AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS

AND ASTRONAUTICS
Historic Aerospace Site

Purdue University Airport

West Lafayette, Indiana

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

 THE AIAA HISTORIC AEROSPACE SITES PROGRAM
For over 65 years, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has served as the principal society of the
aerospace engineer and scientist. Formed in 1963 through a merger of the American Rocket Society (ARS) and the Institute
of Aerospace Sciences (IAS), the purpose was, and still is, “to advance the arts, sciences, and technology of aeronautics and
astronautics, and to promote the professionalism of those engaged in these pursuits.” Today, AIAA has more than 30,000
professional and 5000 student members.

In addition, AIAA sponsors many technical conferences, seminars, and short courses per year, and publishes Aerospace
America, the AIAA Student Journal, and seven archival technical journals (including one on-line journal). The Institute also
publishes conference papers and proceedings, technology assessments, position papers, audiovisual information packages,
many books, and a variety of career-related educational materials. The Institute conducts a rigorous public policy program
and works closely with other societies and governments in broad areas of mutual concern.

AIAA established the Historic Aerospace Sites Program in January 2000 to promote the preservation of, and the
dissemination of information about, significant accomplishments made in the aerospace profession. In addition to Purdue
University, other sites recognized by the committee include the original Bendix Aviation Company in Teterboro, New
Jersey; the Boeing Red Barn, Seattle, Washington; Kitty Hawk, North Carolina; the site of the first balloon launch, in
Annonay, France; and Tranquility Base, on the moon.

AIAA BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2005-2006

Roger L. Simpson
President

Forrest J. Agee Wilson N. Felder Thomas D. Milnes A. Tom Smith

John C. Blanton Wayne M. Hurwitz Joseph S. Morano Lynn Nicole Smith

Vincent C. Boles Takashi Iida Steven R. Noneman Eric H. Thoemmes

Lawrence O. Brase David Jensen Donald W. Richardson James D.A. Van Hoften

Klaus D. Dannenberg John E. LaGraff Charles R. Saff Robert C. Winn

David S. Dolling Christian Mari Merri J. Sanchez Susan X. Ying

Catherine M. Downen Laura J. McGill Gerry E. Schneider James V. Zimmerman

Thomas E. Duerr Ajax B. Melo David R. Shaw

AIAA HISTORIC SITES COMMITTEE 2005

Anthony M. Springer
Chair
Ranney G. Adams Charles M. Ehresman J. Michael Murphy

John D. Anderson Mark S. Maurice John M. Swihart

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS
HISTORIC AEROSPACE SITE

Purdue University Airport

West Lafayette, Indiana
T
he area around Lafayette, Indiana, has long Students at Purdue also took an interest in flying. The first
had an aerospace tradition. Many years Purdue graduate to become an aviator was J. Clifford
before anyone had ever heard of Turpin, class of 1908, who was taught to fly by Orville
aeronautics, the first airmail delivery in the Wright. Turpin set an altitude record of 9400 feet in 1911,
nation happened by hot air balloon in an alumni tradition continued by Captain Ivan Kinchloe,
Lafayette on 17 August 1859. The pilot, John Wise of class of 1949, who flew to 126,000 feet in 1956 in an X-2
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, under the direction aircraft. The first alumnus to land an aircraft on
of U.S. Postmaster Thomas Wood of campus was Lt. George W. Haskins, in 1919,
Lafayette, delivered 123 letters and when he flew from Dayton, Ohio, with a
23 circulars to Crawfordsville, resolution from Dayton alumni proposing
Indiana, approximately 25 miles that Purdue establish a School of Aviation
away. Wise also conducted Engineering. Lt. Haskins later returned
experiments to detect the to Purdue as an instructor in 1929.
presence of ozone in the upper
atmosphere during his flight. Purdue first offered five elective
aeronautical engineering courses, through
Lafayette enthusiastically continued the Mechanical Engineering Department,
its aeronautical momentum a little over for the 1921–22 academic year, and
50 years later, when a Purdue professor of established an aerodynamics laboratory soon after.
mechanical engineering, Cicero P. Veal, The lab was equipped with a fully assembled airplane
organized the Purdue Aero Club in 1910, and the area’s first and operating engines. Although a four-year aeronautics
mechanized aircraft demonstration took place on Purdue’s program was not available at Purdue until the 1940s, the
campus on 13 June 1911. This “Aviation Day,” as it was students were offered numerous elective courses and many
called, was sponsored by a local newspaper and the Purdue chose the senior aeronautical option, as it was called, to be
Alumni Association, and attracted 17,000 people. Later able to graduate and enter into the new aeronautical
demonstrations over the next few years continued to attract industry of the 1920s and 1930s. One early graduate,
large crowds. Donovan Berlin, is known for designing the P-36, P-40, and
P-48, all used during WWII.

Also in 1930, through a real estate gift from Board of

Trustees member David E. Ross, Purdue University
received a gift of a 360-acre tract of land, with the
recommendation that it was to be set aside for
development of an airport. The original intent of the
airport was to serve as a field laboratory for aeronautical
education and research. On 1 November of that year,
George W. Haskins evaluated the proposed airport location,
hung a windsock from a dead tree, and notified the
government representatives that airport requirements had
Aviation Day, 13 June 1911, Purdue Stuart Field. been met.

Aircraft on Purdue Athletic Field, 1918. AeroLab 2 with wind tunnel, Curtiss Robin Aircraft and
engine, May 1930.

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Thus, on 1 November 1930, the U.S. Bureau of Air
Commerce designated this land as a landing field—the
very first university-owned airport in the United States.
Since it was unpaved, the airport served only as an
emergency landing strip. Paved runways were added later
in the decade, and construction was completed by the Civil
Works Administration on the first building, Hangar 1, in
1934. Runway lights were also installed.

Aeronautical Engineering Class, Purdue University, 1936.

Hangar 1 construction, Purdue Airport, June 1934.

Because it had this new airport, Purdue became the first

university in the United States to offer college credit for
flight training. The training continued through the 1930s,
and Purdue became an important military flight-training
center during World War II. In 1938, the nation’s first Civil
Pilot Training Program was also established, and pilot and
aircraft maintenance training programs continue at Purdue Aeronautical Engineering Class, Purdue University, 1936.
today.

During 1934, Purdue President E. C. Elliott met Amelia

Earhart in New York at a Women’s Conference on Current
Problems. By 1935, President Elliott had recruited her to
serve as a consultant for Purdue’s flight programs and as a
Counselor for Careers for Women. The Purdue Research
Foundation provided funding for the purchase of a
Lockheed 10E Electra, which was to serve as Earhart’s
flying laboratory. The Electra was hangared and outfitted
at Purdue Airport. During her ill-fated around-the-world
attempt, she had planned to conduct research into the
effects of long haul fight and pilot fatigue.
Aeronautics Class, October 1934.
During the 1940s, it is believed that Purdue Airport served
as the location for the nation’s first university flight test
course. As part of the war effort, the university developed

Aeronautics Class, Hangar 1, Purdue University Airport, Amelia and her Lockheed Electra flying laboratory, Purdue
October 1934. University Airport.
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 several weeks of practical training, and were then
commissioned as Army Air Corps officers. Another
training program, for women, was also developed at this
time. The Curtiss-Wright Company decided to develop
the Cadette Programs to train young women for technical
positions normally held at that time by men. Purdue and
six other universities participated in these programs. The
curriculum consisted of two 22-week terms heavy in
drafting, materials processing, and testing.

In 1942, the Purdue Aeronautics Corporation was formed

Amelia Earhart and Professor George W. Haskins with engine. at Purdue Airport to provide live self-supporting
laboratories for the aviation program at Purdue. It
operated under a government approved supplemental
certificate, the only one ever approved for a university.
This organization was also responsible for Purdue Airport
management and operation.

In 1945, the School of Aeronautics included the Purdue

Aeronautics Corporation, the Air Transportation Division,
Aeronautical Engineering, and the Graduate Division.
Air Transportation had specialty options in flight
operations, aviation operations, and aviation
administration using aircraft based at Purdue Airport,
Amelia Earhart and Professor George W. Haskins lecturing which were to be used for charter operations. These C-
students. 47 aircraft and the Purdue Airport were managed by the
Purdue Aeronautics Corporation under the direction of
Grove Webster.

During the 1950s, the aviation administration specialty

migrated to the School of Management while the flight
and aviation operations were transferred to the Division
of Technical Institutes (DTI). In 1955, the nation’s first
Reserve Officer Training (ROTC) flight program was
developed at Purdue Airport and managed by Purdue
Aeronautics Corporation, and in 1956 a two-year
professional pilot program started that accepted students
with a commercial pilot certificate. In 1961, the first
Amelia Earhart, Purdue University President Elliott, Captain collegiate Flight Engineer course was approved by the
L.I. Aretz, Hangar 1, Purdue University Airport. FAA and taught at Purdue University.

Purdue is the site of several other firsts. The General

Aviation Flight Training plan of study was introduced in
1964, its coursework leading to the nation’s first
bachelor’s degree in aviation with an emphasis on
professional pilot skills. The first collegiate Curtis Wright
B707 jet simulator was based at Purdue Airport for use by
students earning a Flight Engineer Turbojet certificate
along with a bachelor’s degree. In 1988, Purdue Airport
was the location of the nation’s first Diamond Jet Aircraft,
used to provide type ratings for Purdue students and
transportation for university faculty, staff, and
George Putman, Captain L.I. Aretz, Amelia Earhart, administrators. The Purdue School of Aeronautics and
G. Stanley Meikle, and President Elliott in front of Hangar 1,
Purdue University Airport.
Astronautics, as it is now known, has awarded 6 percent
of all B.S. and 7 percent of all Ph.D. degrees in aerospace
the Air Corps Cadet Aeronautical Engineering Program, engineering in the U.S. over the past 50 years. These
an intensive 12-week course given to groups of 50 alumni have led significant advances in research and
students in January and April 1941. After this program, development of aerospace technology, headed major
the cadets went to Chanute Field at Rantoul, Illinois, for corporations and government agencies, and have

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participated actively in the exploration of space. For Significant portions of the text were taken from “History of
example, 22 Purdue students have become astronauts and Aerospace Education ad Research at Purdue University 1910-
participated in Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle, Mir, and 2002,” by A.F. Grandt and W.A. Gustafson. Contributions were
International Space Station flights, including the first (Neil also made by Prof. Donald Petrin.
Armstrong) and the last (Gene Cernan) men on the moon.
Photos courtesy Purdue University Libraries and The George
Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers.

RELATED REFERENCES

Boomhower, R. “The Aviatrix and The University: Amelia Earhart at Purdue.” Traces, Summer 1994.

Butler, Susan. East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-
Wesley, 1997.

George Palmer Putman Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers, http://www.lib.purdue.edu/earhart/,

2002.

Grandt, A.F., W.A. Gustafson, and L.T. Cargnino. One Small Step: The History of Aerospace
Engineering at Purdue University. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue Research Foundation, 1995.

Grandt, A.F., and W.A. Gustafson. “History of Aerospace Education and Research at Purdue
University 1910-2002.” Paper #2003-0234. 41st Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno,
Nevada, 2003.

History of the Purdue Department of Aviation Technology, Purdue University Website,

http://www.tech.purdue.edu/at/information/athistory.

History of the Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Purdue University Website,
http://roger.ecn.purdue.edu/AAE/History/History.

History of Purdue, Purdue University Website, http://www.purdue.edu/.

Morrissey, Muriel Earhart. Courage is the Price. Wichita, Kansas: McCormick-Armstrong Publishing
Division, 1963.

Purdue Aeronautics Corporate tri-fold brochure, Purdue University.

Purdue Exponent, 14 May 2002.

Purdue Libraries Newsletter, Volume 1, Fall 2002.

Purdue News, Purdue University Website, http://news.uns.purdue.edu/uns/.

Rich, Doris L. Amelia Earhart: A Biography. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1989.

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