Dayton, Ohio, USA

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Cllr David Clifford, Leader of Rushmoor Borough Council and Matt Joseph, Dayton City Commissioner 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.

With a population of 140,000, Dayton is a well-known aerospace innovation hub with a high concentration of aerospace and aviation technology and aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Two major US research and development organisations, the National Air & Space Intelligence Center and the Air Force Research Laboratory have their headquarters at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

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.