BGuthrie Photos: OH -- Dayton -- Huffman Prairie Flying Field

OH -- Dayton -- Huffman Prairie Flying Field:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HPFF_120805_013.JPG: Birthplace of Flight: The first airplane. The first airport. The first permanent flying school. The Wright brothers started them all -- here in Dayton. After their first short flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, Wilbur and Orville returned home to their workshop in Dayton. They spent the next 18 months building and testing their flying machine -- striving for a fully controllable aircraft. By the end of 1905, their machine could fly twenty miles or more at a time. Dayton, Ohio: The historic sites that make up this national park are located throughout Dayton. Staff at the park's visitor facilities can help you plan your visit. Paul Laurence Dunbar State Memorial: This internationally recognized African-American poet, playwright, and novelist, a classmate and friend of Orville Wright, lived and worked in this house from 1904 to 1906. Huffman Prairie Flying Field: Wilbur and Orville made more than 100 test flights here in 1904 and 1905. You can see their 1905 Wright Flyer III exhibited at Wright Brothers Aviation Center at Carillon Historical Park. Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base hosts this introduction to the cradle of aviation, located next to the Wright Memorial. Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center: Explore the West Dayton neighborhood where Orville and Wilbur lived and worked. The brothers had their printing business on the second floor of this historic building, and nearby is one of the Wrights' bicycle shops. Next door to Wright-Dunbar is the Aviation Trail Visitor Center, with exhibits on Dayton aviation history and the Wright brothers. The self-guided Aviation Trail highlights more than 45 aviation landmarks in the Dayton area. Wright Brothers Aviation Center: At Carillon Historical Park, you can see the original 1905 Wright Flyer III flown by Orville and Wilbur at Huffman Prairie Flying Field -- the world's first practical airplane. Other exhibits include the camera used by the Rights to record their historic 1903 flight, and a replica of the bicycle shop where they designed and built their gliders and powered flyers. Huffman Prairie Flying Field: Huffman Prairie Flying Field, a unit of the Dayton Heritage National Historical Park, is the site where Wilbur and Orville Wright flew and perfected the world's first practical airplane, the 1905 Wright Flyer III, after their first flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. The Wright brothers mastered the principles of controlled, powered flight at Huffman Prairie during 1904 and 1905. From 1910 to 1915, they operated the Wright School of Aviation here, training many of the world's first pilots, including many military pilots.
2. HPFF_120805_022.JPG: Commuter Flyers: Wilbur and Orville rode a trolley here almost every day -- except Sundays -- during 1904 and 1905. It was ten miles from their West Dayton home to this stop in the middle of what was then open farm country. Here in the privacy of a cow pasture, they would do some of their greatest work -- perfecting their flying machine. "I used to chat with (the Wright brothers) in a friendly way... because I sort of felt sorry for them. They seemed like well-meaning, decent enough young men. Yet there they were, neglecting their business to waste their time day after day on that ridiculous flying-machine. I had an idea that it must worry their father." -- Luther Beard, Dayton Journal writer The Interurban electric trolley made it possible for the Wright brothers to haul tools, materials, and parts for their flying machines here to Huffman Prairie.
3. HPFF_120805_030.JPG: Huffman Prairie Flying Field: Huffman Prairie Flying Field, a unit of the Dayton Heritage National Historical Park, is the site where Wilbur and Orville Wright flew and perfected the world's first practical airplane, the 1905 Wright Flyer III, after their first flights in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. The Wright brothers mastered the principles of controlled, powered flight at Huffman Prairie during 1904 and 1905. From 1910 to 1915, they operated the Wright School of Aviation here, training many of the world's first pilots, including many military pilots.
4. HPFF_120805_041.JPG: AIAA American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Historic Aerospace Site Huffman Prairie Flying Field On this 84-acre meadow in 1904 and 1905, the Wright Brothers successfully mastered the mechanics of controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight. The brothers also built the world's first airport here, and in 1910 the Wright Company School of Aviation established a flying school on the site and trained many of the world's first pilots, including some of the first military pilots. 2003
5. HPFF_120805_044.JPG: The First Airport: If you walk just past these trees, you can visit the cradle of aviation -- 84 acres of ordinary pasture where Wilbur and Orville Wright taught themselves to fly. 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. It took eighteen months of bumps, crashes, and creative problem solving here to learn how to safely launch, land, turn and bank. By the end of 1905, the Wrights had a flying machine that was no longer a balky mechanical toddler, but a graceful, fully functional creature of the air.
6. HPFF_120805_048.JPG: Trials in an Old Swamp: "We are in a large meadow of about 100 acres... skirted on the west and north by trees... Also the ground is an old swamp and is filled with grassy hummocks some six inches high so that it resembles a prairie dog town. This makes tracklaying slow work. -- Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, June 21, 1904. Before settlers began to farm the Dayton area in the early 1800s, this floodplain was covered by tall-grass prairie. In the fields to the left of the flying field, you see 109 acres of Huffman Prairie, the largest natural prairie remnant found in Ohio. The Nature Conservancy works with the Air Force to remove non-native plants and reseed tall-grass prairie species on this site.
7. HPFF_120805_056.JPG: Flying Field to Air Force Base: The vast base you see all around you started in 1917 as a World War I Army Signal Corps post called Wilbur Wright Field. The installation grew through the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, matching the needs of the United States for aeronautical research, development, and logistics. Since the creation of a separate United States Air Force in 1947, the Wright brothers' flying field and aviation school has been part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. More than anyone I have ever known or read about, the Wright brothers gave me a sense that nothing is impossible. I like to think -- and during World War II, often did -- that the Air Force has rooted its traditions in that spirit." -- General Hap Arnold, father of the U.S. Air Force
8. HPFF_120805_067.JPG: A School for Flyers: As soon as the Wrights solved the riddles 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. The brothers' next steps were the same as any other astute businessman of their time. They secured patent rights, and began to promote their new product internationally. And in 1910, the Wrights began to charge eager adventurers a fee to learn how to do what the brothers had risked life and limb to master. When their first student pilots soloed here, Orville and Wilbur themselves had flown full circle. In 1904, the Wrights had entered this pasture as fledgling flyers. Six years later, they returned as professors of the air.
9. HPFF_120805_073.JPG: Later Test Flights: Wilbur Wright laid his hands on the controls of a flying machine for the last time in May 1910. In the years after Wilbur's death in 1912, Orville logged many flights at this flying field with student pilots and passengers. He continued to work on the problem of bettering aircraft controls, and test-flew experimental models then being built in Dayton by the Wright Company. Orville's last flight: The man who had first shown the world how to make a machine fly in December 1903 took his last hop as a pilot in command in May 1918 from nearby Moraine, Ohio.
10. HPFF_120805_078.JPG: Those Daring Young Men: Wright Exhibition Team 1910-1911: Danger was in the air when daring men began to complete for high-dollar prizes in these new machines. Before 1910, the Right brothers themselves had exhibited their airplane for kinds and emperors, congressmen and generals. Now that "aero meets" were making front page news in Los Angeles, New York, and Montreal, it was time to turn the demonstration flying over to a new generation, all trained on Wright aircraft. Aviation meets let millions of Americans thrill to what the boys from Dayton had done. Would be civilian pilots came from all across the country to the Wright School of Aviation to learn to fly. Each of the boys received a few hours of hands-on training here at the flying field. Nine who soloed successfully were hired for the new Wright Exhibition Team. "They thought you were a fake, you see. There wasn't anybody there who believed an airplane would really fly. In fact, they'd give odds. But when you flew, oh my, they would carry you off the field." -- Beckwith Haves, early exhibition pilot The new "flying circuses" were deadly. From May to December 1910, the Wright team suffered seven crashes, and two dare-devils died. Losing interest in this costly aerial show business, the Wrights dissolved their team in November 1911. In all, five of the first nine Wright exhibition pilots were killed in accidents during their first two and a half years of flying.
11. HPFF_120805_097.JPG: Late that afternoon, Wilbur took a seat on the ... wing next to his brother ... It was the only time they would ever fly together, something they had promised their father they would never do. Just this once, ... he had relented. Then it was (their father's) turn... he climbed up next to his youngest son for the first time... At one point during the flight, Milton leaned close to his son's ear and shouted above the... roar of engine, propellers, and slipstream." "Higher, Orvile, Higher!" -- Wright biographer Tom Crouch Father and Son at 395 Feet: On May 25, 1910, two brothers brought their 81-year-old father here for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Wrights had been flying for six-and-a-half years, and had full confidence in their skills and their flying machines.
12. HPFF_120805_105.JPG: Follow the Flight Path The trail you see ahead curving gently to the right retraces the way Wilbur and Orville Wright flew here in 1904-1905. Look for seven tall flag poles that mark the corners of the pasture. The brothers tried their best to fly only inside this field, because they respected property boundaries. It was hard enough to drag their 700-pound flying machine back to the launch rails without having to negotiate fences. Remember, their flyer had no wheels. "On the first of three trials we found that we had started a circle on too large a radius to keep within the boundaries of the small field in which we were operating. Accordingly, a landing was made each time, without accident, merely to avoid passing beyond the boundaries of the field." -- Wilbur Wright
13. HPFF_120805_111.JPG: A Starting Device: To take off by engine power alone in Dayton's light winds, the Wright brothers had to lay out as much as 240 feet of wooden trails. If the breeze shifted, the track had to be moved and pegged down again to face the new wind direction. But after they built a catapult in September 1904, the Wrights could launch their flyer with only 60 feet of rail. "It is evident that we will have to build a starting device that will render us independent of wind and are now designing one..." -- Wilbur Wright, August 8, 1904 Catapult-Assisted Takeoffs: A team of horses pulled a 1600-pound counterweight to the top of the 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 catapult in front of you is a replica.
14. HPFF_120805_120.JPG: They Had Done It! As spring weather improved in 1905, the Wright brothers were back here at the flying field every day, hard at work. They put up a hangar, and readied their new machine. Steering was the last great riddle. By trying out ideas for balancing the control surfaces -- the elevators, the twin rudders, and wing warping -- the finally found ways to put full command of their flyer into the hands (and hips) of a pilot. By mid-October, the Wrights had perfected their machine. They were ready to stop test flying, secure a patent, and start marketing their invention. Total Time In The Air: 1904 -- 49 minutes -- 105 flights 1905 -- 262 minutes -- 50 flights A Record Set: Wilbur amazed a small crowd of guests and passersby here with a 40-minute, 24-mile flight. They watched him orbit this flying field 29 times. He only landed when he ran out of gas. October 5, 1905. The wooden shed (in front of you) is a replica, built in 1990 on the site of the Wrights' original 1905 hangar.
15. HPFF_120805_133.JPG: Imagine packing a flying machine made of cloth and wood inside this hangar after a day circling the skies of Huffman Prairie Flying Field. The 1905 Hangar: After their success at Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers decided to continue their flight experiments closer to home. Local banker Torrence Huffman offered the brothers this field eight miles northeast of their home in Dayton. Wilbur and Orville built their first hangar here in 1904 at the far end of the field, for privacy. It was taken down at the end of the season. The following year, they built a new hangar similar to the one you are in now. Here they stored essential tools, argued about the design of their aircraft, celebrated successes, and packed away the invention that would change the world.
16. HPFF_120805_137.JPG: What is left to do after you changed the world? Coming Home: When the Wright brothers left Huffman Prairie Flying Field in 1905 few people outside of Dayton knew about them. But after they successfully demonstrated their machine in Europe and the United States, they became international celebrities. Always uncomfortable in the spotlight, Wilbur and Orville returned to Huffman Prairie Flying Field in 1910 to do what they loved best, continue to improve their invention. They built and tested new airplanes, trained civilian and military pilots, and continued their tradition of aviation excellence that would endure beyond the next century.
17. HPFF_120805_142.JPG: What if you invented the airplane and all it could do was fly in a straight line? Trial & Error: At Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer had proved to the world that mechanical flight was possible, but the machine itself was capable of little more than straight-line flight. When Wilbur and Orville returned to Dayton they built the 1904 Wright Flyer II and spent the summer at Huffman Prairie Flying Field testing it with mixed results. In 1905, they poured all they knew about flight into a new plane. It wasn't perfect, but with some time and effort they developed an airplane capable of banking, performing figure eights, and making repeated landings and take-offs -- they world's first practical airplane.
18. HPFF_120805_146.JPG: Imagine that you built an airplane and you had no one to teach you to fly it. Learning To Fly: The Wright brothers not only built the first airplane -- they also had to teach themselves how to fly it. Their brief straight-line flights at Kitty Hawk in 1903 did not give them enough time in their air to become expert pilots. So they came to Huffman Prairie Flying Field to refine their invention and learn how to fly at the same time. They approached it cautiously, flying low to the ground to keep the risk of injury at a minimum if they did crash. And crash they did -- often -- but neither suffered any major injury. By September 1905, both men had become skilled aviators.
19. HPFF_120805_156.JPG: Please Excuse the Noise We're Supporting Our Troops Occasionally You May Hear Intermittent Blasts This sound is coming from an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Range located to the north of where you are standing. Please know that you are at a safe distance from this range. This EOD Range is used to train EOD personnel on how to handle potentially explosive material. Some of the EOD personnel deploy overseas and are often faced with Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs. These IEDs are the number one killer of US and coalition forces. By establishing this EOD Range, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is doing their part to diminish preventable calamities and Support out troops' efforts overseas.
20. HPFF_120805_166.JPG: Corner Boundary No. 1: Huffman Prairie Flying Field: Seven stone corner markers delineate the boundaries of Huffman Prairie Flying Field. The Wright brothers used this 84.42 acre tract of farmland, owned by Torrence Huffman, to perfect their flying skills in 1904-1905 and as the site of the Wright Company School of Aviation from 1910-1916.
21. HPFF_120805_186.JPG: Miss that Tree! Before tackling the problems on 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 tilting movement in a flying machine is called banking. Here at Huffman Prairie Flying Field, the Wrights taught themselves how to bank their airship to make turns. Mastery of banked turns -- combining rudder moves with wing warping -- was one of their most important steps toward developing what the brothers called a machine of practical utility. An unexpected gust of wind and a thorn laden tree, like the ones you see far ahead in this field, helped Orville Wright figure out how best to handle his control to turn his flying machine.
22. HPFF_120805_191.JPG: A Tough Start after Kitty Hawk: The first year at Huffman Prairie Flying Field was filled with frustrations, short flights, and crashes. Fickle winds and the vexing puzzle of how to control the flying machine as it moved through the air limited the total time aloft to only 49 minutes. Only forty good flying starts were made here before early September. Most early test flights lasted only seconds. In the whole 1905 flying season, Orville went up just 41 times, and Wilbur only 37. "At Kitty Hawk, we had unlimited space and wind enough to make starting easy with a short track. ... Here we must depend on a long track and light winds ... While we are getting ready, the favorable opportunities slip away, and we are usually up against a rainstorm, a dead calm, or a wind blowing at right angles to the track." -- Wilbur Wright to Octave Chanute, June 21, 1904 Back to the Drawing Board: Orville had flown only 432 feet off the launch track when his flying machine nosed into the ground, as shown in this August 14, 1904 photo. To keep curious eyes from reporting their progress and problems, the Wright brothers built their 1904 hangar near the fence far ahead. It was as distant from the trolley station as the Huffman property would allow.
23. HPFF_120805_202.JPG: The First Airport: If you walk into the field ahead, you can visit the cradle of aviation -- 84 acres of ordinary pasture where Wilbur and Orville Wright taught themselves to fly. 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. It took eighteen months of bumps, crashes, and creative problem solving here to learn how to safely launch, land, turn and bank. By the end of 1905, the Wrights had a flying machine that was no longer a balky mechanical toddler, but a graceful, fully functional creature of the air.
24. HPFF_120805_211.JPG: Flowers Brought Flyers: Young Orville Wright first came to this field, not to fly, but to sketch wildflowers. Orville's 9th-grade science teacher, William Werthner, regularly brought Central High School students to Torrence Huffman's property to study the unusual plants found here. When the Wright brothers sought a place for their next flying trials, they remembered banker Huffman's pasture. A new electric trolley line would make it easy for them to reach this relatively isolated place from their workshop downtown. Mr. Huffman let them use the field free of charge -- as long as they did not disturb his cows and horses. "... a quiet reserved boy, faithful to his work, but not strikingly different from the rest... whom I would have forgotten had not his sister Kate... told me she was the second of her family... in my classes." -- Science teacher William Werthner, speaking of Orville Wright
Wikipedia Description: Huffman Prairie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Huffman Prairie, part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, is an 84 acre (.34 km�) patch of rough pasture outside Dayton, Ohio now known as Huffman Prairie Flying Field, where the Wright Brothers undertook the difficult and sometimes dangerous task of creating a dependable, fully controllable airplane and training themselves to be pilots.

After they began making use of Huffman Prairie in 1904, the Wright brothers made hundreds of flights here after developing the 1905 Wright Flyer III (the plane they considered to be the first practical airplane), testing the aircraft built by the Wright Company. At the Wright Flying School, also located here, they trained more than a hundred pilots, including the flyers for the Wright Exhibition Team and the first military flyers, including Henry H. Arnold and Thomas DeWitt Milling. The United States Army Signal Corps purchased the field in 1917 and renamed it, along with 2,000 adjacent acres (8 km�), Wilbur Wright Field. In 1948 the area was merged with nearby Wright Field and became Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The National Park Service currently operates this historic site where visitors can see where the Wrights developed the world’s first practical airplane as well as replicas of their 1905 hangar and launching catapult.

The associated Huffman Prairie Flying Field Interpretive Center is located at the Wright Memorial on an overlook about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the flying field. This facility addresses the specific problems Orville and Wilbur Wright encountered while they were perfecting their flying machine, their first demonstration flights in the United States and in Europe, their exhibition team, and their manufacturing facility in Dayton, Ohio. The center also highlights the continuing legacy of Orville and Wilbur Wright as embodied in the development of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the continuing aeronautical research at this Air Force facility.
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