National Air and Space Museum Archives

Wright Field Technical Documents Library

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.XXXX.0428
Creators:
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Ohio)
Dates:
1915-1955
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
733.77 Cubic feet
1508 document boxes
Repository:
Throughout its history the Engineering Division/Materiel Division at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, maintained a catalogued library of technical documents, which was turned over to the Air Force Museum and later donated to the National Air and Space Museum. The collection consists of reports and other documents on a variety of aviation-related topics, including general science (aeronautics, physics, chemistry, etc); military air service personnel, organization, and equipment for both US and foreign air forces; as well as operations, and so on. Currently, the finding aid only covers documents from the D52.1 subject code (Airplanes, arranged alphabetically) and only those that are physically located in the Wright Field Technical Documents Library.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The collection consists of reports and other documents on a variety of aviation-related topics, including general science (aeronautics, physics, chemistry, etc); military air service personnel, organization, and equipment for both US and foreign air forces; as well as operations, and so on. Information on foreign services and equipment is usually from military intelligence reports, although some foreign documents or translations are included. The material also includes a large section of test reports from the Material Division itself.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Every document in the collection has been assigned a multi-part Wright Field Number. This number is adapted from the Air Force central decimal correspondence filing system. Wright Field Numbers are written in the format:
[Subject Code] [Category Suffix] / [Sequence Number] [Sequence Modifier]
  • Subject Code: This number begins with an alpha-numeric subject code. For example, D52.1 (Airplanes, arranged alphabetically).
  • Category Suffix: A more specific textual subject reference. For example, in the D52.1 subjects, the suffix is usually a manufacturer name, aircraft name, or a general type of aircraft. (Original Wright Field cataloguers could be inconsistent in how they classified an airplane. For example, a document on a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M could be filed alphabetically under A6M, Mitsubishi, Zeke, Zero, or Misc. Japanese.) It is possible to not have a category suffix.
  • Sequence Number: The individual number assigned to the document within its subject code and category. If a document was formerly classified as "Security Information," the sequence number starts with "S," for example "S-1." These are usually filed at the beginning of a range of documents. Sometimes technical manuals are filed using the technical order (TO) number. For example, 01-20EE-3 is the sequence number used for a Boeing B-17 Handbook of Overhaul Instructions, TO-01-20EE-3.
  • Sequence Modifier: If there is a revision or multiple parts of a document, this is reflected in a sequence modifier. Ex. Dates, revision numbers, etc.
The documents are arranged alpha-numerically by Wright Field Number in the order of:
Subject Code, Category Suffix, Sequence Number, Sequence Modifier
Example of arrangement by Wright Field Number:
  • D52.1 / 42
  • D52.1 Aeronca / 2
  • D52.1 Boeing / S-1
  • D52.1 Boeing / 422
  • D52.1 Boeing / 511 Dec 1, 1941
  • D52.1 Boeing / 511 vol. 2 March 1, 1943
  • D52.1 Misc. Japanese / 46
Each record contains the title and source from the index cards. Information from the subject field on the cards appears as a scope and content note.
Currently, the finding aid only covers documents from the D52.1 subject code and only those that are physically located in the Wright Field Technical Documents Library. Please contact the NASM Archives regarding additional documents. Some may be located in the Technical Reference Files, cataloguing information may be only on the index cards, or the document has been catalogued as missing from the collection.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
In 1917, the United States Army Air Service established an aviation engineering section at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio. In 1927, the Engineering Division, as it was then known, moved to nearby Wilbur Wright Field and remained there as the Air Force Materiel Division (AFMD) and Air Materiel Command (AMC) until Wright Field combined with Patterson Field to become Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1948. The Engineering Division was responsible for Army Air Services research and development and served as a clearinghouse for information on aviation development worldwide. Throughout its history the Engineering Division/Materiel Division maintained a catalogued library of documents, which was turned over to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson and was later donated to the National Air and Space Museum.

Administration

Author
Elizabeth C. Borja
Immediate Source of Acquisition
United States Air Force Museum, Transfer, 1962, NASM.XXXX.0428.
Processing Information
The Wright Field Technical Documents Library was transferred from the Air Force Museum to the National Air Museum in increments during 1962. The Museum also received a large set of index cards that served as the card catalog to the collection. While there were multiple sets of cards with different arrangements (such as subject), NASM only received the card set arranged by Wright Field Number. To provide better searching and cross-reference capabilities, the Archives created a decades-long project in which volunteers and staff have transcribed the contents of the cards and documents into a FileMaker Pro database.
This ongoing transcription project has focused its efforts on the D52.1 series (Airplanes, arranged alphabetically) and the D52.41 series (Motor or engine). In the early days of the project, volunteers primarily entered information into the database only if both a card and a document existed in the collection. Beginning in the mid-2010s, volunteers began to transcribe all cards, noting the location of a document or its "missing" status.
In the 1960s and 1970s, those documents that were determined to be of "ready reference" value were placed into the appropriate subject file in the Technical Reference Files Collection (NASM.XXXX.1183). Although in the 1980s the Archives explored reintegrating the documents back into the original collection, it was decided to only remove misfiled documents from the files. Additional documents can be also found on microfilm in the Captured German and Japanese Air Technical Documents Collection (NASM.XXXX.0431).
The National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, also retained some documents from this collection in their files, though they note that they never had all the documents contained in the original library.
Arranged, described, and encoded by Elizabeth C. Borja, 2022-2023. Transcriptions from index cards by NASM Archives Volunteers: Jim Kelly, Tim Tindall, Joe Pruden, Norm Richards, and Al Mongeon. Many members of the NASM Archives Staff have also contributed to the processing and transcription of the collection, particularly Paul Silbermann and David Schwartz.
Please note that the records in the database were an attempt to transcribe faithfully from the index cards and documents. Most records in this finding aid were exported directly from the database with minimal editing. Incorrect aircraft designations, inconsistent or misplaced punctuation, and other errors may be present. For example, a Curtiss O-52 may have been typed as Curtiss 0 52 on the catalog index card and this was replicated in the database. Dates are written in many different formats. Information added by processors has been placed in brackets.

Digital Content

More …

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Military intelligence Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Airplanes, Military -- Flight testing Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Aeronautics, Military Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Aeronautics Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Aeronautics, Military -- Research Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Correspondence Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Publications Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United States. Air Force Materiel Division Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United States. Air Materiel Command Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
McCook Field, Ohio Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wright Field, Ohio Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United States. Air Force Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (Ohio) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

National Air and Space Museum Archives
14390 Air & Space Museum Parkway
Chantilly, VA 20151
Business Number: Phone: 703-572-4045
NASMRefDesk@si.edu