Editing Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (section)

===World War II===
[[File:US National Park Service marker for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.jpg|thumb|250px|A National Park Service marker showing the historical growth of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]]
The area's [[Ohio World War II Army Airfields|World War II Army Air Fields]] had employment increase from approximately 3,700 in December 1939 to over 50,000 at the war's peak.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/ARMING/ARMING.HTM |title=Arming the Skies Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in World War II |publisher=ASC History Office  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216172907/http://www.ascho.wpafb.af.mil/ARMING/ARMING.HTM |archive-date=16 February 2008 }}{{Verify source|date=September 2013}}</ref> Wright Field grew from approximately 30 buildings to a {{convert|2064|acre|km2|adj=on}} facility with some 300 buildings and the Air Corps' first modern paved runways. The original part of the field became saturated with office and laboratory buildings and test facilities. The Hilltop area was acquired from private landowners in 1943–1944 to provide troop housing and services. <!--The Materiel Command, headquartered at Wright Field, was responsible for the procurement of airplanes and equipment in production quantities and for sustaining an accelerated program of testing and development. The Air Service Command, on Patterson Field, assumed responsibility for all logistics functions, including maintenance and supply. In August 1944 the two organizations merged to become [[Air Technical Service Command]], and t-->

The portion of Patterson Field from Huffman Dam through the Brick Quarters (including the command headquarters in Building 10262) at the south end of Patterson Field along Route 4 was administratively reassigned from Patterson Field to Wright Field. To avoid confusing the two areas of Wright Field, the south end of the former Patterson Field portion was designated "Area A", the original Wright Field became "Area B", and the north end of Patterson Field, including the flying field, "Area C."

In February 1940 at Wright Field, the [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]] established the Technical Data Branch (Technical Data Section in July 1941, Technical Data Laboratory in 1942). After Air Corps Ferrying Command was established on 29 May 1941, on 21 June an installation point of the command opened at Patterson Field.{{r|Futrell}}{{rp|144}} The Flight Test Training unit of Air Technical Command was established at Wright Field on 9 September 1944 (moved to Patterson Field in 1946, [[Edwards AFB]] on 4 February 1951).<!--CITATION AT U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School ARTICLE-->

Two densely populated housing and service areas across Highway 444, Wood City and Skyway Park, were geographically separated from the central core of Patterson Field and developed almost self-sufficient community status. (Wood City was acquired in 1924 as part of the original donation of land to the government but was used primarily as just a radio range until World War II. Skyway Park was acquired in 1943.) They supported the vast numbers of recruits who enlisted and were trained at the two fields as well as thousands of civilian laborers, especially single women recruited to work at the depot. Skyway Park was demolished after the war. Wood City was eventually transformed{{When|date=October 2013}} into Kittyhawk Center, the base's modern commercial and recreation center.

In the fall of 1942, the first twelve "Air Force" officers to receive ATI{{Specify|reason=Perhaps there is a source that says "ATI" stands for Air Technical Intelligence?|date=September 2013}} field collection training were assigned to Wright Field for training in the technical aspects of "crash" intelligence (RAF Squadron Leader Colley identified how to obtain information from equipment marking plates and squadron markings.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}} In July 1944 during the [[Robot Blitz]], Wright Field fired a reconstructed German [[Argus As 014|pulse-jet engine]]<ref name=Ordway>{{cite book |last=Ordway |first=Frederick I III |author-link=Frederick I. Ordway III |author2=Sharpe, Mitchell R |year=1979 |title=The Rocket Team |url=http://www.apogeebooks.com/indices/RocketTeamindex.htm |format=index |series=Apogee Books Space Series 36 |publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell |location=New York |page=174b |isbn=1-894959-00-0  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304025247/http://www.apogeebooks.com/indices/RocketTeamindex.htm |archive-date=4 March 2012 }}</ref> (an entire [[Republic-Ford JB-2|V-1 flying bomb]] was {{sic|"[[reverse engineering|reversed engineered]]"}} by 8 September at [[Republic Aviation]].)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mindling |first=George |year=2009 |title=U.S. Air Force Tactical Missiles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P5WMDJ0HyP8C&q=republic |isbn=978-0-557-00029-6 |page=27 |publisher=Lulu.com |access-date=12 September 2013}}</ref>

The first German and Japanese aircraft arrived in 1943, and captured equipment soon filled six buildings, a large outdoor storage area, and part of a flight-line hangar for Technical Data Lab study (TDL closed its Army Aeronautical Museum). The World War II [[Operation Lusty]] returned 86 German aircraft to Wright Field for study, e.g., the [[Messerschmitt Me 262]] jet fighter, while the post-war [[Operation Paperclip]] brought German scientists and technicians to Wright Field, e.g., [[Ernst R. G. Eckert]] (most of the scientists eventually went to work in the various Wright Field labs.){{Dubious|reason=Most Paperclip scientists went to Fort Bliss/White Sands.|date=September 2013}}