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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 Airport opened in 1933 — flights at first logged on a chalkboard posted outdoors near a dirt runway, in the airport's own history. The county purchase followed, and its dates spread across the sources, printed whole: the county voted the purchase in July 1936 on a $210,000 bond issue (Tribune record via the transportation-history account); the county bought the field from Bendix in 1937, making it the first publicly owned airport in the area (same account); and the Airport Authority's own financial-report history states the county owned and operated the airport from 1938. Each date stands as its source gives it — vote, purchase, and operation are three different acts, and the spread is printed rather than merged. The field kept the Bendix name for years after the county owned it (art-53-8). Osceola's share of the flagship is the regional share: the county field of St. Joseph County, bought with county bonds the township's taxpayers shared, seated outside the township.
Sources: South Bend International Airport official history (flysbn.com); Indiana Transportation History on the 1936 vote, $210,000 bond, and 1937 purchase; St. Joseph County Airport Authority CAFR for the 1938 operation date.