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Ford Airport opened in 1925 along Oakwood Boulevard in Dearborn. The site was later repurposed for use as part of the company’s Dearborn Development Center.
A site that today is integral to Ford’s continued innovation also once was home to the company’s pioneering efforts in aviation. The Ford Airport, dedicated 100 years ago this month, once stood on the location of the Dearborn Development Center.
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The 260-acre airport is seen from the north in this 1930 aerial photo.
Long before serving as Ford’s proving grounds, the location helped give validation to the early aviation industry, which, at that time, was more known for stunt flying. With its Albert Kahn-designed buildings, the 260-acre Ford Airport was one of the first modern airports in the world and is considered to have greatly influenced the design of other airports throughout the country.
The history of Ford Motor Company is intertwined with the rise of aviation, as seen in both Henry and Edsel Ford’s efforts to put Ford at the forefront of the new industry. The Fords helped build an early monoplane powered by a Model T engine in 1909, and years later, the company mass-produced Liberty aircraft engines during World War I. In the mid-1920s, Edsel Ford invested in Stout Metal Airplane Company before Ford Motor Company eventually purchased Stout as it established an Airplane Development Division. Ford would go on to build nearly 200 Ford Tri-Motor Airplanes at the airport.
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Ford built nearly 200 Tri-Motor planes like this one using mass production on site at the airport.
Ford’s Air Transport Service then became the world’s first regularly scheduled commercial airline, offering freight service from Detroit to Chicago. The Ford Airport would also feature the world’s first paved concrete runway in 1928, and was home to the only privately owned permanent dirigible mooring mast, though that was only used twice before being demolished in 1946. The annual National Air Tour, created to demonstrate the safety and reliability of commercial aviation, would draw hundreds of spectators to the Ford Airport through the 1920s.
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Ford Airport also boasted the only privately owned permanent dirigible mooring mast.
Ford Airport also had one of the country’s first hotels built specifically for air travelers, the adjacent Dearborn Inn, which opened in 1931. The addition of the hotel would prove to be the last significant advance related to aviation for Ford and the airport, though, as the Great Depression caught the company’s ambitions in its grip.
While the airport’s operations did not cease until 1947, the first vehicle test track was laid outside its runways in 1938. A serpentine brick wall was added around the perimeter of the site in the 1950s to provide privacy for Ford’s latest advances. The site would again be utilized as an airport in 2003 in conjunction with Ford’s centennial celebration. Five vintage airplanes, including two Ford Tri-Motor planes, flew to the Dearborn Proving Grounds using the test track as part of an exhibit for the festivities.
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Opened in 1931, the airport-adjacent Dearborn Inn was one of the country’s first hotels built specifically to serve airport travelers.
In an effort to transform the proving grounds into one of the world’s most advanced automotive testing facilities and speed Ford’s latest innovations to market, the site took on its modern appearance with a major reconstruction projection in 2005. The renovation added more track surfaces and handling courses, and the location was renamed as the Dearborn Development Center a year later. The last of the original airport buildings was removed in 2018 as part of Ford’s ongoing campus transformation.
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The site of Ford Airport was incorporated into Ford’s Dearborn Proving Grounds and later the Dearborn Development Center following the airport’s closure.
From its pioneering role in the early days of aviation to its current status as a cutting-edge automotive testing facility, the site of the former Ford Airport stands as a testament to Ford's relentless innovation and forward-thinking spirit.
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