St Louis

  June 1920 to present

  United States of America

CITY: St Louis, MO

IATA/ICAO CODES: STL / KSTL

COORDINATES: 38°45'N / 90°22'W

OTHER NAMES: Kinloch Airfield (1920-1923), Lambert St Louis Flying Field (1923-1930), NAS St Louis (1925-1958), Lambert St Louis Municipal Airport (1930-1971), Lambert Field ANGB (since 1958), Lambert St Louis International Airport (since 1971)

Right: Lambert St Louis Municipal in the 1940's, with the Curtiss-Wright factory visible in the background.
Photo credit: US Navy Naval Aviation News, February 1948

St Louis airport is located in an unincorporated zone of town, 16 km northwest of the city center. The first aviation used of the area was as a balloon launching base. The Wright brothers and their Exhibition Team also visited the field, before it was leased by the Aero Club of Saint Louis in June 1920 as Kinloch Airfield. After the International Air Races took place there in October 1923, the field was officially christened Lambert St Louis Flying Field in honor of Albert Bond Lambert, Olympic golfer and president of Lambert Pharmaceutical, the first Saint Louisian to become a pilot. Lambert ended up purchasing the airfield in February 1925 and built hangars and a passenger terminal. Lambert sold the airport to the city of St Louis in February 1928 after a $2 million bond issue was passed, making it one of the first municipally-owned airport in the USA.

In 1925, the airport hosted NAS St Louis, a Naval Air Reserve facility that became active during World War II. In 1930, the airport became Lambert St Louis Municipal and the first terminal building opened in 1933. Major airlines serving St Louis in the 1930's were Robertson Air Lines, Marquette Airlines, Eastern Air Lines and Transcontinental & Western Air (later TWA).

During World War II, the airport became a manufacturing base for the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and the Curtiss-Wright Corporation. The latter opened a plant in 1941 on the northeastern side of the field at 130, Banshee Road in Hazelwood, MO. In that factory, airplanes were designed, built, and flown directly out of the building to all combat theaters of WWII. The main types producted by Curtiss in St Louis were the AT-9 Jeep advanced army trainer (792 prod.) and the SNC-1 Falcon naval scout trainer (305 prod.). It was planned for the plant to also produce the Commando, and a line was set up there but only 28 aircraft were built there before production was moved to Louisville, KY. The factory was eventually closed in 1946 and remains abandoned to this day. It is part of the National Register of Historic Places since 2016.

After the war, NAS St Louis reverted to a reserve installation, supporting carrier-based fighters and land-based patrol aircraft. After closing in 1958, most of its facilities were taken over by the Missouri Air National Guard. The rest of the airfield was used for the expansion of commercial traffic, with several terminals built in the 1950's and 1960's. In 1971, the airport became Lambert St Louis International which remains the city's main airport today.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation

Left: the entrance to the abandoned Curtiss-Wright factory.
Photo credit: National Park Service