- Huffman Prairie
Infobox_nrhp | name =Huffman Prairie Flying Field
nrhp_type = nhl
caption =
nearest_city=Fairborn, Ohio
lat_degrees = 39
lat_minutes = 48
lat_seconds = 12
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 84
long_minutes = 3
long_seconds = 57
long_direction = W
locmapin = Ohio
area =
built =1904
architect=
architecture=
designated=June 21 ,1990 cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1131&ResourceType=Site
title=Huffman Prairie Flying Field |accessdate=2008-06-13|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added =May 06 ,1971 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
governing_body = AIR FORCE
refnum=71000640Huffman Prairie, also known as Huffman Prairie Flying Field or Huffman Field is part of
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park . The 84 acre (.34 km²) patch of rough pasture outsideDayton, Ohio is where theWright 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 theWright Company . At theWright Flying School , also located here, they trained more than a hundred pilots, including the flyers for theWright Exhibition Team and the first military flyers, includingHenry H. Arnold andThomas DeWitt Milling . TheUnited States Army Signal Corps purchased the field in 1917 and renamed it, along with 2,000 adjacent acres (8 km²), Wilbur Wright Field. In 1948 the area was merged with nearby Wright Field and becameWright-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 inEurope , 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.It was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1990.citation|title=PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/71000640.pdf National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Huffman Prairie Flying Field ___] |32 KB|date=___, 19__ |author=____ |publisher=National Park Service and PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/71000640.pdf "Accompanying __ photos, exterior and interior, from 19__"] |32 KB]References
External links
* [http://www.nps.gov/daav/pla_fac_huffmanprairie.htm National Park Service Huffman Prairie site]
* [http://www.nps.gov/archive/daav/pla_fac_huffmanprairie.htm Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP - Huffman Prairie]
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