The birth of aviation in Mississippi Published Sept. 5, 2014 By Airman John Day 14th Flying training Wing Public Affairs COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Heritage to Horizons 2014 is this year's theme of Columbus Air Force Base's 14th Flying Training Wing. The rich history of the 14th FTW and aviation in Mississippi started on Payne Field, Mississippi's first airfield. Nearly 100 years ago, in February 1918, 553 acres of land three miles north of West Point, Mississippi, were purchased by the government for the creation of an Army Air Corps pilot training base. Six weeks and $1 million later, the base was finished and Mississippi began producing pilots. Payne Field was named in memory of Capt. Dewitt "Jack" Payne, a South Bend, Indiana native, who died when he crashed his plane while attempting to rescue another pilot who had crashed. The base trained cadets in a six-week-long program that taught advanced pursuit aviation. Skills learned included how to recover from stalls, avoiding spins and overseas combat. Cadets were trained with Curtis JN-4 Jennys, a fabric-draped, wood-frame aircraft equipped with a 90-horsepower engine that was capable of a top speed of 75 miles per hour. Although the planes were wrecked frequently, fatalities were low. Outside of training, cadets and enlisted members alike had many amenities to enjoy on base. There were baseball and football fields, a YMCA, a YWCA, club rooms and a Sunday church service. In March 1920, after training 1,500 pilots, the base was closed. Though the field was abandoned, Payne Field paved the way for other aircraft-equipped military bases, including Columbus AFB.
