Wilbur Wright Field 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 . 4 M 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 . Training units assigned to Wilbur Wright Field Combat units trained at Wilbur Wright Field Service units trained at Wilbur Wright Field Inter - war years . 1923 records for speed , distance , and endurance were set by an April 16 Fokker T - 2 flight from Wilbur Wright Field which used a course around the water tower , the McCook Field water tower , and a pylon placed at New Carlisle . 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 WWI . 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 ) , " Dayton " was the May 21 take off 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 . Wright Field . In 1924 , the Dayton community purchased the portion of Fairfield Air Depot leased in 1917 for Wilbur Wright Field along with an additional in Montgomery County to the southwest ( now part of Riverside . ) The combined area was named Wright Field to honor both Wright Brothers . A new installation with permanent brick facilities was constructed on the new ground to replace McCook Field and was dedicated 12 October 1927 . Transfer of 4 , 500 tons of engineering materiel , office equipment and other assets at McCook Field to Wright Field began on March 25 , 1927 , and was 85 % complete by June 1 after moving 1 , 859 truckloads . " The Engineering School shut down for the school year 1927 - 28 at Wright Field , which had the Army Air Corps Museum in Building 12 . 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 1st Lt . Albert F . Hegenberger used the equipment for blind landings . Patterson Field . Patterson Field named for Lt 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 . Pre - war 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 : 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 .