OHIO, THE OFFICIAL U.S.  BIRTHPLACE OF AVIATION   Aviation is a core business of the state and has been all along since the early days of powered flight. In the early 1900's, two famous Ohioan brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, built the first ever powered aeroplane in the backstore of their bicycle shop on West 3rd Street, in Dayton, Ohio. The prototype, later named the Wright Flyer, was shipped by train to North Carolina where in 1903, it wrote the first pages of a new era. Over 100 years later, Ohio is still a key pole in the aerospace industry with over 60 000 people employed within Ohio's aerospace and aviation industry. Ohio is the official American birth place of Aviation. GE Aviation's headquarters are located in Columbus, Ohio. The CFM-56 turbofan engines, commonly known as powerplant for the Airbus A320 family, Airbus A340-200/-300, Boeing B737 family; are mass-produced at a final assembly plant in Evensdale, Ohio. Wright-Patterson U.S. Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio is known for being one of world's largest military air bases. It houses the Air Force Research Laboratories and is known for setting the stage of countless experimental aerospace research projects. The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force museum located in Dayton is the largest and oldest military aviation museum in the world. It is home to a very unique collection of aircraft. NASA's Glenn Research Center, located in Cleveland, Ohio is world-famous for its aerospace propulsion research. The Center has contributed to wind tunnel testings of GE's latest development, the GEnx, the powerplant of choice for the new Boeing B787 Dreamliner family and the Boeing B747-8 family. Goodrich operates engineering and manufacturing facilities in Cleveland, Ohio; for design and production of landing gear systems and components for the Boeing B727, the F-15, F-16, F-18, F-35 and C-17 among others. Parker Hannifin, a world leader in aerospace manufacturing, operates a wheels & brakes component design and manufacturing facility in Avon, Ohio. Hartzell propellers operates its design and manufacturing facility in Piqua, Ohio.   Ohio is also known for its numerous astronauts, including the first to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong and our local hero Michael Foreman, who flew NASA's Space Shuttle missions STS-123 and STS-129. Astronaut Michael Foreman took his first flying lessons at our airport, at age 16.