{"nrhp_refnum":"71000640","name":"Huffman Field","other_names":["Simms-Wright Station or Wright Memorial Site","Huffman Prairie"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 1 mi. SW of Fairborn","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fairborn","county":"Greene County","state":"OH","lat":39.80350137450006,"lon":-84.06569725211446,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-05-06","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1990-06-21","areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Military","Invention","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Huffman Field is a 0.52-acre site on Pylon Road at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, about one mile southwest of Fairborn, Greene County, Ohio. It is the former meadow flying field where the Wright brothers built a hangar in 1904-05.","why_significant":"Here the Wright brothers built a heavier airplane in 1904-05 and made the first circular flight on September 20, 1904. A 38-minute, 24.2-mile flight followed on October 5, 1905, which the form calls the world's first practical airplane. The field later served as an early flying school, the origin of the first air cargo shipment, and a World War I pilot training site.","narrative":"Huffman Field is a small, level, grass-covered plot of 0.52 acre at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Fairborn, Ohio. It was once a farm meadow, and a cement pylon now marks the spot of the hangar that Wilbur and Orville Wright erected here in 1904-05. At this field they built a heavier airplane and, after many flights and improvements, made the first circular flight on September 20, 1904. On October 5, 1905, they flew 24.2 miles in 38 minutes, a performance that made their machine the first practical airplane. They also added an aileron-type control system and patented it. A later hangar, built near the Yellow Springs and Springfield pikes, supported a training school where early pilots learned to fly. The first air cargo shipment, to Columbus, left from the field on November 7, 1910. The surrounding land became part of the military field established in 1917, and the site was set aside in 1938 as a memorial tract to the brothers.","period_of_significance":"1904-10","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition described as very good; level grass-covered ground with a cement pylon where the 1904-05 hangar stood. The original hangar has been torn down.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.083079-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/71000640.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000640/c482d9dc5d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000640/c482d9dc5d-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Wright Brothers","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1904WrightFlyer.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Wright Brothers</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1904WrightFlyer.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71988758","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffman_Prairie","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11326651"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/greene-county/huffman-field-71000640/"}