"Air & Space/Smithsonian" has stated that the real history of grassroots aviation in Oregon began in "the hayfields of Beaverton" (i.e. Watts Field and Bernard's Airport), where aircraft innovation design achieved a wide circle of inventors and pilots. As of 1932, Watts Airport had of land, with 10 airplanes based there (and room for 40 planes), and was the third-busiest of nine airports then operating in the Portland metropolitan area, while Bernard's Airport occupied and had only three planes based there at that time.