He was piloting a flight test of a new mechanism for synchronizing twin machine guns and the propeller when a tie rod broke during a dive from 15,000 feet (4,600 m), causing the wings to separate from the aircraft.
Frank attended Yale University, but graduated "in absentia" in the spring of 1918 because he, like many of his classmates, had joined the Army.
Lieutenant Patterson was assigned to the 137th Aero Squadron as a test pilot at Wilbur Wright Field the following May.
On June 19, 1918, little more than a month after his arrival, Lieutenant Patterson and his aerial observer, Lieutenant LeRoy Amos Swan, went aloft in their DH-4 to test newly installed machine gun synchronizers, allowing the guns to fire between the blades of the propeller as it rotated at high speed.
About five years following Lt. Patterson's death, the Patterson family formed the Dayton Air Service Committee, Inc which held a campaign that raised $425,000 in two days and purchased 4,520.47 acres (18.2937 km2) northeast of Dayton, greatly expanding the available land adjacent to Wilbur Wright Field and the Huffman Prairie Flying Field.