Wilbur Wright is hired by the U.S. Army Signal Corps to teach two army officers to fly at a new airstrip in College Park. On October 9, Wilbur begins flights with the two officers and soon Lt. Frederic Humphreys becomes the first military pilot to fly solo. On October 27th, Wilbur flies with Mrs. Henry Ralph Van Demon, the first woman to fly in a powered aircraft.
By December, 1909 other civilian aircraft begin using the new airstrip, making College Park Airport the oldest continuously used airport in the U.S.
More firsts at College Park include the 1912 Christmas Aeroplane Company construction of the “Red Bird III” at College Park. It becomes the U.S. Postal Services’s first delivery plane of airmail. On October 7, 1912, pioneer pilot Bernetta Adams Miller becomes the first woman to demonstrate flight in a military aircraft.
