Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

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Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base from 70º.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code KFFO
IATA code FFO
Coordinates

39 ° 49 '34 "  N , 84 ° 2' 54"  W Coordinates: 39 ° 49 '34 "  N , 84 ° 2' 54"  W.

Height above MSL 251 m (823  ft )
Transport links
Street I-70 / I-675 / OH 4
Basic data
opening 1917
operator US Air Force
Runways
05R / 23L 2134 m × 46 m asphalt
05L / 23R 3841 m × 91 m

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The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (in short: Wright-Patterson AFB ) is a major base of the US Air Force (USAF). It serves as the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) and is the location of the USAF Museum . The base is approximately 15 km northeast of Dayton , Ohio and has a 3,841 m main runway labeled 05L / 23R.

With the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Aeronautical Systems Center , the area houses the most important research centers for weapon systems and basic research of the US Air Force. A total of around 20,000 people work on the base, more than half of whom are civilian employees.

history

Huffman Prairie

On the site of today's Air Force Base who Wright brothers made many of its flight tests. After their spectacular first flight in North Carolina on December 17, 1903 , they looked for a test site closer to their home in Dayton . In early 1904 they agreed with the banker Torrence Huffman about the free use of an area northeast of the city, the Huffman Prairie , built a hangar for their improved Flyer II model and carried out over a hundred flights with it by the end of 1904. After the winter break, the tests continued with the new Flyer III in 1905 , but then rested for five years, during which the Wrights took care of patents and made advertising trips - including to Europe. In 1910, the brothers opened a flight school on the site: for US $ 250 they offered ten days of training including four hours of flight. Two years later, Wilbur Wright died and in 1915 Orville ceased operations there and moved to North Field just north of town. The US Army with its first aviation research department also settled here at the end of 1917 and changed the name to McCook Field , and today's National Museum of the United States Air Force also originated here.

Wright Field

The Huffman Prairie was finally placed under protection in 1917 as part of a flood protection program, while the new Wright Field was built south of it . The Army moved there until 1928 when McCook Field became too small for them. Hangars, wind tunnels and test stands for propellers and engines were built on the new area . Since the mid-1940s, the course has had three slopes arranged in a triangle with a length between 1700 and 2180 meters.

Patterson Field

The National Museum of the United States Air Force on the edge of the Air Force Base

The northeastern part of the elongated Wright Field was given its own runway and was renamed Patterson Field in July 1931 , in honor of Lieutenant Frank Stuart Patterson (born November 6, 1897 in Dayton , Ohio ), who on June 19, 1918 during tests with a De Havilland DH4 crashed at this location. Both airfields initially remained independent, with the research facilities and the museum in their midst, until they were organizationally merged in 1945.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

On January 13, 1948, the entire complex was given its current name Wright-Patterson Air Force Base . The runways of the former Wright Field were closed to flight operations in the 1960s and have served as open space for the Air Force Museum since 1971, while the northeastern part is used as an Air Force Base in the narrower sense.

Between 1960 and 1975, B-52 bombers and KC-135 tanker aircraft of the Strategic Air Command were stationed on the Wright-Patterson AFB .

On November 21, 1995, the Dayton Agreement was initialed on the premises , which ended the Bosnian War between the Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Even today it forms the constitutional basis of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina .

Web links

Commons : Wright-Patterson Air Force Base  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files