Smith Field's 1930 hangar built drones in secret; one of America's oldest surviving airports
Fort Wayne established Baer Municipal Airport in June 1925, named for Paul Baer, the first American ace of the First World War. When the Army took Baer's name for its new field south of town in World War II, the city renamed the old airport for Art Smith, the Bird Boy of Fort Wayne, a pioneer stunt flier who died flying the mail in 1926; Charles Lindbergh circled the city three times in his honor. Hangar 2, raised in 1930 with Truscon steel doors unique in the country when they were built, turned secret in 1944 as a production center for Interstate TDR-1 Assault Drones, an unmanned twin-engine aircraft that was an early version of the cruise missile. The field ran one of the first nighttime lighting systems in America under an 82-foot beacon tower. Hangar 2 is on the National Register, waiting to become the National Airmail Museum; EAA Chapter 2 has called the field home since 1956.