[2] The world's first closed circuit flight took place at nearby Chalais-Meudon, in the La France airship designed and flown by Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs on 9 August 1884.

[4] In 1897, Clement Ader tested his Avion III on a circular track at nearby Satory with total lack of success.

The ground's proximity to Paris meant that Military Aeronautics, which was created in 1912, used the airfield to give demonstrations to high-ranking officials, performed in March and September 1912.

Société Astra, an established builder of airships and balloons, had acquired the licence to build Wright designs in 1909, and set up workshops at Villacoublay in 1912.

At the beginning of World War II French fighter units moved in to help defend Paris, but on 3 June 1940 the airfield was badly bombed by the Luftwaffe.

[10][11] Largely due to its use as a base for Bf 109 and Fw 190 interceptors, Villacoublay was attacked by USAAF Ninth Air Force B-26 Marauder medium bombers and P-47 Thunderbolts mostly with 500-pound general-purpose bombs; unguided rockets and .50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers (B-17s, B-24s) were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base.

Almost immediately, the USAAF IX Engineer Command 818th Engineer Aviation Battalion began clearing the base of mines and destroyed Luftwaffe aircraft; filling bomb craters in the runway with rubble and an asphalt patch along with repairing operational facilities for use by American aircraft.

[13] Almost immediately, the 48th Fighter Group moved into the repaired air base, flying P-47 Thunderbolts from 29 August until 15 September 1944.

It was assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe as a transport base by the C-47 Skytrain-equipped 314th Troop Carrier Group.