Smith Field: Named for an Ace and a Daredevil
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
Smith Field in Fort Wayne opened in nineteen twenty-five as Baer Municipal Airport, named for Paul Baer, a Fort Wayne native who became the first American Air Service fighter ace of World War One. The dedication airshow drew fifty thousand spectators. During World War Two, the Army Air Corps took over a new field south of the city and, in a compromise, adopted Paul Baer's name for the military field.
The original airport was renamed Smith Field, honoring Art Smith, a Fort Wayne airmail pioneer known in the early nineteen hundreds for barnstorming and night flights. The airport was among the first in the country to install a nighttime runway lighting system. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand two and still operates today as one of the oldest continuously functioning municipal airports in the United States.
