Created in 1985, the Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority owns and operates Smith Field Airport and Fort Wayne International Airport, dedicated in June of 1925.

Smith Field is situated on 236 acres of land approximately five miles north of downtown Fort Wayne and serves northeast Indiana's general aviation community.

Building on its rich history and culture, Smith Field is striving to grow general aviation in the region by introducing additional aeronautical education opportunities, improving facilities and pursuing innovative development.

Commercial, private and military aviation have helped build the economy and vitality of Northeast Indiana.

Pioneering aviators from our area have flown around the world, invented aerobatic maneuvers and have been honored as war heroes in the Greater Fort Wayne Aviation Museum is dedicated to preserving their contributions and the history surrounding them.

The museum's collection of memorabilia and hundreds of aviation related artifacts are displayed in the Lieutenant Paul Baer terminal at Fort Wayne International Airport.

The museum occupies 6000 square feet on the upper level of the secured passenger waiting area.

We're coming up on Charlie Lindbergh here a minute.

Now, Everybody knows his history to some degree.

They think he was the first man to fly across the Atlantic.

They don't know he wasn't.

Over the years, museum founder and curator Roger Myers has made his own aviation history.

Myers was a bombardier in the Army Air Corps during World War Two and later became the local station manager for Delta Airlines, a position he held for 30 years.

Myers began his airline career in 1947 when he responded to an ad in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

I still have the ad somewhere that says “airline looking for a young man.” And that was my main qualification.

I was a young.

I was 21.

So I came out to Chicago and Southern Airlines and got the job and it was with me.

We only had about seven people on the station.

We're open seven days a week from about five in the morning to shortly after midnight, with only one or two on at the time.

We had about five flights a day through here.

Myers traveled a great deal working wherever the airline needed him.

In 1953, Chicago and Southern merged with Delta Airlines, and for the next two years, it was known as Delta C&S.

As time went on, of course, I worked permanently in Toledo.

And then later on Detroit, where with jets came on and the airline expanded to the West Coast.

And they asked me if I'd come back here to manage or stay in Detroit as an assistant, I would go on to Fort Wayne and said, You've got family there and everything else that's happened.

So I spent the next three years with the manager for Delta right here in Fort Wayne, and I loved every minute of it.

In 1910, Blanche StewArt Scott earned notoriety as the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast.

Quite a daring feat considering there were only 218 miles of rural paved roads at the time.

Scott's adventure caught the eye of a press agent for the famous aviator, Glenn Curtiss.

Reluctantly, Curtiss accepted Blanche as his first and only female flight student.

After her training, Scott joined the Curtiss flight exhibition team and made her first public appearance in Fort Wayne on October 24th, 1910.

The historic flight occurred in Driving Park, an area which is now the Forest Park neighborhood.

The post office not too many years ago put out a special stamp on her, which we have mailing on display at the museum over there celebrating the fact that she was She was the first woman pilot to fly an airplane.

Thus began the career of the woman who indisputably holds the title of America's first female professional flier.

Arthur Roy Smith was born in 1890.

As a youngster growing up in Fort Wayne, Art's main interests were skating Buffalo Bill and mechanics, especially mechanics.

He liked this little girl named Aimee Cour, and one reason he liked her was that she was adventuresome and he told her he was going to fly.

And she said, Well, I know you will.

And he liked that because she was encouraging.

She was popular and she was quite well off.

And he he just enjoyed being around her.

Art began collecting what few magazine articles on aeronautics he could find and spent all his evenings reading them.

He said he was going to fly an airplane.

He was going to build his own airplane and fly it.

And they said, Well, you can't do that.

I mean, it was only six and a half years after the Wright brothers had taken off at Kitty Hawk.

Art estimated the airplane would cost 1800 dollars to build.

Arts parents strongly believed in supporting his dream and mortgaged their home to finance the project.

Art retreated to his workshop and feverishly began building his first airplane.

Every pArt of that machine I drew with greatest care on paper from pictures I had seen in magazines before I tried to begin the actual construction.

I was not only going to build a machine like that of the Wright brothers.

I was going to improve on their ideas.

The plane was finished on January 17th, 1910.

Art's Machine was a Curtiss type biplane with a two cycle, 40 horsepower engine.

It had only two wheels and wooden supports under the wings.

Art thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

It was a clear, sunny winter morning, but to Art Smith, it was much more.

The day had finally arrived for his first flight and the airplane he had built.

The machine rose into the air.

To this day, I feel like shouting for joy at the little lift of the wings as my machine leaves the ground.

I was really flying at last.

Something was wrong.

The machine's controls were too sensitive and Art couldn't hold the craft in level flight.

For the third time, I pushed the wheel over.

The machine turned a half circle, a tremendous speed, and dropped.

It crashed to pieces upon the ground.

Art was thrown clear of the smashed plane.

He tried to get up off the frozen ground but fainted.

The airplane would be rebuilt again and again.

Art would never give up.

People laughed at him.

They said He's crazy.

He's that crazy kid.

He's a smash it kid.

And he kept sticking to his dream.

And eventually he was able to take off in his little plane and fly.

And after that, it was just a romance.

Art and Aimee continued dating, but her parents became increasingly concerned about the relationship.

Aimee's father was especially worried about Art not having a real job.

Her dad told Art that, you know, you're we don't consider what you're going to being work.

Get yourself a job and in three years will approve the the marriage.

Well, they couldn't stand for that for me.

I decided to elope.

And that they did.

They took Arts airplane.

Her intent was to go to Hillsdale, Michigan.

Keep in mind that writing out in the open, this wasn't like flying in a pressurized cabin.

When you write Hillsdale, you keep in mind there weren't any airports, but he had a field in mind where he's going to go, but he come to find out he wasn't able to maneuver.

He wasn't able to turn or the pulley on the system there that were broken or out of line.

And he wasn't able to.

He merely had to land straight ahead.

The field was soft sand.

The front wheels mired in it.

The machine turned completely over and smashed.

Art and Aimee were both seriously injured in the crash.

Fortunately, the furniture truck in the vicinity and a guy saw them, he goes over and loads them in the back of his truck.

He has some mattresses in there, of all things.

Thankfully, he got a pretty comfortable ride to the hospital.

Toward that evening, Art was unconscious.

Aimee, I don't think was, but he became conscious enough and they decided to get married anyhow, fully.

Somehow they arranged for a minister to come to the hospital, know a couple of witnesses.

One of the doctors gently placed Aimee's hand in mine, and I held it while we were married.

Art's determination slowly began to pay off.

As word of his daring aerial displays spread, he was invited to perform at dozens of events throughout the United States.

Some venues offered him large sums of money to perform.

He was not only becoming very popular, he was also becoming very wealthy.

Art's really big break came in 1915 when he was invited to be a featured flier at San Francisco's Panama Pacific Exposition, Assembling his suicide plane fashioned from bamboo.

The motor perched up behind the aviator's head looked strangely unfamiliar in the same way.

But remember, Art Smith was a pioneer, a hero on this perilous perch.

He was getting ready for the first illuminated night flight in aviation history.

He was one of the first aviators to fly displays at night with strings of fire behind him, like twin columns.

The risks were enormous and swooping toward the wings of a plane, a mass of flames.

Never to be forgotten.

Threat of those were fireworks attached to his plane.

He ignited them as he spiral downward in the dark sky.

Japanese dignitaries at the exposition were so impressed with Art and his flying, they invited him overseas to perform.

This was the beginning of a very close relationship between Art and the Japanese people.

They appreciated his daring spirit.

They were technologically inclined.

They wanted his expertise about flying.

They wanted him to be a consultant.

They wanted him to be an advisor.

They warned him to teach their aviators how to fly.

Despite his enormous success and growing wealth.

Arts personal life was falling apart.

His marriage to Aimee was in trouble.

She accused him of becoming swell headed, and he accused her of cruelty.

The strain of being a famous personality was too much for Aimee, I think.

The day before he left San Francisco for Japan, Art filed divorce papers.

Aimee returned alone to Indiana.

With his plane crated and stowed in the cargo hold.

Art sailed for Japan.

Everywhere he went in Japan, they presented him with a medal.

We had some photographs over there in the museum that showed him with a whole breastplate full of various medals that he received just in Japan.

The emperor loved him.

The Emperor actually allowed Art to fly over his palace, over his compound.

And that was not done because actually no one could ever be higher than the emperor.

But he did allow Art Smith to fly over his palace.

Nothing on there is original.

It is all a replica, but it's a very accurate replica.

A full size replica of Art's first successful airplane hangs suspended above the atrium of the passenger boarding area at Fort Wayne International Airport.

It would be flyable.

We haven't found anybody yet that really wants to take us seriously.

Would you fly it?

No.

As World War One raged in Europe, new heroes emerged from aerial battles in the skies over France and Germany.

It was only a matter of time before the United States would enter the conflict.

Art Smith was eager to volunteer for his skills as a pilot.

He wanted to serve the United States.

He really was very, very patriotic.

But he was too short and so he wasn't taken as a as a pilot.

And some people said it wasn't just because he was too short, that he had crashed every bone in his body.

But whether that was true or not, he was too short, they said.

While Art Smith was assigned duty as a flight instructor, another Fort Wayne native was about to become America's first World War One ace.

Paul Frank Baer was born in Fort Wayne on January 29th, 1894.

Paul's father described him as the most timid of the family's four children.

Timid or not, from his earliest days at school, Paul was eager to fly.

Baer enlisted with the Franco-American Lafayette flying Corps in January 1917.

The U.S. had not yet entered the war, so he was trained by French instructors.

Lieutenant Paul Baer was one of the war's finest pilots.

While flying with the famous Lafayette Escadrille, he shot down five enemy aircraft, earning him the title of First American Ace.

Baer's accomplishment was not without controversy since he was trained by the French and scored his victories while flying in a French squadron.

His recognition as America's first ace was questioned by some.

Several years later, an Air Force historian wrote that Baer was definitely the first U.S. Air Service pilot to become an ace in World War One.

In dogfights where he was outnumbered by enemy aircraft.

Baers superior piloting skills allowed him to prevail.

Between March and May of 1918, he shot down a total of nine German planes.

Paul Baers luck ran out when an experienced German pilot shot him down over northern France.

My machine was riddled with bullets.

I went through a tree and I crashed into the ground, smashing my machine to bits.

I have bruises all over, but I'm getting along all right.

He spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.

Paul Baer received many awards and citations from both the United States and France.

He was also the first U.S. aviator to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

A World War One era wooden propeller is one of the larger and heavier artifacts on display at the museum.

It was made by the Packard Company in Fort Wayne.

Their main thrust in business was pianos and organs for many years.

During World War One, they converted over to the military products.

Propeller was the main item of the war.

They had the tooling to do.

And of course, the skilled laborers to handle that type of work.

The museum's Packard propeller was probably driven by a Curtiss OS Five engine.

Over 12,000.

Curtis OS Five V-8 water cooled engines were produced in the United States during World War One.

The museum's OS Five is only restored externally and is not operational.

In 1923, Art Smith became one of the first pilots to join the U.S. airmail service.

His main route was Chicago to Cleveland, and he was often flying in bad weather conditions.

On February 12th, 1926, his plane was forced down during a snowstorm over Montpelier, Ohio.

He crashed into a tree and was killed.

Fort Wayne and the world were stunned.

Northeast Indiana in total was devastated by his death.

I couldn't believe that there their hero, who was only 36 years old, had crashed after all that flying that he'd done and all those stunts and such.

Fort Wayne wanted to honor its famous aviator with a monument.

A memorial campaign was organized to collect donations.

The type of monument that was built would depend on the amount of money that was raised.

They took up a collection.

Even children donated pennies toward this, and they wanted to build a monument to his memory.

And so they had a subscription system and people turned in money and pledged money.

In 1928, a bronze and granite monument to Fort Wayne's Bird Boy was dedicated in Memorial Park, where many of his early flights took place.

In June 1925, Fort Wayne's first community airport was opened and named Paul Baer Municipal Airport.

The new airport was located north of the city along Ludwig Road.

1930 was a banner year for Baer Field.

Three concrete runways and several taxiways were built.

Another landmark event occurred at Baer Field on December 8, 1930.

Pilot George Hill took off for South Bend in a Stearman biplane loaded with 30 pounds of mail.

Fort Wayne was finally a part of the U.S. Airmail Service.

It was a historic year for Baer Field and Fort Wayne.

Unfortunately, the next day would bring historic news of a different kind.

On December 9th, 1930, Paul Baer was piloting a flying boat carrying passengers and mail for China Airways.

He was taking off in the fog from Shanghai when things went terribly wrong.

Theyre flying an airplane that has both passengers and mail and hit a schooner.

It's kind of hard to fathom that, but apparently the airstrip with alongside a waterway and some of the passengers survived, but he didn't.

World War One ace and highly decorated hero, Paul Baer, was dead.

Indiana and the world mourned his loss.

Stores closed.

Schools closed, factories shut down.

Early on the day of his funeral.

Over 20,000 people paid their respects while Paul's body lay in state at the Allen County Courthouse.

WOWO Radio gave its first remote broadcast as they covered the horse drawn procession, Lieutenant Paul Frank Baer was laid to rest in Lindenwoods Cemetery, not far from fellow pioneering aviator Art Smith.

TWA was the first commercial airline to introduce service at Baer Field in March 1931.

They operated two flights a day, one to Chicago and one to Columbus, Ohio.

The twin engine 14 passenger, Douglas DC two, was two ways aircraft of choice.

It was the DC two which first showed that passenger air travel could be comfortable, safe and reliable.

Trans American and Capital Airways soon followed.

Within a year, Fort Wayne's Air service had spread to Indianapolis, Toledo and Detroit.

In its first two years of passenger operations, over 5000 travelers passed through Baer Field.

In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps selected Fort Wayne as the location for a new military base.

City officials didn't want to jeopardize losing Baer Field and commercial air service, so they offered the Army a square mile of land southwest of downtown.

The new air base was named after Fort Wayne's World War One ace, Paul Baer.

The name of Fort Wayne's Municipal Airport was changed to Smith Field in honor of the city's pioneering aviator.

The summer of 1941 saw a construction boom like no other, as local businesses had crews working around the clock to build the Army's new airfield.

The $3.5 million project was almost immediately expanded to 10 million as the war in Europe loomed closer.

Concrete was being laid at the rate of 6500 cubic feet per day.

2000 workers built over 100 buildings.

Multiple aircraft hangars and two 6000 foot runways.

Baer Field Army Airfield was officially dedicated on September 29th, 1941.

The first aircraft assigned to the base were P-39 Airacobras with the 31st pursuit group.

The planes arrived December 6th and Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor.

The very next day, Japan attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor and America was at war.

The 31st pursuit group was quickly reassign to the West Coast.

Fairfield was fully mobilized as an aircrew training base with increased security and secrecy.

A variety of trainers, bombers and pursuit planes were common at the field.

Along with the young cadets learning to fly.

This was a very, very busy airbase.

Looking at photographs of the early months, there were B-26, that was the medium bomber here.

There were B-25s.

There were P-39s that they were the piece down for pursuit single engine fighter.

In 1943, Baer Field's mission was changed to troop carrier operations.

Large twin engine transport planes called C-47s and C-46s were modified and repaired at the base.

Within a year, over 4000 aircraf Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic.

While attempting to finish an around the world flight, Earhart's plane disappeared over the Pacific and was never found.

Amelia Earhart's daring and determination inspired many young women to become pilots, including Margaret Ringenberg.

Margaret first became interested in flying when she was eight years old and watched a barnstormer land in a field near her family's northeast Indiana farm.

After graduating from high school, Margaret gave serious thought to becoming a stewardess or flight attendant, as they are known today.

But then she thought, What if the pilot has a heart attack?

Who will fly the plane?

Margaret gathered her courage and visited Pierce Flying Service at Smith Field as just a country girl.

She was scared to even walk in the door.

And the lady behind the counter looked up and says, Can I help you?

I said, I want to learn to fly.

And she said, Well, what would you like to fly?

My first thought was, What a foolish question.

An airplane, of course.

And I thought, that can't be the answer she wants.

So I said something small so I thought I would start with the little one and then work my way up.

After only 8 hours of lessons, Margaret made her first solo flight.

She soon earned her private pilot's license, not ever dreaming of what the future would hold.

In February 1943, Margaret Ringenberg received a telegram that would change her life forever.

I got a telegram saying my service is needed in the Army Air Corps, and if interested, go to Chicago for an interview.

Baer Field Fort Wayne had become a military base and they were medical people there to give us our physicals.

Margaret and hundreds of other women arrived in Sweetwater, Texas, to begin their training as Women Air Force Service Pilots or WASPs.

WASPs were not allowed to fly combat missions.

They did perform grueling, often dangerous duties such as firing, test flying and target towing.

After training, Margaret spent most of her time ferrying new aircraft from factories to air bases.

We flew daylight hours only and good weather.

A lot of the airplanes were not equipped for instrument flying.

And so it was good weather flying.

And we were on the road or we were in the air.

90% of the time overseas, allied fighter pilots and bomber crews were flying combat missions against Germany and Japan.

“Into the Hornet's Nest” is a painting on display at the Greater Fort Wayne Aviation Museum.

The painting shows a group of American B-24 bombers being attacked by a swarm of German ME-410 Hornet fighters.

The B-24 mission was to bomb an oil refinery.

Andy Gall was a navigator on one of the bombers.

I'm sitting up in front looking at my maps and things approaching the target, and suddenly I heard boom, boom, you know, and explosions.

And somebody said that it was rockets.

And then find out it was the fighters that are like pilot was a little slow and turning.

And they just came in, made two passes and they had shot down.

Of course, we shot down a few fighters.

None of those planes, our squadron got back to England and we were the only one that landed in Sweden.

So that was over 100 men that were lost in there.

It was good that we survived, but it was also sad because those other planes were all full of our buddies and friends and guys who went through training with them.

And so.

And you saw the picture.

That's pretty bad.

The museum has several World War Two artifacts, including uniforms, flight jackets, photographs and an anti-aircraft shell produced in Fort Wayne by International Harvester.

One of its most prized possessions is a Norden bombsight.

The Norden was a closely guarded secret during the war.

Bombardiers were even required to take an oath during their training, stating that they would defend the bombsight with their own life.

If necessary, the bombs would be dropped either a whole load at one time or one at a time, or what we call train.

If we were going to bomb a mostly a railroad yard, you would want to destroy more than just the the work area.

You'd want to perhaps destroy two or three miles of track if you could do it.

With the war over, the military had little need for Baer Field and started withdrawing its aircraft and personnel from the base.

With three long runways and huge amounts of concrete aprons and taxiways.

It was one of the largest airports in the Midwest and perfect for the booming commercial aviation business.

The city stepped in purchasing the airfield from the military for $1.

In the fall of 1945, TWA moved its service from Smith to Baer Field.

Chicago & Southern Airlines soon joined away, and the two shared a small newly constructed terminal.

It was a building with only about 20 feet by about 40.

Very small, but that included your restroom facilities, a waiting room, an area for air cargo and a couple of vending machines.

Aviation has come a long way in a few years.

From the 1920s through the fifties.

Air travel was much more than just a way to get from place to place.

Delicious food adds to the enjoyment it's prepared and for a simple tenuously operating galleys where dishes can be cooked in five minute ovens.

Commercial flight was something new and had to compete with the railroads and ocean liners.

Scenes of living room, quiet and relaxation.

The golden age of air travel attracted passengers with the sort of comfortable elegance that is only a dream today.

If mass transportation now used to be that we are attracted to men and women, men would be dressed like I am coat and tie.

The women would be wearing gloves and hats and have matched luggage.

And you wouldn't say by wearing sandals or t shirts or.

We used to serve a meal out of here to Indianapolis on a flight to the fair with only $6.45.

The meal with catered.

I was a hot meal.

It wasnt just a boxed lunch with something else and peas and mashed potatoes.

And my wife would go for a half fare.

And any number of kids we had would go for half fare.

You could fly down or take in a movie, get a meal down, get a meal coming back and have a nice Saturday or Sunday, you know, vacation.

Gone are those days.

Vintage uniforms, timetables and food service items from the Golden Age are pArt of the museum's collection of airline memorabilia.

Fire swept through Baer Field's main hangar in 1946, completely destroying it in its place, a new and larger terminal was built that included a control tower on top of the building.

Soon afterward, the original freestanding control tower used during World War Two was demolished.

Baer Field celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1991.

That same year, the airport was renamed Fort Wayne International with the terminal building being named for Paul Baer.

Fort Wayne International's fourth generation control tower became operational in 2007.

The new facility is located on the south side of the airport and stands approximately two and a half times taller than the tower it replaced.

The military has maintained a continuous presence at Fort Wayne International Airport since World War Two.

After the Army vacated the airport in 1945.

A fledgling Air National Guard squadron of P-51 mustangs came to roost at the field.

60 years later, the 122nd tactical fighter wing of the Indiana Air National Guard continues to call Fort Wayne home.

Over the years, the Air National Guard has flown several different types of aircraft and served in numerous trouble spots throughout the world.

A large portion of the Aviation Museum is reserved to honor these local heroes.

With the 122nd Fighter wing, they're vital not only the protection of the area, but also to the economic.

So the airport with the Iraq war, they had different groups that were there several times.

One thing that's never changed is the Air National Guard's commitment to professional achievement and to the city of Fort Wayne.

The airport is very fortunate.

We're one of the very few that have all three avenues of aviation.

We have commercial.

We have private aviation.

And then, of course, the military, Fort Wayne that can be proud of what we have here.

They got all this for a dollar in 1946.

Created in 1985, the Fort Wayne Allen County Airport Authority owns and operates Smith Field Airport and Fort Wayne International Airport, dedicated in June of 1925.

Smith Field is situated on 236 acres of land approximately five miles north of downtown Fort Wayne, and serves northeast Indiana's general aviation community.

Building on its rich history and culture, Smith Field is striving to grow general aviation in the region by introducing additional aeronautical education opportunities, improving facilities and, pursuing innovative development.