Huffman Prairie

The 84-acre (34-hectare) patch of rough pasture, near Fairborn, northeast of Dayton, is the place where the Wright brothers (Wilbur and Orville) undertook the task of creating a dependable, fully controllable airplane and training themselves to be pilots.

It was located near an interurban trolley stop called Simms Station, 8 miles (13 km) outside the brothers' hometown of Dayton.

The National Park Service currently operates this historic site where visitors may see the place where the Wrights developed the world's first practical airplane as well as replicas of their 1905 hangar and launching catapult.

While the historic flying field is mowed short, simulating the grazed pasture used by the Wrights and allowing its use for re-enactment flights, an adjacent area of tall-grass prairie is maintained unmowed, managed instead using late-season controlled burns.

Huffman Prairie Flying Field was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1990, is one element of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and was added to the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List as part of the Dayton Aviation Sites listing in 2008.

Start of the first flight of Flyer III, June 23, 1905, Orville at the controls. The catapult tower, which they began using in September 1904, is at right. It helped accelerate the aircraft to takeoff speed. The Flyer looks virtually identical to the previous two powered versions, but noticeably different from its later appearance, after the Wrights extended and enlarged the elevator and rudder. The two men are probably Wilbur (running behind the airplane) and Charles Edward Taylor (at right), the Wrights' mechanic who built their first aircraft engine.