Welcome to the Field of Firsts Foundation,

partner organization to the

College Park Aviation Museum!

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 College Park Airport and tells the remarkable stories of the "Field of Firsts."

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.

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The museum will be closed Sunday April 20 and
Saturday May 3, 2025.

Visit the Museum

Visit the College Park Aviation Museum at College Park Airport, the oldest-continuously operating airport in the world.

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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

Please join us for a special event to raise support for our exciting new exhibit

Columbia Air Center - Determined to Fly

Your support for this exhibit will help shine a light on the important history of Black aviation pioneers John Greene, Herb Jones, and the Cloud Club members who founded the nation's first Black owned and operated licensed airport, Columbia Air Center.

May 3, 2025

2pm - 4pm

The event will include remarks, virtual reality experience with Sankofa Mobile Museum, a sneak peek of the new exhibit, refreshments, & music.

Registration required; limited availability.

Exhibition Preview Fundraiser

Event details

Learn more about Columbia Air Center

Love is in the air!

Let your heart take flight at our new exhibit “Love on the Airfield,” featuring stories of romance found across the Maryland skies.

Want a sneak peek? Take our quiz to find your "Love on the Airfield" match. ❤

Take the quiz

Want free entry to the museum?

Join our social impact survey

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.

Learn more

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

Learn more

Events

See what programs and events are upcoming for kids, teens, adults, and the whole family.

Events

You can meet Columbia Air Center pilot Gladys Otey as a hologram in our upcoming new exhibit this fall! To help us finish the exhibit, please consider coming to our exhibition fundraiser May 3.
Gladys was one of quite a few women who flew at the Columbia Air Center. She became interested in flying after she saw a CAC “Learn to Fly” ad while riding in a streetcar one day. She flew out of the Columbia Air Center for about 5 years—John Greene called her D.C’s Willa Brown. Here, she sits on the wing of a Vultee BT-13 at Columbia Air Center.
For more info and tickets to our special fundraising event, visit: https://www.fieldoffirsts.com/cac-fundraising

Join us for Community Day at the museum, Saturday, May 17 (10am-4pm)!
Prince George’s County is an incredibly special place to live, rich with history, culture, and community care.

Join us at the College Park Aviation Museum for our annual Community Day to celebrate and connect with the people, places, and past that make Prince George’s County like no other. Enjoy a tours, family-friendly activities, and more.
Community Day is FREE and open to all.

Happy birthday Wilbur!
College Park Airport was born in 1909 when Wilbur Wright came to teach 2 US Army officials how to fly a the Army's new Wright Flyer. He stayed for a month and was a good teacher. He strictly observed the Sabbath, so nobody went aloft on Sundays, or on days when it rained or the winds blew up.
📸: Wilbur Wright (middle) observes with airfield with Army Lt.'s Frederic Humphreys and Frank Lahm.

Meet some animals at our Wings & Wildlife weekend this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday! Registration required, visit our website for more info.

THU: PG County Police helicopter hangar tour and Mounted Unit meet-and-greet

FRI: Live Animal show with Mount Rainer Nature Center

SAT: Dog Adoption! with K-9 Lifesavers

On May 3, join us for a special preview and fundraiser event for the new exhibition, Columbia Air Center-Determined to Fly, set to open in Fall 2025!

May 3, 2-4 pm
The event will include remarks, virtual reality experience with Sankofa Mobile Museum, a sneak peek of the new exhibit, refreshments, & music.

Registration required; limited availability. $125/person - find the tickets through our website!

Please try to enjoy each fact equally.

#severance #aviationhistory

Sneak peek at our upcoming exhibit! Visit our website for more info, and to get tickets to an exclusive fundraising event

We're not sure when the ERCO factory first started hiring women but we think it was around 1941 for their WWII production. By December 1943, 400 women were working there. We also don’t know if these women stayed in their jobs after WWII ended—in many factories around the country, women were asked to leave to make room for hiring men who were returning from the war.
Here, a riveter is showing off the riveting machine. ERCO made gun turrets for the war before coming back to making Ercoupe, the "plane that anyone could fly!"

#womenshistorymonth #aviationhistory #wwii

African Americans from Lakeland, a predominantly Black neighborhood located about two miles from the College Park Airport, worked at the airmail station between 1918 and 1920. Here in the first photo, in front of the new airmail hangar, are the airmail mechanics, couriers, pilots, and groundskeepers that kept the mail running through good weather and bad.
Lakeland still exists but has changed due to a devastating urban renewal project in the 1970s, which forced many longtime residents out of their homes. Some descendants of the air field employees continue to live in the Lakeland area today.

📷:
1 - Charles Johnson (furthest left in the bucket hat) served at station from 1919-1920. He was a mail chauffeur/driver and mechanic, and the grandfather of Dervey Lomax, the first Black mayor of College Park.

2 - Two unidentified Lakelanders and crew celebrating after a successful Airmail flight

3 - Lakeland and CPA, 1929 (US Army Air Service)

OTD in 1919, Max & Marie Miller eloped to Baltimore 💕 They met the summer of 1918 while he was an Airmail pilot and she worked at the Post Office Department office. Marie remembered that Max was very quiet and just sat and stared at her from a leather sofa in the office before he could get the nerve to ask her for a date. Their first date was to the Glen Echo Amusement Park in MD. They had a quick courtship and married early the next year, honeymooning in New York City (he offered to fly them; she declined.)
Find more love stories at our new exhibit "Love on the Airfield!"

To learn more about Bessie Coleman visit the College Park Aviation Museum!

#blackhistorymonth #aviationhistory #blackhistory

Bring your valentine to our new exhibit! Come visit “Love on the Airfield” for stories of love and romance in the Maryland skies and a chance to win a delicious date night dinner with Pizzeria Paradiso @eatyourpizza 🩷

Gus McLeod added a special tail number to his plane to mark his historic flight over the North Pole. Visit the museum to learn more!

Gus McLeod was the first person to fly an open-cockpit airplane over the freezing North Pole!
Visit his Boeing Stearman in our museum

#blackhistorymonth #blackaviators #blackhistory #africanamericanhistory #aviationmuseum

Four Ercoupes were featured in this annual Santa Claus Parade down State Street in Chicago sometime in the 1940's. Despite the bad weather, there was a large turnout! Three of Santa Claus’ helpers rode in the first three Ercoupes, and Santa was in the fourth.

#christmas #ercoupe #aviationhistory #airmuseum

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

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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.

The museum will be closed Sunday April 20 and Saturday May 3, 2025.

Visit the Museum

Supporting the College Park Aviation Museum

Exhibition Preview Fundraiser

Love is in the air!

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!

Events

​

More visitor information

Plan your visit

About the museum

Tours and Groups

The museum will be closed Sunday April 20 and
Saturday May 3, 2025.