Though the Air Force celebrated its 75th anniversary Sunday, the history of what led to that 1947 milestone arguably started in Dayton.
And without the efforts of generations of Daytonians, the Air Force and its arsenal might look quite different today.
During aviation's early days, there were innovators scattered from Los Angeles to Buffalo. But it was Dayton's Wright Brothers who created the foundation for everything that followed.
“They created a hub of innovation that has a longer tradition really than any other place in the United States,” Defense industry analyst Loren Thompson said.
That “hub of innovation” remains very much at work today, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio's largest single-site employer, home to more than 30,000 military and civilian employees who are engaged in the design, acquisition and sustainment of Air Force airplanes, weapons and other equipment.
“The 75th anniversary is great, but I kind of see us as an organization that has been around way longer than that,” said Steve Byington, cultural resources manager for the 88th Civil Engineering Group at Wright-Patterson.
Huffman Prairie
The U.S. Signal Corps bought the first airplane from the Wright Brothers in 1909, marking the U.S. military's first airplane acquisition.
Acquisition of military aircraft has been happening here ever since. To this day, of course, Wright-Patterson is the heart of Air…
