FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wright Brothers Institute concludes successful mission, transitions after two decades of innovation

Oct. 24, 2025

DAYTON, Ohio — After more than two decades of advancing collaboration and innovation on behalf of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the Dayton region, the Wright Brothers Institute (WBI) has successfully fulfilled its founding mission and will suspend current operations while its board evaluates future opportunities.

Established in 2002 through a partnership including the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC), the University of Dayton (UD), and Wright State University (WSU), WBI was created in response to a U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board report. The report called for new approaches to global technological competition, rapid innovation, workforce development and engagement with nontraditional technology partners.

“WBI was established to help the Air Force Research Laboratory connect with innovators outside its traditional contractor base and to strengthen the region’s reputation for being an innovation powerhouse,” said John Leland, WBI board chair and a member of the original planning committee.

Some of WBI’s most notable accomplishments include:

• completed over one thousand projects, solving critical USAF challenges, using its nationally recognized collaborative innovation process,

• created, implemented and managed a rapid prototyping “Skunk Works” that delivered just-in-time warfighter capabilities to the USAF, and

• developed and patented its “Divergent Collaboration” process, lauded by the Harvard Business Review as one of the most novel ideas in business innovation and now widely used by government agencies, defense contractors and academic institutions, to solve the most difficult, multidisciplinary problems.

Vince Russo, long-time WBI board chair and former Executive Director of the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Center, served as WBI’s early key advocate within the Air Force. “Over its 23-year history, WBI demonstrated many novel ways to spark collaboration and innovation across the public and private sectors,” Russo said. “Its approaches have now been adopted and expanded by other organizations, which continue to carry forward WBI’s spirit of disruptive innovation on a global scale.”

Over the past year, the WBI board engaged with Air Force leaders and community stakeholders to chart the organization’s next chapter. With WBI’s original mission accomplished and many of its methods now embedded in the region’s innovation ecosystem, the board decided to suspend operations and revisit the corporation’s future in early 2026.

Jeff Hoagland, President and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, which led the creation of WBI, reflected on its legacy: “We are proud of what WBI accomplished on behalf of AFRL and the Dayton region. The collaborative innovation practices WBI pioneered strengthened AFRL as well as regional defense contractors. While we no longer see a need for a separate organization to carry out these initiatives, we may keep the WBI corporation in reserve for future opportunities—the name carries respect and power.”

Eric F. Spina, University of Dayton president, added, “Coming together as a community to creatively overcome challenges reflects the Dayton region’s long history of innovation. UD’s early investment in WBI—including establishing the first WBI chaired professorship—continues to yield advances in materials science. Today, UD is building on that legacy through onMain, another bold investment in regional collaborative innovation.”

Sue Edwards, Wright State University president, shared: “Wright State University is proud to be a founding member of the Wright Brothers Institute, which contributed many innovative business practices to our region and solved complex problems for the Air Force. In the same spirit, Wright State will continue to be a strong supporter of Wright Patterson Air Force Base.”

A small number of active WBI projects will be transitioned to community organizations best positioned to continue them. The board will also assist remaining employees with finding new opportunities to achieve a smooth and thoughtful transition.

“It’s certainly bittersweet to bring this chapter to a close,” Leland concluded. “But it’s deeply gratifying to know WBI fulfilled its purpose so well for the Air Force and the Dayton community. Its legacy will continue in the partnerships and innovation culture it helped to create.”