Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States, near Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The population was 32,352 at the 2010 census. It is the only city in the world with the name of Fairborn, a portmanteau word created from the names Fairfield and Osborn; the two villages that merged in 1950 after the Great Dayton Flood of 1913 forced Osborn to move out of a flood plain and alongside Fairfield.

Fairborn is the home of Wright State University, which serves nearly 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Fairborn is served by a branch of the Greene County Public Library. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is also home to the disaster training facility known as Calamityville.

History

Fairborn was formed from the union of the two villages of Fairfield and Osborn. Fairfield was originally founded in 1816 and Osborn in 1850.

Before European settlers arrived, native inhabitants of the region included the Adena culture of Ohio and nearby states, and the subsequent Hopewell culture known from Illinois to Ohio and renowned for their geometric earthworks. Several surviving examples of earthen mounds made by Mound builders still exist at the Wright Brother's Memorial atop the bluff overlooking Huffman Prairie, and another lies on the grounds of the base.