After their successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers returned to their home in Dayton, Ohio to continue their flight experiments. Dayton banker Torrence Huffman offered the brothers a field eight miles from their Dayton home. The 84 acres of Huffman Prairie became the cradle of aviation where Wilbur and Orville Wright taught themselves to fly.
According to the display:
“In 1904, the Wrights knew they had to coax more from their brainchild than their 59=second straight-line hop at Kitty Hawk. For aviation to take its next steps, they needed a convenient, private place—a flying field—closer to home.”
In 1904, the Wright brothers made 105 flights and spent a total of 49 minutes in the air. The following year, they made 50 flights and spent a total of 262 minutes in the air. By mid-October, 1905 they had solved the riddle of aircraft control and prepared to obtain a patent and market their aircraft. With a small crowd watching, Wilbur Wright had flown for 40 minutes, circling the field 29 times, and landing only because he had run out of gas.
The hangar
In 1904, the Wright brothers build their first hangar at Huffman Field. They took it down at the end of the season and in 1905 built a new hanger where they stored essential tools and refined aircraft design. The building shown below is similar to the 1905 hangar.
The Catapult
In order to get airborne, the Wrights built a catapult with 60 feet of rail that was able to launch their aircraft.
According to the display:
“A team of horses pulled a 1600-pound counterweight to the top of a wooden derrick. When the weight fell sixteen feet, it added enough speed to get a flying machine airborne—regardless of wind direction and strength.”
The Field
According to the display:
“Before tackling the problems of how to fly, Orville and Wilbur had been bicycle enthusiasts. The Wrights knew that a cyclist has to lean into high-speed turns. That same movement in a flying machine is called banking. Here at Huffman Prairied Flying Field, the Wrights taught themselves how to bank their airship to make turns.
Mastery of banked turns—combing rudder moves with wing warping—was one of their most important steps toward developing what the brothers called a machine of practical utility.”
The Trolley
The Huffman Prairie Flying Field was about ten miles from the Wrights’ home and during the flying season they commuted by trolley. The Interurban electric trolley made it possible from the to bring tools, materials, and parts out to their flying machines.
Flying School
According to the display:
“As soon as the Wrights solved the riddle of how to build a practical flying machine, they stopped test flying here. For the next five years, the world’s first airport went back to being just a marshy pasture.”
Having secured patent rights and beginning to promote their new product internationally, the Wrights returned in 1910 to teach others how to fly.
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
At the beginning of World War I in 1917, this area became an Army Signal Corps post called the Wilbur Wright Field. With the creation of the United States Air Force in 1947 it became a part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.