Unit One hangars which had been used for flyinginstruction. In command of the schoo l was Maj. W. R.Weaver, assisted by Mr. R. E. Dunn, a civilian who alsoserved as chiefof motor transpor t instruction. The 42nd and44th Aero Squadrons, permanently assigned to WilburWright Field, provided base operating services to theschool. Students had arrived from various midwest airfieldson temporary duty from 20 aero squadrons: 42nd. 44th,47th, 149th. ISlst . lS9th, 162nd. 163rd. lbbth, 167th,172nd, 21 Ith, 2SSth, 256th. 257th. 2Sgth, 259th, 260th,26Sth, and the 827th.

Instructors an* students at Wilh”r Wright Field .kiation Mechanics’

School pose behind the hangar they used as a ctassrwn~. During 1918,

the whwt graduated 1,181 enlisted men. (U.S. Air Fore Museum i

*SeeChapter 111or coverageof the Fairfield Aviation GeneralSupp ly Depot. The depot supportedaviation schoolsat Wilbur W rightField and at other installations n Illinois and Michigan.

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AVIATION ARMORERS’ SCHOOL

A second area of combat operations that achieved in-creasing importance as the war progressed in Europe wasarma”,e”t.

At the outbreak of the war airplanes were unarmed,although pilots occasionally traded pistol shots. The Ger-man Fokker revolutionized offensive tactics with a machine

gun mounted and synchron ized to fire 500 bullets a minutebetween the blades of the propeller. Bombs were soonadded to offensive aerial strategy. These new concepts inwarfare precip itated new requirements in equipment, in thetraining of pilots, and in support functions such asarmament.

As the Allied response developed, each aero squadronneeded an armament officer and a score of men to examineaerial armament before and after every flight. This involvedinspecting, testing, and tuning all weapons, and ensuringthat both machine guns and bombs were in working order.It was a critica l responsibility, for according to a contempo-rary W orld War 1 source, “Scores of good aviators (were]killed by reason of guns jamming just at the critica lrn0metlt.‘~”

Two facets of the armament function were assigned toWilbur Wright Field. The first was testing of all machineguns issued to the Aviation Section to ensure that they wereproperly adjusted and in good firing condition. The secondwas an armorer training school to produce new armamentofficers and their enlisted a ssistants. Both functions werescheduled to gear up for operation in March 1918, usingUnit Two hangars.

In preparation, a centra l school for both officer andenlisted instructors opened on February 4, 1918, atEllington Field, Houston, Texas. The curriculum concen-trated on mechanism and construction rather than on actualuse of bombs and machine guns. Aspects of stripping, care,cleaning, causes of stoppage, loading, and testing wereemphasized as important elements of the new career field.

At the conclusion of their training at Ellington, 200 ofthe armorers transferred to Wilbur Wright Field as the 85 1stAero Repair Squadron. On March IX, the Armorers’School opened for final indoctrination of the officers andenlisted men who formed the school’s faculty and staff. Thecourse of instruction was fixed at six weeks and covered acomplete study of machine guns, their sights and syn-chronization mechanisms, and the storage and mounting ofbombs.

Meanwhile smal l detachments filtered in, fresh fromfactory training at the Marlin-Rockwe ll Company, NewHaven, Connecticut, and the Savage Arms Corporation,Utica, New York. Together with the 96 officers and 560enlisted men who reported as students on April 13 and 20,respectively, they formed the 874th Aero Repair Squadron.Completing the armament network was the 23lst AeroRepair Squadron, which reported on April 22 fromEllington Field.

The Armorers’ School was organized under authority ofthe Signal Corps Air Division Gunnery Section and oper-

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ated under the command of Maj. A. H. Hobley. It operatedcontinuously from March IX until the conversion of effortat war’s end.

In April and May alone, the schoo l hosted95 officerand789 enlisted students. The first class graduated June 6, withall 95 officers graduating. The enlisted program graduated4X5 out of 560, reflecting the same IanguaXe and tradeproficiency problems that had surfaced in the Mechanics’

School.The gunnery testing function began May 1. Initia lly 100Lewis and 100 Marlin machine guns were inspected andtested each day. As operations hit stride, the capacity in-creased to 100 Lewis and 2CO Marlin guns per day.

curtiss JN-4D Jenny primary trainer in Right over hangarsof theAvis&n Armorers’ Schooland armament testing station, WilburWright Field, 1918

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TESTING

The gunnery program was not the first military testingfunction at Wilbur Wright Field. Airplane testing was inau-gurated by a March I, 1918, request from McCook Field toprovide hangar space for experimental flying. McCookField operated under the Airplane Engineering Departmentof the Signal Corps Equipment Division. Established Oc-tober 4, 1917, it was located near downtown Dayton aboutIO miles by road from Wilbur Wright Field.

McCook’s mission was to research, develop. test, andevaluate U.S. military aircraft and, occasionally, to testairplanes designed or manufactured by Allied nations. A l-though McCook had its own flying field, space was limited.From McCook’s inception, it was understood that a certainamount of both hangar space and maintenance supportmight be available from Wilbur Wright Field.*

The first such request was in conjunction with the brieftesting of three Italian ailplanes: one SVA single-place“Scout,” one Pomilio two-place fighter with a Fiat engine,and one SIA two-place fighter with a Fiat engine. Theairplanes’ arriva l on March 19, 1918, marked the debut ofthe facility as a test site for modem military aviation.

The initial tests were not ofgreat moment, since both thePomilio and the SIA had been badly damaged while enroutein crates from Ita ly. The SVA was in comparatively goodcondition, however, and underwent several weeks of flighttesting by an Italian air force pilot. After the Pomilio’sfuselage had been repaired, it, too, was successfu lly flownfor several weeks of tests. Upon conclusion of testing at thebeginning of May, the airplanes were disassembled andreturned to Italy.

By that time, testing aspects of three other McCookprograms had been moved to Wilbur Wright. The first ofthese began and ended on the same day. An AmericanMorse pursuit [fighter] airplane, equipped with a small

Liberty S-cyl inder engine, was trucked from McCook andassembled for testing. On March 28, the first test flightended abruptly when the airplane crashed from a height ofabout 50 feet and was destroyed.

Another short-term effort was more productive. OnMay 15, a French LePere pursuit equipped with a Libertyengine arrived for a series of tests that were to be conductedby three French pilots. At the time of Major Wilboum’sMay 31 annual report, the ailplane had flown almost daily.

-“ _

*More d&Is on McCook Field‘s mission may be found in the specific coverage of McCook in Chapter IV.

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A longer-range program began April 20 when WilburWright Field agreed to furnish McCo ok with accommod a-tions and limited logistical suppo rt for eight airplanes,including British DeHavilland DH-4 reconnaissance andBristol p ursuit aircraft. The suppo rt included not onlyhangar and shop space, b ut also a force of enlisted mechan-ics to both assemble and maintain the airplanes, par-ticularly the engines.

For its part, M cCook Field agreed to furnish two Liber-ty engines and two instructors to assist in training WilburWright Field mechanics. McCo ok also promised to providetime on the DH-4 airplanes being teste d in order to upgradeWilbur Wright Field p ilots for this new type of airplane.

By April 24, one DH-4 and one Bristol lighter hadarrived. The career of the Bristol fighter wa s brief; itcrashed and was destroyed May 7. The DH-4 enjoyed moresucce ss, and was soon joined by seven more DH-4s man-ufactured by the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company southof Dayton. To support these aircraft, 40 to 50 enlistedmechanics received 20 days of on-the-job training on theLiberty engine. Despite the fact that McCoo k did not followthrough in setting aside a DH-4 spec ifically for upgradingWilbur Wright pilots, by the end of May at least 45 pilotshad gained considerable experience in handling the newairplane. Moreo ver, every engineering officer on stationhad taken personal initiative to study the structure of boththe DH-4 and its engine.

SPRING FLYING

Airplanes, cadets. and instmctors migrated northwxdfrom southern “winter quarters” with the advent of spring.As the flying instructio n program reorganized at WilburWright Field, it was discovered that only six of the 18Reserve Military Aviators sent to swx as instructors hadflown more than 50 hours themselves. The remaining I2needed special accelerate d instructo rs’ training before join-ing the staff. In the meantime, pilot training resumed onApril 15, 1918, utilizing the six already-qualifiedL”StruCt”rS.

Students and instructors alike faced hazardous fieldconditions. In late March, a contractor had begun smo oth-ing and seeding the turf of the flying field (there being nohard-surfaced runways), but work was not finished by thetime flight training resumed. Consequently, large numbersof laborers with assorted e quipment were constantly on thefield, providing daily hazards for stud ents .

To work around these conditions the cadets were divid-ed into two groups so that while one group spent themorning in class, the other was on the flightline, withreversed schedules in the afternoon.* This kept the numberof cadets on the flying field at a manageable level. At firstthe Hying field was divided into two sectors, one for dual

control flights and one for solos. Th is proved impractical. more efficient and, most likely, safer plan was adopted which the entire field was devoted to dual instruction in mom mg and solo instruction in the afternoon, with a smaportion of the field permanently set aside for cross-countryflying and radio airplanes.

By May 31, the faculty had increased to 25 instructorsand there were I80 cadets in various stages of instruction.They flew a cumulative average of 66.6 hours per day, wian average of 22.5 airplanes in comm ission. One cadet hagraduated as a Reserve Military Aviator, I6 were ready graduate, two had been discharged because o f flying defciencies, and the school had suffered its first flying fataliwhen one cadet died in a crash.

SIGNAL GGltPswimOR ScRooL,wilRlJRwmww FIELD

nut prohIbited by post orders.

General passer such as this one permitted the bearer to enter ne arly allfacitities Of the signat corps Aviation setloot at Wilbur Wrieht Field

‘The academic curriculum included courses in military studies, gunnery. radio, photography. airplanes, engines, poison gas defand aerial navigation. The flying instruction proceeded from dual control to solo instruction. then to crass-country.

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Priorities shifted. Just as America had clamored forinstant armament in April 1917, it now demanded immedi-ate relief from the burden of supporting nearly five millionmen under arms .” While Wilbur Wright Field’s m ilitarypopulation in Novem ber 1918 is not stated specifically inavailable sour ces, the installation was probably operatingnear its planned peak of 1,700 perso ns.

Dem obilization caused drastic changes at installations

across the nation. At Wilbur Wright Field, all trainingceased by the end of November. Flying was limited to theexperimental and test aircraft participating in McC ookField program s. Emp hasis sh ifted abruptly from trainingpilots and armorers to serving as a tempora ry repository forwar surplus m ateriel.

Effective January 10, 1919, Wilbur Wright Field wasmerged administratively with the Air Service Armorers’School and nearby Fairfield Aviation General Supply De-pot.” The new unit was named the Wilbur Wright AirService Depot (WWAS D) and its Commander assumedcontrol over all three organizations. The designation“Wilbur Wright Field” wa s continued until 1925, althoughfunctions of the field were administered by WWA SD and itss”ccess”rs.*

1100 hours, November 11, 1918THE “WAR TO END ALL WARS” HAD

ENDED.

U.S. Army Air Service strength stood at 195,023 of-ficers and enlisted men . Airplane inventories reflected7,gCQ biplane trainers (largely Curtis s IN-4 Jenny s); 1 ,OCOservice airplanes (primarily DH- 4s manufactured in Amer-ican factories); and 5,ooO comb at-type airplanes (pur-chased abroad from English, French , and Italiancompantes).

Air Service strength in Europe totaled 5,707 o fficers and74,231 e nlisted men. Combat training had been completedby 1,647 pilots and 841 observers. Of these, 1,402 pilotsand 769 observers had flown combat sorties over enemylines.

The Air Se~ice lost 818 brave men during the war inEurope: 164 aircrewme n were killed in action or died as aresult of wound s received in action, 319 were killed inairplane a ccidents, and 335 died from other caus es. OtherAir Service casu alties included 200 missing in action, 102prisoners of war, and 133 wounded.

‘By the time the designation “Wilbur Wright Field” was dropped in 1925, the depot function had changed name severaltimes. Thesechanges ax cxplaincd in detail in Chapter 111. Fairfield Air D epot. In brief, they are:

Wilbur Wright Air Service Depot, January IO, 1919Aviation G eneral Supply Dep ot, November 3, 1919Air Service Supply and Repair Dep ot, Fairtield, Ohio, S eptember 20, 1920Fairtield Air Intermediate Depo t, January 14, 1921.

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Military strength at WWASD was initially 70 officers

and 830 enlisted men, but as demobilization continueduniformed strength declined rapidly. On February 20, theflying school, armorers’ school, and Squadrons A, B, 1, K,L, M, N, and 0 were demobilized. The continuing functionof the depot was assumed by an increasing civil ian popula-tion. By the end of 1918, the civi lian work force peaked atI.000 employees.”

As Army Air Service training fields and stationsthroughout the nation and overseas closed, supplies andequipment were shipped to major air depots such asWWASD for storage, inventory, and disposal. At the peakof this activity. 77 buildings under depot management,including some hangars, were used to house such items as

2.500 aeronautical engines, 700 airplanes of various series,and thousands of instruments, compasses, watches, al-timeters, and gauges of all descript ions. Four of the twelveUnit Two hangars were relocated from the flightline to theinterior of the installation and converted to other uses (onebecame a garage, one a gymnasium, and two becamewarehouses). Final disposition of all wartime surplus itemsdominated functions at the Fairfield , Ohio, depot for nearlyeight yeas.

Meanwhile, airplane testing continued on Wilbur

Wright Field. On November I, 1920, the field’s role as a test

site for programs initiated at McCook Field was formal lyrecognized. Special Order 178 activated a “Department ofTesting and Flying.““’ In 1921, the testing facilitie s wereexpanded to include a high-altitude bombing range, a two-mile electrically-timed speed course, and equipment fortesting of machine gun butts. By 1924, it was clear that thesite of Wilbur Wright Field would continue to be used as acenter of aviation activity, maintaining the llying heritagebegun there some twenty years before.

Until 1924, the site of Wilbur Wright Field was leasedby the U.S. Government. In August of that year, a group ofprescient Dayton citizens was responsible for the donationof more than 4,500 acres of land, including the site of

Wilbur Wright Field, to the U.S. Government. On August21, 1925, the War Department discontinued the designation“Wilbur Wright Field in anticipation of the establishmentof the new and larger reservation, to be known as “WrightField” in honor of both illustrious brothers. In 1927, theexpanded reservation was formally dedicated, and becamethe new home of the Air Corps Materiel Divis ion as itrelocated from McCook Field. The testing activ ities relatedto McCook programs continued in the interim from 1925until 1927 and then became a function of the new facility.

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WADC/WADD Digital Collection at the Galvin Library, IIT

From Huffman Prairie To The MoonThe History of Wright-Patterson Air force Base

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Wright Field History

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