Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley
Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama
Marker Inscription
Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley The Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley encompasses much of the early history of aviation in Alabama, including Monroe Park where aerial experimenter John Fowler displayed his flying machine designs. The fairgrounds located adjacent to Monroe Park were utilized for early aerial exhibitions. Located immediately north of the Aeroplex, in an area known as "The Flats" Legion Field was developed in 1917 and became Mobile's first flying field. The city's first municipal airport, Bates Field, was dedicated in November 1929 and located within the geographic borders of the current Mobile Aeroplex. In July 1939, the War Department acquired 1362 acres of land that included Bates Field for construction of a military aviation depot. Designated the Southeast Air Depot, the facility was subsequently named for military aviator Wendell Holsworth Brookley and supported military aviation operations in five southeastern states and the Caribbean. Brookley Field was the only military aviation depot in the United States with access to air, rail, sea and highway modes of transportation. During the Second World War, more than 16.000 men and women were employed at Brookley Field. (Continued on other side) Following the end of the Second World War, the United States Air Force fleet of Douglas C-74 Globemaster aircraft, the world's largest commissioned cargo aircraft, was based at Brookley Field. Globemaster aircraft participated in the Berlin Airlift and other material support missions. During this period, aircraft and crews operating from the facility set numerous aviation records for non-stop flights. Redesignated Brookley Air Force Base in 1947, the facility supported military operations around the world as headquarters of the Mobile Air Material Area and the Brookley Field Ocean Terminal. Brookley AFB ultimately grew to encompass more than 2000 acres of land and the largest runway complex in Alabama. The facility was decommissioned in July 1969 and returned to the City of Mobile. In 2012, Airbus selected the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley as the site of the Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility, the company's first commercial aircraft production site in America. Today, the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley is an integral component of the Alabama aviation and aerospace industry.
Erected by Alabama Historical Association
The Story
This site holds much of Alabama's early aviation history, from John Fowler's flying-machine experiments and Mobile's first flying field to Bates Field, dedicated in 1929. In 1939 the War Department built a great military aviation depot here, named for aviator Wendell Brookley, that employed more than 16,000 people during World War II. After the war Brookley's giant Globemaster cargo planes flew in the Berlin Airlift, and in 2012 Airbus opened its first American aircraft plant on the site.
Why it matters
Few places trace the whole arc of American flight—from backyard experiments to wartime airlift to modern jetliner manufacturing—as completely as Brookley.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The story here begins in the earliest days of powered flight, when the sky itself was a frontier and Mobile, Alabama, was among the places where Americans first tried to reach it. In the era when aviation was still a matter of daring experiment, local grounds like Monroe Park and the fairgrounds beside it became stages for aerial exhibitions — the kind of crowd-drawing spectacles that introduced ordinary people to the astonishing idea that human beings could fly.
Mobile's advantages were geographic. Set on a great bay with access to the Gulf, laced with rail lines and roads, it was a natural crossroads of transportation. As flight matured from stunt to industry, that convergence of air, rail, sea, and highway would prove decisive, turning a Gulf port into a place where aviation could take serious root.
From backyard experimenters to the city's first flying field to its first municipal airport, the ground that would become the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley gathered layer upon layer of aviation history — a single site that would go on to trace much of the arc of flight itself, from Progressive-era tinkering through global war and into the modern age.
People & events
The human story starts with aerial experimenter John Fowler, who displayed his flying-machine designs at Monroe Park in the pioneering years of flight. Nearby, in an area known as "The Flats," Legion Field was developed in 1917 to become Mobile's first flying field, and in November 1929 the city dedicated its first municipal airport, Bates Field, on ground within today's Aeroplex — each step carrying local aviation a little further.
The great transformation came in July 1939, when the War Department acquired 1,362 acres, including Bates Field, to build a military aviation depot. Designated the Southeast Air Depot, it was named for military aviator Wendell Holsworth Brookley, and it grew into a hub supporting operations across five southeastern states and the Caribbean. Uniquely among the nation's aviation depots, Brookley Field could be reached by air, rail, sea, and highway all at once. During the Second World War, more than 16,000 men and women worked here — a wartime workforce on a scale that reshaped the city around it.
After the war, Brookley entered its most dramatic chapter. The Air Force based its fleet of Douglas C-74 Globemasters here — the world's largest commissioned cargo aircraft at the time — and those planes flew in the Berlin Airlift and other supply missions, with crews from the field setting numerous records for non-stop flight. Redesignated Brookley Air Force Base in 1947, it eventually spread across more than 2,000 acres with Alabama's largest runway complex, before being decommissioned in July 1969 and returned to the City of Mobile.
Its place in the American story
Few sites in America let you stand in one place and trace the entire sweep of the nation's aviation history. Here, the backyard experiments of an early flying-machine builder, a city's first flying field and first airport, a vast wartime depot, a Cold War airlift, and a modern jetliner factory all occupy the same ground. That continuity is genuinely rare — most of these chapters, elsewhere, are scattered across different towns and different generations.
The national threads run right through it. The more than 16,000 wartime workers place Brookley squarely in the story of how American industry and labor mobilized for the Second World War. The Globemasters that flew from here into the Berlin Airlift tie the site to one of the defining humanitarian and strategic operations of the early Cold War, when cargo planes, not soldiers, held a besieged city's lifeline open.
And the story did not end with decommissioning. In 2012, Airbus selected the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley as the site of its first commercial aircraft production facility in America — carrying the ground's aviation legacy into the twenty-first century. From experiment to airlift to modern manufacturing, this single site connects a Gulf Coast city to the whole American adventure of flight.
If you visit
Come to the Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley expecting a working aviation and aerospace complex rather than a preserved historic park — this is a place where the history is still being made. It hums with the activity of a modern industry, anchored by the Airbus manufacturing facility, and that living, working character is very much the point.
As you take in the runways and the scale of the site, let the marker's timeline unspool in your mind. The same ground beneath a modern aircraft plant once held early aerial exhibitions, then a wartime depot buzzing with more than 16,000 workers, then the enormous Globemasters that would fly the Berlin Airlift. Reading both sides of the marker is worth the effort — the full arc, from John Fowler's flying machines to today's assembly lines, is what makes this place extraordinary.
For a traveler, Brookley pairs naturally with Mobile's broader story as a Gulf port and transportation crossroads — the very qualities of air, rail, sea, and highway that once made it the only depot of its kind. Fold it into a visit to the waterfront city around it, and you'll come away with a rare sense of how one patch of Alabama managed to hold onto nearly the whole history of American flight at once.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John Fowler
- · Wendell Holsworth Brookley
Related events
- · World War II
- · Berlin Airlift
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