Dayton Air Service Incorporated Committee Records

Following World War I the U.S. Government began to look at abandoning McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. McCook Field was bounded by the Miami River on one side and residential housing on the other as such it could not be enlarged to handle all of the work involved in the Army aviation research and procurement programs. The city of Dayton was faced with the shuttering of McCook Field and it’s relocation to another city, the front runner was Langley Field in Virginia.

John H. Patterson, founder and president of the National Cash Register Company, vowed to keep Army aviation in Dayton and began a local campaign to raise money to purchase land large enough for a new field. The idea was that the land would be subsequently donated to the U. S. Government to house a new air service experiment station. John H. Patterson passed away in May, 1922 before the plan came to fruition.

His son, Frederick B. Patterson, took up the mantle to maintain the air service experiment station in Dayton. In October, 1922, Frederick B. Patterson organized the Dayton Air Service Committee, a coalition of prominent local figures and businessmen including; J. C. Haswell, Valentine Winters, C.F. Kettering, W.R. Craven, Edward Wuichet, E.M. Kuhns, H. E. Talbott, Fred Rike, Geo. W. Shroyer, Harry H. Darst, Geo. B. Smith, H. D. Wehrly, I. G. Kumler, Ferdinand Ach, John Ohmer, H. W. Karr, C. E. Comer, F.T. Huffman and George B. McCann, dedicated to raising the money necessary to purchase land for the air service experiment station.

Frederick B. Patterson laid plans for a campaign, whose goal was to 5,000 acres of land near Dayton. The land included the existing Wilbur Wright Field that was leased by the Army Air Service and Wright Brothers’ flying field on Huffman Prairie.

The campaign lasted two days and resulted in subscriptions totally $425,000 from some 600 people and businesses. With this money the 4,520.47 acres of land was secured and gifted to the U.S. Government on February 4, 1924 and August 9, 1924. The new facility was named Wright Field in honor of the Wright brothers.

On July 6, 1931, a portion of Wright Field east of Huffman Dam was separated from Wright Field and named Patterson Field in honor of both Lieutenant Frank Stuart Patterson and the contribution of the Patterson family.

Patterson Field and Wright Field were officially merged on January 13, 1948 as a base for the newly created United States Air Force, and was named the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The final act of the corporation was to provide remaining funds and land to the Miami Conservancy District and the Wright Memorial Commission for the express purpose of erection and maintenance of a memorial to Wilbur and Orville Wright, now the Wright Brothers Memorial Park.