St. Louis aviation takes off, but not without turbulence: Revisiting local history

The airline made St. Louis Lambert International Airport hum during the late 20th century, when St. Louis was its main domestic “hub” — a central site for numerous connecting flights. In 2000, TWA accounted for two-thirds of Lambert’s 600 daily departures and 75 percent of that year’s 15.2 million boardings.

Just more than half of those passengers simply changed planes here, but TWA’s network gave St. Louis a wealth of direct destinations. It made Lambert the nation’s 10th busiest airport.

Chronic flight delays during bad weather led to the construction of an additional runway in Bridgeton, a move that provoked bitter opposition in the bulldozed neighborhoods. Before work was completed, the bottom fell out of the local airline business.

After three bankruptcies, TWA was absorbed in 2001 by rival American Airlines, which already had hubs in Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth. Predictably, American slashed flights to Lambert. The $1.1 billion runway was finished in 2006, allowing Lambert to handle dual flight approaches in bad weather. But boardings were down by half since 2000.

In 2014, the airport logged 220 average daily departures. Southwest Airlines now has half of Lambert’s boardings, American 15 percent. Lambert was 31st on the busy-airport list. (In March 2026, U.S. Department of Transportation statistics had Lambert at 34th on the list, based on departures. The airport had 20 carriers. Southwest's share of passengers was at 65%, with American at 9%.)

Air travel got its start here on May 17, 1836, when “celebrated aeronaut” Richard Clayton lifted from Fourth and Market streets in a gas-filled balloon. The St. Louis Commercial Bulletin said the streets were filled with people “anxious to see the intrepid Clayton take his leave and know his fate.”

He landed six miles south near the village of Carondelet.

With the arrival of flying machines, aviators created a short-lived flying field at Kinloch Park, a former racetrack just north of today’s Lambert — where Theodore Roosevelt became the first former president to ride on an airplane in 1910. The Army Signal Corps established Scott Field in Illinois in 1917 to train military pilots. Forest Park’s Aviation Field, which endures as a sports complex, briefly hosted air-mail service to Chicago in 1920-21.

Maj. Albert Bond Lambert, maker of Listerine and St. Louis’ premier aviation promoter, led the creation of a new air strip in 1920 called the St. Louis Flying Field. Soon renamed in his honor, Lambert sold it to the city eight years later. City voters adopted a $2 million bond issue to pave a runway and build a two-story terminal.

In 1930, Transcontinental & Western Air, forerunner of TWA, inaugurated coast-to-coast all-air travel on Ford Tri-Motor airplanes. Lambert Field was a daily stop for the 38-hour flight, which included an overnight in Kansas City.

In the 1940s, the city seriously considered building a new airport on the Columbia Bottoms in far North County, near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Airline executives objected, fearing floods. In 1970, Illinois Gov. Richard Ogilvie proposed building one in the Metro East, and soon recommended a site between Columbia and Waterloo.

Most Missouri officials fought the idea, but St. Louis Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes endorsed it to protect downtown as “the center of the metropolitan area.” In 1977, President Jimmy Carter scrubbed it at the urging of Monroe County farmers and the Missouri congressional delegation.

Illinois finally built its own, MidAmerica Airport, which opened next to Scott Air Force Base, in 1997. It has struggled ever since to attract service, and houses one commercial airline, Allegiant.

Other big events in St. Louis aviation

1910: Tom Baldwin flies beneath the Eads and McKinley bridges.

1912: Albert Berry parachutes from 1,500 feet over Jefferson Barracks, the first jump ever from an airplane.

1929: Dale Jackson and Forest O'Brine stay aloft over the city for 17½ hours, setting an endurance record that lasted for one year.

1943: Mayor William Dee Becker and nine others were killed in the crash of a St. Louis-built Army glider at Lambert Field during a demonstration flight.

1956: Lambert's new main terminal, designed by Minoru Yamasaki, opens. The three arched sections later were expanded with a fourth.

1973: An Ozark Air Lines turbo-prop plane crashes on approach during a storm, killing 38. Six survive Lambert's deadliest accident.

1986: TWA buys Ozark, a longtime regional carrier with distinctive swallow-tail logos on green-and-white airplanes.

2009: The last F-15 Eagles of the Missouri Air National Guard depart for other bases, ending a military aviation presence that began in 1923.

ALBERT BOND LAMBERT

Albert Bond Lambert's family made Listerine mouthwash. His passion was aviation.

Lambert helped create the St. Louis Aero Club in 1907. He taught Army balloon cadets during World War I at a field near South Grand Boulevard and Meramec Street.

In 1920, he led a group in establishing the St. Louis Flying Field in north St. Louis County. The airport soon was named after him, and he sold it to the city in 1928, shortly after he got out of the mouthwash business.

Lambert also served on the St. Louis Police Board from 1933 to 1941, including four years as its president.

Until his death in 1946, he lobbied hard for the region to expand Lambert and buy land for a second airport.

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH

Charles Lindbergh grew up in Minnesota and was an Army pilot before he began flying mail between Lambert Field and Chicago in 1926.

He bet his $2,000 savings and attracted local backers, including Albert Bond Lambert, to buy an airplane dubbed the Spirit of St. Louis. He sought the Orteig Prize, offered for the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris.

He did it on May 20-21, 1927. Returning to St. Louis a hero, he was greeted by 12,000 people at Lambert and was hailed with a ticker-tape parade downtown. Another 100,000 admirers jammed Art Hill to hear him speak.

His airplane is at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington. A replica is at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

JAMES S. McDONNELL

James McDonnell grew up in Little Rock and earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from MIT. In 1939, he founded his own company at Lambert Field with 12 employees.

In 1946, the firm delivered the Phantom fighter, the first jet to fly from an American aircraft carrier. The company grew quickly with more successful designs, especially its Phantom II, a rugged fighter-bomber. McDonnell made 5,057 of them.

The company also built the Mercury and Gemini space capsules and F-15 and F/A-18 military jets. At its busiest, 40,000 people worked there.

McDonnell Aircraft bought Douglas Aircraft Corp. in 1967. James McDonnell died in 1980. Boeing bought the company in 1997.