Every Farm an Airfield: The Promise of Agricultural Aviation in the Post-World War II Midwest

Join the State Historical Society of Iowa for an online learning series that focuses on the past lives of Iowans. In this week's webinar, titled Every Farm an Airfield: The Promise of Agricultural Aviation in the Post-World War II Midwest, historian Peter Simons, discussed how Americans emerged victorious from World War II with something promoters called “air-mindedness”: an optimism that aviation would improve work, politics, and social life. Midwestern farmers were at the heart of this vision because their ability to feed those recovering from war and their geographic centrality promised to make the Midwest an “aviation empire” with connections between its farms and the world. To help build this empire, the Flying Farmers organization promoted the usefulness of aviation among farmers and eventually opened chapters across the country and overseas. Although aviation never became as widespread as imagined, the Flying Farmers and other promoters of agricultural flight did help establish midwestern agriculture's central role in the Cold War.