Dayton, Ohio, USA

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on 22 June 2019 making Rushmoor and Dayton official partner towns.

Birthplace of aviation

The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, lived and worked in Dayton and were the first to construct and pilot a powered airplane on 17 December in1903.

On 13 January 1948, the world-famous Wright-Patterson Air Force Base was formed and today it employs some 27,000 people, both military and civilian.  This makes it one of the US Air Force’s largest air bases. Dayton is a well-known aerospace innovation hub with a high concentration of aerospace and aviation technology and aeronautical and astronautical engineering.   In recent times, Dayton’s businesses have diversified into the service economy, insurance and legal sectors as well as healthcare and government administration.

The link with Rushmoor will be mainly a business link driven by the aerospace and aviation industries that Dayton shares with Farnborough.  However, it offers a wide range of cultural and heritage sites and provides significant opportunities for education and training.  In 2023, a group of students from Farnborough College of Technology, as part of a development programme, made a memorable visit to Dayton.

In the future, the Associations will look to develop the education, cultural and heritage links, hopefully in the latter case through FAST.