Huffman Prairie Flying Field, a national historic landmark, is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Greene County. This 84-acre pasture is where Wilbur and Orville Wright undertook the difficult and dangerous task of creating a dependable, fully controllable airplane and training themselves to be pilots. The field looks just as it did when the Wright brothers flew here in 1904.
Stand in this hallowed place and feel the history wash over you.
The nearby Huffman Prairie Interpretive Center exhibits focus on the Wright brothers’ experimental flights at Huffman Prairie Flying Field in 1904 and 1905, and The Wright Company’s flying school from 1910 to 1916. The Interpretive Center also covers the history of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from its beginnings at McCook Field in Dayton during World War I, up to its contributions to the aerospace projects of the future now being carried out at its current complex, which includes the Huffman Prairie Field where Wilbur and Orville Wright turned their invention into a practical machine.
The Wright Brothers Memorial is located at the top of Wright Brothers Hill, overlooking the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. A plaque on the low stone wall surrounding the plaza the Memorial lists the names of the 119 pilots trained at Huffman Prairie. The Memorial was erected by the citizens of Dayton to honor Wilbur and Orville Wright for their original aeronautical research.
