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Airports
Scope and boundary discipline. The aviation of this ground is therefore the county's, carried at boundary size and labelled: the flagship field northwest of South Bend (today's South Bend International Airport, SBN), the first field northeast of the city in present-day Granger, and Mishawaka's small fields. The Osceola/Penn share is stated in each article — for most of this section it is the share of the countryside the fields served: passengers, workers, and, for the Mishawaka fields, a few miles of distance. Nothing across the line is claimed for the township.
First flight and first field, separately dated
10 September 1911; field line 1920s–1942 · South Bend and present-day Granger (boundary)
The exhibition flight. The area's first recorded airplane flight was made by the French aviator René Simon on 10 September 1911, flying a Blériot monoplane from a field near the southeast corner of Ironwood Road and Dragoon…
The flagship field whole: purchase, opening, county purchase
1929–1938 · Bendix Field, northwest of South Bend (boundary)
The succession runs in dated steps. In 1929 Vincent Hugo Bendix, founder of the Bendix Aviation Corporation, bought 610 acres northwest of South Bend for an airfield closer to the city than the Granger field. Bendix Municipal…
Airmail and the Town
Contract-air-mail era, 1926–1934 · the airway record not reached
The row asks for the transcontinental or contract airway over this ground, its first carriers, and the airmail era's dates. The searches ran whole: for a contract air mail (CAM) route serving South Bend, for the first carriers…
The war years at both fields — part dug, part named gap; the base that went elsewhere
1942–1945 · Cadet Field and Bendix Field (boundary)
What is dug: the first field's war-years identity is in its name. Renamed Cadet Field , the old South Bend Airport northeast of the city had its official opening under that name reported by the Tribune on 9 August 1942, and the…
The famous landing, at the size the record supports
1936 · Bendix Field (boundary)
The record supports exactly one sentence, and it is printed at that size. The airport's own official history states: Amelia Earhart landed her Lockheed Electra at Bendix Field in 1936. No date within the year, no occasion, no crowd, and no second source was reached, and none of those is supplied by inference: the landing stands as a single documented line in the field's official history — a famous landing, at the size the record supports, no larger. No famous landing of any kind is recorded for Osceola or Penn Township.
Sources: South Bend International Airport official history (flysbn.com).
A regulated-era timetable snapshot, and the first jets
April 1957; 1967 · SBN (boundary)
The snapshot is the April 1957 Official Airline Guide, and it shows four carriers on one field: North Central, 10 weekday departures; United, 9; Lake Central, 6; TWA, 3 — twenty-eight weekday departures in the regulated era…
Ground growth priced; the authority
1949–2025 · SBN (boundary)
The runway line: in the 1950s runway 9 was 5,000 feet; it was extended to 6,000 feet in 1963–65; the field today works three runways — 9R/27L at 8,400 feet, 18/36 at 6,000, and 9L/27R at 4,300. The terminal line: the 1949…
The name line complete; the "International" step
1933–2014 · one field, six names
Every name the one field has carried, in order, from the airport's own history: Bendix Municipal Airport → Bendix Field – St. Joseph County Airport → Michiana Regional Airport → Michiana Regional Transportation Center → South…
Intermodal, and the numbers as a series
Series 2015–2025 · SBN (boundary)
The intermodal fact is stated by the airport and its reference record alike: SBN is one of the few multi-modal transportation facilities in America providing air, interstate bus, and interstate rail service at one terminal — the…
The route map as verified, November 2026
Verified November 2026 · SBN
As of this verification the field is served by five carriers — Allegiant, American, Breeze, Delta, and United — Breeze the addition that took the long-standing four to five. The destination count carries two dated figures…
Second lives, shows, the accident record, and the small fields
1911–2026 · the county's small fields (boundary)
The small fields. Mishawaka Airport opened on Labor Day 1934 at Dragoon Trail and Elm Road, with an air parade and parachute jumps at the opening ceremonies; it was federally listed as a commercial field in January 1935 and lay…