Air Force Materials & Manufacturing History
HISTORY OF THE LABORATORY
This AFMMAA history project is designed to highlight the many chapters of the history of the Materials Laboratory using content that comes mostly from individuals who spent their careers there. While it is a collection of documents, pictures, videos, etc., spanning the one hundred years of the organization, it is not intended to be a formal history, so much as a loosely organized record of individual remembrances and recollections. It uses personally held archival material, where available, but it also includes information provided by the Materials Directorate itself.
The content is divided into three pages:
• History of the laboratory
• Past technical program areas
• Individual/group technical contributions
The content is always open to new or corrected input, and we welcome additional help from anyone who would like to be a contributor.
Newly Formed Materials Section at McCook Field in 1919
100th Anniversary Celebration Year
Design for the Centennial Clock Installed in the Bldg 653 Entrance
Click on any year of the clockface to view excerpts from the RX Centennial Clock brochure that was created in collaboration with Alumni Association members
Slide Presentation of Laboratory History
Click on image to enlarge slide show
Some documents produced over the years that are relevant to the history of the laboratory. These may be available in the AFRL/RX archives
Presentation by AFRL/RX Director, Mr. Darrell Phillipson
AFMMAA Biennial Meeting, 22 June 2022
Dayton Engineers Club
This is the cover of an AFRL corporate centennial history book produced in 2017 by the AFRL History Office.
Front Cover:
(Top) Lieutenant James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle pilots a DH-4 advertising the 1924 Air Show held in Dayton,Ohio; Lieutenant Henry “Hap” Arnold, who learned to fly at the Wright School of Aviation; and the 10th Infantry Band, Ohio National Guard, performs in front of the headquarters building during the dedication of Wright Field in 1927.
(Center) “This Field Is Small - Use It All," McCook Field motto emblazoned on the main hangar; main gate of McCook Field.
(Bottom) The 1909 Military Wright Flyer; Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Back Cover (clockwise from upper left):
Aircraft: Northrop B-2 Spirit, AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile, Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk,Teledyne Ryan RQ-4A GlobalHawk, Boeing’s X-35A Joint Strike Fighter prototype;
Lieutenant General James T. Stewart Hall, part of the James H. Doolittle Acquisition Management Complex at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base;
special operations forces board an MC-130 Combat Talon en route home from Grenada following Operation Urgent Fury in 1983;
graduating class of Air Force test pilot school pose in front of an F-80A at Patterson Field;
Air Force security policeman Adam Wilson, 1950s;
Army Air Corps aircraft mechanics during World war II, (back row) Mike Pezutti, “Finks,” Roy Boarman, (front row) John Stephen, Bernie Freeman;
General James T. Stewart; General Bernard A. Schriever.
The covers of a book that Merrill Mingus discovered and is available online. It was produced by the AFMC history office and published in 2002. It is a monumental 500+ page history of Air Force technology and weapons systems, focusing on Wright-Patterson as the core of science and engineering accomplishments. As such, it includes ML historical information.