Tuskegee Army Airfield was similar to already-existing airfields reserved for training white pilots, such as Maxwell Field, only distant. African-American contractor McKissack and McKissack, Inc. was in charge of the contract. The company's 2,000 workmen, the Alabama Works Progress Administration, and the U.S. Army built the airfield in only six months. The construction was budgeted at $1,663,057. The airmen were placed under the command of Captain Benjamin O. Davis Jr., one of only two black line officers then serving.
