Welcome to the Field of Firsts Foundation,

partner organization to the

College Park Aviation Museum!

The Field of Firsts Foundation fuels support for the College Park Aviation Museum, owned and operated by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. We invite you to join us for a visit or as a member to discover all the museum has to offer.

College Park Airport is the world's oldest continuously-operating airport and the site of many "firsts" in aviation.

The College Park Aviation Museum celebrates the history of the airport and tells the remarkable stories of the "Field of Firsts."

Join Us

Donate

Newsletter Signup

Supporting the College Park Aviation Museum

You can become a member of the Foundation and join us to preserve and promote the rich history of the College Park Airport, the world’s oldest continuously operating airport.

The Field of Firsts Foundation is a non-profit foundation dedicated to raising funds to support the educational programs, special events, exhibits and conservation, and other work of the College Park Aviation Museum.

Membership is a vital source of support for the museum.

Your membership makes it possible for us to rejuvenate permanent exhibits, present engaging temporary exhibits, create new interactive opportunities in the galleries, as well as generate innovative programming and educational opportunities for all ages from toddlers through adults. 

A portion of your membership is tax deductible as allowed by law.

100% of your membership goes to support the College Park Aviation Museum! 

Join Us

To make room for our upcoming Columbia Air Center exhibit, we’ve de-installed the World War I-era machine gun from Gallery 1 that has been up since the museum opened in 1998!
It was used to show one of the “firsts” of College Park Airport: in 1912, CPA was the site of testing the first machine gun firing from an airplane, a Lewis gun. Although the idea of firing guns from airplanes wasn’t adopted by the military at the time, it would be increasingly incorporated into airplanes in World War I and World War II.
Here, our Collections Assistant Eloise holds it up for the camera. Our curator Luke is working on making a box for it before we shelve in our archives.

#aviationhistory #wwi #airmuseum

OTD in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright took turns piloting and monitoring their flying machine in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, and became the first to achieve sustained powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine.
Did you know that Wilbur and Orville Wright both came to College Park Airport? Wilbur came in 1909 as part of the contract for the government’s purchase of its first airplane—he had to teach the first 2 Army officers how to fly. The government kept buying Wright planes, and a few years later Orville visited to check out the second version of the Wright B flown at the Army Aviation School here.

📸:
1. Wilbur Wright, Lt. Frederick Humphreys, and Lt. Frank Lahm surveying the newly-cleared field at what would eventually become College Park Airport in 1909.

2. In 1909, at College Park airfield, Orville Wright talks with Lt. Henry “Hap” Arnold and Lt. Thomas Milling, probably about the new Wright B’s recently delivered to the Army school there.

#aviationmuseum #wrightbrothers #wrightbrothersday #aviationhistory

All aboard…Planes and Trains this weekend! National Capital Trackers will be here Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10-4. Free with admission

#airmuseum #trainsandplanes #collegeparkmd

'Tis the season for Trains and Planes! Stop by this weekend—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday—to meet and greet train hobbyists and see their festive model train display. Free with admission

#trainsandplanes #airmuseum #collegeparkmd

Our annual Santa Fly-in is this Saturday, Dec 7! Register and more info on our website: fieldoffirsts.com

“Even your grandma could fly it!” Found in our collections, our collections assistant has been cataloging these and other promo photos for Ercoupe, taken in the mid 1940’s. The Ercoupe was a spin-less, stall-less plane invented by ERCO close by in Riverdale MD and tested at College Park Airport. It was meant to be the plane anyone could fly—even grandmas!

#airmuseum #aviationhistory #ercoupe

Stop by today! Shop local and get a jumpstart on holiday shopping! Field of Firsts members enjoy a 15% discount in the store plus an extra discount on a single item today, December 1. Non-members can take 15% off a single item. Discounts cannot be combined. Single item discount applies to lowest priced item. #aviationmuseum #christmasshopping

One of our favorite photos! The Thanksgiving dinner of the Army Aviation School, relocated from College Park to Augusta GA in 1912 so they could keep training in warmer weather. Jesse Ayer, behind the milk pitcher, was an enlisted man at the School and an amateur photographer himself. He was dating a girl from College Park, Louise—“Lulu” in his diary.” He was a bit bored and mopey away from her in Georgia. On Thanksgiving, he wrote “Big dinner. Did not go out. Will write to Lulu.” #aviationhistory #happythanksgiving

We got some 👌 answers in our Latinas in Aviation exhibit! Check it out, it’s up until the end of the year

#airmuseum #aviationhistory #museum

Join us this Saturday, Nov 9 for a special living history program “Iron Horses: The Helicopter As a Ride Into Combat” at 11am, 12pm, and 1pm.

The beginning of modern-day military aviation started at College Park Airport in 1909. In 1924 the Berliner model “C” helicopter test took place on these same grounds. Forty years later helicopters would carry airmobile troops into combat in Vietnam; the helicopter would play an integral part of air combat.

Dressed as a Vietnam helicopter pilot, our historian will present the experiences of the veterans who flew the machines, those who rode them into battle, and those who cared for the ones who were carried off the field.

All ages are welcome. This program is free with museum admission, veterans and their family are admitted free. No registration required.

#airmuseum #aviationhistory #vietnamwarveteransday

In the years of early aviation, different players in the military had different—and sometimes opposing—perspectives around the purpose and use of airplanes. Those perspectives were all represented at College Park when Wilbur Wright was teaching the first government military officers to fly in Oct 1909.
Lt. Frederic Humphreys, the first officer to solo, held the conventional view, the one supported by many top military officials: he wrote an article about the future of flight for the 1910 Journal of the United States Artillery describing that airplanes would only be used for recon, communication, and maybe transporting high ranking officials along front lines.

Lt. Frank Lahm, the second officer to solo, was more trusted by the Army Signal Corp and Aviation Board officials, and he used his influence to get the Board to secure government support and funding to purchase the Wright's plane, the government's first. Lahm was connected to aviation for the rest of his life, and lived to see World War II’s effect on military aviation and to see America’s flight into space.

Lt. Benjamin Fouloius was originally chosen to be one of the first two officers to learn to fly, but he was temporarily banished to Europe for upsetting top officials with his disparaging opinions about the future of dirigibles. He wrote a paper at the Infantry and Cavalry School in 1907 –before ever seeing a plane—predicting that “flying machines” would be used in the Army & Navy, that there would be hostile engagements between aerial fleets, and that aerial victories would be decisive in total victories.

Foulois later claimed to be “the first military man to foresee the future of the airplane as a weapon of war” and came straight to College Park as soon as he returned from Europe to learn as much as he could from Wilbur Wright before a crash ended training in Nov 1909. The cost of his enthusiasm was that he was ordered to take the broken plane and finish his training on his own. As he wryly put it, “the entire combat arm of the United States...consisted of one badly damaged airplane, eight attached enlisted mechanics, one civilian mechanic, and one untrained pilot—me."
📸: @wrightstarchives

On October 26, 1909—after (only!) a month of training—Lt. Frederic Humphreys made a solo flight at their airfield at College Park, making him the first military officer to solo in an airplane in the US. A few minutes later, Lt. Frank Lahm followed suit.

They were the two officers being trained by Wilbur Wright at College Park in the government's first airplane, and their training began the flying at College Park that continues today.

#aviationhistory #airmuseum #wrightbrothers

Lots of flight training was happening at College Park in October 1909. Lts. Lahm and Humphreys, instructed by Wilbur Wright, usually flew early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the winds slackened. Wilbur Wright strictly observed the Sabbath, so nobody went aloft on Sundays, or on days when it rained or the winds blew up.

The Wrights taught by the “dual method”, where an instructor accompanied a student from the beginning. The student pilot first learned how to take off. As the sensation of being airborne became more familiar and the new pilots gained confidence in handling the airplane, flights lasted longer, sometimes as much as half an hour in optimal wind and weather conditions. And flying higher was sometime safer! With more complicated maneuvers, Wilbur Wright took the student pilots to higher altitudes, where greater airspace provided a margin of safety. He also taught them to land with a dead motor so they could learn how to glide safely down in case the engine ever cut out.

Wilbur was a good teacher, methodical and patient. He not only demonstrated how to fly his machine, but he also talked at length with his two students. Lahm remembered that “no question....however unimportant it might seem, failed to have careful consideration and a well thought out answer; and you may be sure we asked many questions.”

📸:
1 - The aircraft being taken in from the College Park airfield at the end of a day of training, October 1909.

2 - The Wright Military Flyer races a B&O train on its way to Washington DC in the Military Flyer at College Park, October 16, 1909. The newspaper story that first accompanied the photograph says Wilbur Wright was piloting the aircraft, although other stories claim the pilot was one of the other Army officers Wilbur trained while at College Park. The report declared the Wright Flyer the winner, although the top speed of the aircraft could only have been 55mph, while the top speed of the train was much higher than that.

3 - Wright Military Flyer in flight at College Park, October 1909
Courtesy of @wrightstarchives

#airmuseum #wrightbrothers #aviationhistory

Celebrate Halloween at the museum!

Join us for our HALLOWEEKEND with tricks, treats, and spooky sweets for the whole family from October 26-27 and 29-31, 10:30-3:30. Wear your favorite costume to enjoy discounted admission while having fun with games and activities in the gallery.

Or come later on October 26 for our FLIGHT AND FRIGHTS event, from 5:30-7:30pm with trick-or-treating and fun activities.
Visit our website for more info and to buy tickets

Did you know that you can become a member of the Field of Firsts Foundation? Your membership gets you in free to the museum, a discount to the museum store, and other super cool perks. And—best part!—100% of your membership goes towards supporting the museum's exhibits, programs, and events.
Explore membership tiers on our website: https://www.fieldoffirsts.com/membership

When Wilbur Wright arrived at College Park at the beginning of October 1909, he unpacked the Wright Military Flyer. As per the contract with the government, the airplane had two seats so that one Wright brother could teach (one at a time) two lieutenants chosen to be the military’s first airplane pilots.
It was a “pusher” plane—propellers in the back—and started up with a hard push to the propellers, which sparked the engine. When the engine was running smoothly, the pilot would reach down to release a trip, which let loose the catapult launch device. A weight, previously hoisted up by soldiers, dropped town from the tower and pulled the connected plane forward along a monorail until it had accelerated to the minimum speed needed for takeoff, around 27mph. Once in the air, the aircraft averaged a speed of 42.

Photos courtesy of the @wrightstarchives

#wrightbrothers #aviationhistory #airmuseum

Join us for Girls in Aviation Day this Sunday 10am-1pm!

The museum and Women in Aviation International are celebrating the tenth anniversary of Girls in Aviation Day! #giad2024 Experience a life changing event as we inspire the next generation of women aviators. Meet women in the aviation industry, participate in activities, and dream beyond the stars✨

Free with admission, advance registration required by October 18:

https://www.pgparks.com/event_list/girls-in-aviation-day-2

OTD in 1911, the first testing of a bombsight from an airplane happened at College Park.
Lt. Riley Scott visited the airfield to ask the Army officers' help in testing his newly developed bomb-aiming device. Flying with Capt. Milling in a Wright B, he dropped two inert 18lb bombs into the goldfish ponds at the end of the field. The tests were so accurate and successful that Scott immediately left to participate in the Michelin bomb dropping competition at the French Aviation Exposition, and there won nearly all the prizes for bombsights.

Visit our museum to check see our reproduction Wright B!

And check out our online exhibit, which explores early military aviation at College Park and its ties to the current war in Ukraine.

#aviationhistory #airmuseum

OTD in 1909, flying at College Park begins! On their first day of learning to fly as the nation's first military aviators, Wilbur Wright took U.S. Army Lt.'s Lahm and Humphreys up for instructional trips of approximately 5 minutes each at the new airfield at College Park. Wilbur's 3-minute test run—taken right before he took the two lieutenants up—was the first flight at College Park, which would become the oldest continuously-operating airport in the world.

📸: Wright and Humphreys making a start. Courtesy of @wrightstarchives Wright State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives

#aviationhistory #wrightbrothers #airmuseum

Why College Park?
This month we’re celebrating the 115th anniversary of flight at College Park Airport!
The College Park Airport is the oldest continuously operating airport in the world. Flying here began when Wilbur Wright arrived in October 1909 to teach two U.S. Army officers to fly the Army’s—and US military’s—first airplane. The Wright brothers had demonstrated their plane to the Army earlier in the summer at Ft. Meyer, VA, and the purchase contract obligated one of the brothers to teach 2 officers.
Why did they choose College Park as the training ground? The field at Ft. Meyer used for the flight tests was too small, and was needed to fulfil its original purpose as a drill ground for the Army. Frank Lahm, an Army lieutenant and avid balloonist, went up in a hot air balloon to scope out alternative places to train the nation’s first military pilots. Lahm saw a field near the Maryland Agricultural College (later University of Maryland) in College Park and in September, the Army Signal Corps cleared the land and constructed a hangar. By early October 1909, Wilbur Wright, Lt. Lahm and a Lt. Frederic Humphreys arrived ready to fly.
📸: Wilbur Wright (center), Lt. Frederic Humpheries (left), and Lt. Frank Lahm (right) scope out the field at College Park, October 1909.

OTD in 1912, Bernetta Miller would become the first female test pilot when she demonstrated a monoplane for the US Army at College Park.
Miller was the 5th woman in the U.S. to receive her pilot's license in the US—only one month before!—from the Moisant School of Aviation in New York. They sent her to demonstrate a Bleriot XI, one of the earliest and most successful monoplanes (one-wing) in early aviation, to the hesitant Army with the idea that if a woman could fly one, it was safe enough. Her demonstration flights at the College Park Airfield impressed many, but the Army decided against purchasing the Bleriot for use at their Aviation School.

📸:
1 - Bernetta Miller at the Moisant School of Aviation in Long Island, NY, September 1912. Credit: National Museum of Air and Space

2 - Bernetta Miller sitting in a Bleriot XI at the Moisant School of Aviation in September 1912. Credit: National Museum of Air and Space.

3- A crowd of people around a Bleriot XI at College Park Airfield, sitting in front of two civilian aviator hangars, October 1912. Credit: CPAM Collections

4 - Shakir Jerman's (chief pilot) first class at the Moisant School of Aviation, September 1912. Bernetta Miller sits in the cockpit with Jerwan's dog Monoplane. Credit: National Museum of Air and Space.

We're happy to share that our College Park Aviation Museum was accepted into the cohort for American Alliance of Museum's Museum Social Impact for Practice! This means that for the next three years, we will have AAM's generous support in learning more about you, our visitors, and measuring the museum's social impact on our communities to better reach and support you. We're excited to begin this partnership, thank you @aamersofficial!

Join us this Saturday for College Park Day! The museum will be open 12-6pm.

The annual festival will have free activities and entertainment for all ages, including local bands and live performances! In addition, there will be wandering performers, crafts, activities, games, races, bounce houses, obstacle courses, and so much more. Aviation enthusiasts can enjoy browsing the museum's exhibits (for free) and a helicopter fly-in!

Free parking will be available nearby, along with a free shuttle service from select locations, and bike racks. The event site is minutes away walking from the College Park-UMD Metro Station (on the Green Line)

For more information including parking, performance schedules, and more, visit www.collegeparkday.org.
Hosted by the City of College Park.

Join us this Saturday for this amazing book launch as we read LITTLE Lenox Takes Flight with local author ‘Iolani L. Bullock, a vivid story about a young boy who loves airplanes and who is inspired by his great grandad, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen!

Two session: from 12-1pm and 1-2pm.
Ticket Price: $5 - Children; $2 - Adults
Age: All

After the reading, listeners will create pilot wing buttons and participate in coloring activities. This program is ideal for preschool and elementary-aged learners.
More info at fieldoffirsts.com/events

OTD in 1911, the first photographs taken from an airplane happened at College Park, from an altitude of 600 ft. Since a standard airplane camera had not been invented, a Kodak camera was used.

This is the first photograph taken from an airplane, on September 19, 1911. It is of the airfield of College Park--can you see the runway and railroad track?

#aviationhistory #airmuseum

Stop by our 4th annual Latinas in Aviation Global Festival this Saturday Sept 14, 10-4!

#airmuseum #aviation #hispanicheritagemonth #latinasinaviation

College Park Aviation Museum and Airport is gearing up for the 4th Annual Latinas in Aviation Global Festival happening TOMORROW, Saturday, September 14, 10am-4pm. We hope you'll join us for an inspiring day of stories, activities, and celebration!

Not familiar with the program? Latinas in Aviation began in 2020, welcoming Latina women from around the world who were featured in the first volume of the "Latinas in Aviation" series produced by Jackie Ruiz. Now in its fourth year and fourth book volume, the program serves as a platform for Latinas in the aviation industry to share their stories and passions. The event continues to inspire local audiences and youth by providing pathways for networking and mentorship, opportunities to connect with individuals who broke barriers, and an outlet for sharing a love of all things aviation.

Check out the September events at the museum! Visit the website fieldoffirsts.com for more info

Have you ever seen the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest? One of the planes used in filming the movie's iconic crop-duster scene was a Boeing Stearman. This type of plane is just one of many you can check out at the College Park Aviation Museum. While the one on view in our gallery was not used in the high-stakes movie scene, its history is packed with action!

On August 17, 2000, pilot Gus McLeod became the first person to fly around the geographic North Pole in an open cockpit plane. He later flew his Stearman now on display into College Park Airport before donating the plane to the museum. When you visit, look for the duct tape McLeod used to keep the fuselage together in the freezing conditions and the special tail number the plane was given!

What's your favorite movie with planes in it?

📷: MGM Studios

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}

Your voice matters!

Join our social impact survey and help us serve you better!

The College Park Aviation Museum (CPAM) is excited participate in a nationwide museum initiative to understand, measure and articulate our social impact, the value and impact we bring to our community.

To serve you better, we need your help! Please consider participating in our study to measure our social impact.

I'm interested

Visit the museum 3 different times in 6 months with a friend or family member.
After your 3rd visit, complete a 30-minute survey to share your experience with the museum.
Get compensated for your time!

You will receive...

15% off gift shop purchase (20% for members)
A swag bag of gift shop items/CPAM merch
A $25 gift card to a local business,
Free year-long family membership to the museum (free membership renewal for current members)
Entry in a drawing to win a free discovery flight out of College Park Airport!

I'm interested

More visitor information

The Airmail exhibit featuring a Curtiss Jenny aircraft at the Collge Park Aviation Museum

Plan your visit

Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm

Closed Mondays and holidays

A kid's activity table during an event at the museum

About the museum

College Park Airport is the world's oldest continuously-operating airport, open since 1909.

The College Park Aviation Museum preserves and shares the exciting history of the airport, this "Field of Firsts."

A tour group surrounds the guide in the museum

Tours and Groups

The museum offers guided tours for schools and groups of 10 or more.

Supporting the College Park Aviation Museum

​

You will receive...

15% off gift shop purchase (20% for members)

A swag bag of gift shop items/CPAM merch

A $25 gift card to a local business,

Free year-long family membership to the museum (free membership renewal for current members)

Entry in a drawing to win a free discovery flight out of College Park Airport!

More visitor information

Plan your visit

About the museum

Tours and Groups