About 3 miles to the East of Compton Airport, you can find the Dominguez Ranch Adobe 
a.k.a Rancho San Pedro) – a beautiful historic building – now a museum.
The first flight west of the Rockies – ever – was flown here at 1pm on Jan 10th 1910 by Glenn Curtiss.
“At one o’clock a yellow winged Curtiss biplane was rolled to the starting point in front of the grandstand and the crowd became silent as they realized that the action was about to start. Glenn Curtiss indicated he was ready to start and the area was cleared by the field deputies. A mechanic swung the propeller and the engine started with a roar. As the machine began to roll a cheer went up from the crowd, which changed to an amazed silence as it rose from the ground and sailed gracefully around the course at a height of 50 feet. After 1 minute and 28 seconds in the air, covering a distance of 5/8 of a mile, Curtiss landed easily and rolled to a stop within 300 feet of the starting point. This was the first successful powered airplane flight made in the west. The skeptics were convinced an airplane could fly and the crowd was satisfied their time was well spent.”
[From the book, "The Dominguez Air Meet" by D.D. Hatfield.]
The 1910 Air Meet was the 2nd aviation gathering in history and the 1st in the US, an event that lasted for 10 days from Jan 10th to the 20th.
The longest cross country flight ever made – in the world at that time – was flown here by French aviator Louis Paulhan.
The flight was promoted as:
“Paulhan will fly to Baldwin’s Ranch (LA Arboretum) [ Pasadena, CA – Ed. ] and return, 45 miles. Back in one hour“.
This still is faster than driving 45 miles in Los Angeles almost 100 years later.. 
Louis Paulhan taking off at the 1910 Air Meet
“Running straight before the wind on the ‘home stretch’, it was before the grandstand that I was traveling at not less than sixty miles per hour, and at no other exhibition in the world, so far as I know, has such a speed been attained where thousands of people could witness it. Sixty miles per hour is about as fast as a man wants to travel by any method of locomotion.”
[From the book, "The Dominguez Air Meet" by D.D. Hatfield.]
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