Korn Field Airport

Korn Field Airport. . The first airport in Shelby County and one of the earliest in Ohio was opened July, 1908, by the Korn brothers, Edward and Milton. Here they built their second plane in their father's barn and successfully flew this plane on July 2, 1911. The barn is now pawrt of this factory. They flew the length of the field, a half mile in a half minute and landed safely. Their plane was a pusher-type monoplane with a 34-foot wing span,40 horsepower, water cooled, 4 cylinder, 2-cycle engine, and weighed 650 pounds., The brother then built a French-designed Benoist plane, which is on display in the Smithsonian Institute Auxiliary Museum,Sutland, Maryland. On August 13, 1913 they crashed their plane in a filed near here and Milt was killed. After a two-year absence from flying, Ed was testing a seaplane when he crashed into the water of Lake St. Clair, Michigan. This ended his flying career and he became a chiropractor., Korn Field was later operated by a younger brother, Arlington Korn, It was used by the Flying Farmers organization, and following World War II, pilots were trained here under the G.I. Bill of Rights., Presently, the six-acre complex is owned by Wayne Korn, who operates Creative Plastics, Inc.