From The City Manager

The Middletown airport hosted the annual Aeronca fly-in this weekend and people from all over the county flew in to the birthplace of their airplane.

Every two years since the mid-1980s, the National Aeronca Association has organized a fly-in where most of the aircraft were built by the 84-year-old company. The Aeronautical Corporation of America, Aeronca, was founded in 1928 and has continuously produced aircraft and aircraft components since they delivered their first Aeronca C-2 from Lunken Airport in Cincinnati.

Following a devastating flood in 1937 at their Cincinnati factory, the company moved up the Miami River to Middletown, Ohio; Hook Field, built behind the levee on bottom land on a bend in the river. Continuing production in Middletown, Aeronca built licensed Fairchild PT-23s during World War II and ended aircraft production in 1951. Aeronca then went into the subcontracting business, becoming a leader in brazed honeycomb aerospace structures.

Did you know that the outer heat shield panels on the Apollo Command Module spacecraft were built by Aeronca?