A School for Flyers - Huffman Prairie Flying Field, Ohio
Posted by: 
DougK
N 39° 48.401 W 084° 03.759
16S E 751457 N 4410429
In 1910, the Wright brothers opened the Wright School of Aviation at Huffman Prairie Flying Field, near Dayton, Ohio. One hundred nineteen early pilots learned to fly here.
Waymark Code: WMFJ2R
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 10/24/2012
Views: 5
This sign tells how the Wright brothers returned to
Huffman Prairie Flying Field to open a flying school and teach their skills to eager trainees. The sign shows a page from the Wright School of Aviation brochure, the application to training school and the training agreement. Entry to the school cost $750 and each flying lesson was $25.
A School for Flyers
As soon as the Wrights solved the riddles of how to build a practical flying machine, they stopped test flying here. For the next five years, the world's first airport went back to being just a marshy pasture.
The brothers' next steps were the same as any other astute businessmen of their time. They secured patent rights, and began to promote their new product internationally. And in 1910, the Wrights began to charge eager adventurers a fee to learn how to do what the brothers had risked life and limb to master.
When their first student pilots soloed here, Orville and Wilbur themselves had flown full circle. In 1904, the Wrights had entered this pasture as fledgling flyers. Six years later, they returned as professors of the air.
…the instructor … is ever present and ready to take charge should the pupil make any serious mistake. By this method the usual dangers in learning to fly are eliminated and all wreckage of the machine is avoided … The company assumes responsibility for all damages to machines during training.
Wright School of Aviation brochure
In all, 119 young pilots - both civilian and military - learned to fly here. The stone outline on the ground ahead shows the location of the flying school's hangar, seen below.
A bronze tablet at the Wright Memorial on the tall bluff behind you records the student pilots' names.
This is one of many interpretative signs on the flying field, telling the story of early flight.