Smith Field is a public airport five miles north of downtown Fort Wayne, in Allen County, Indiana. It is owned and operated by the Fort Wayne Allen County Airport Authority. In the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2009–2013 it is a general aviation airport. The airport was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.HistorySmith Field is Fort Wayne's first municipal airport and is one of America's oldest surviving aviation sites.The United States government’s pioneering of a national airmail system begun in 1918, provided essential subsidies for America’s fledgling airline industry. On June 25, 1925 the city of Fort Wayne commissioned this airfield as the Paul Baer Municipal Airport. New paved runways, the huge heated Hangar #2 and other ongoing improvements to Baer Field finally attracted a commercial airmail carrier to Fort Wayne in December 1930. Transamerican, Capitol Airways, and Trans Continental and Western (TWA) followed with passenger service to Fort Wayne during the early 1930s. In 1932 nearly 3,000 passengers were served at old Paul Baer Municipal Airport.Federal New Deal employment programs of the Great Depression further upgraded the airfield. In 1933, the Commerce Department’s Aeronautics Branch and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) began a nationwide program of airport development. The CWA funded 13,108 man-hours of labor on Baer Field in 1933 alone, including drainage, lighting, sodding, tree removal, improved heating systems, improved parking areas, and the creation of flowerbeds. By 1934, the airport had improved the concrete runways and aprons, and in 1935 and 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded more concrete pavement, lighting upgrades, and radio communication equipment. Old Baer Field was one of the largest WPA projects in Indiana. During this period, the airport enjoyed $311,058.42 in improvements paid for by the CWA, the Federal Emergency Relief Agency, the WPA, and the Allen County Scrip Organization.
