THE OLDEST OPERATING AIRPORTS IN THE U.S.

IT’S FUN AND STRAIGHTFORWARD: Identify the earliest U.S. airports that are still in operation. Being the A.I. luddite that I am, I did my own scraping of the Internet and came up with several sources: my frequent pal DailyPassport‘s “5 of the Oldest Airports in the U.S.,” the appropriately named oldest.org and its “8 Oldest Airports in the U.S.,”  and General Aviation News which sent me directly to a-z-animals.com‘s “Discover the 9 Oldest Airports in the United States.”

Here are tidbits gleaned from each source, together with SimanaitisSays comments on these airports’ roles in aviation history.

Chicago Midway. The DailyPassport website writes, “Before it was known as Midway Airport, the Chicago Air Park opened in 1923 and, like many early airfields, was used primarily for airmail. As the aviation industry expanded, commercial flights came to the airfield, and its name was changed to the Chicago Municipal Airport in 1927…. From 1932 to 1961, Chicago Municipal Airport was the busiest airport in the world, serving a peak of 10 million passengers in 1959. During this time, the airport changed its name again to Midway in honor of the famous World War II battle in the Pacific.”

O’Hare’s arrival in 1944 has replaced it as Chicago’s top airport, but Midway still ranks among the 30 busiest in the U.S.

For more airmail lore, check out “U.S. Airmail Tidbits” here at SimanaitisSays.

Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Another early airmail field (and evolved from the Snelling Speedway race track), its first hangar was constructed in 1920. DailyPassport recounts  that the airport was first named Speedway Field, renamed Wold-Chamberlain Field in honor of Ernest Groves Wold and Cyrus Foss Chamberlain, pilots who died in WWI.

It began offering passenger service in 1929.

Long Beach Airport. Though not on DailyPassport’s list, Long Beach aka Daugherty Field entered service in 1923. Wikipedia notes, “The first transcontinental flight, a biplane flown by Calbraith Perry Rodgers, landed in 1911 on Long Beach’s sandy beach. From 1911 until the airport was created, planes used the beach as a runway.”

See “Cross-country Flight, Take 1” for more on Cal Rodger’s Vin Fiz. 

Another famed aviator, Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan used Daugherty Field regularly. See “The Right Stuff, the Wrong Way.”

Stinson Field, San Antonio. DailyPassport recounts, “Stinson Municipal Airport got its start as the Stinson School of Flying in 1915. At this school, both civilian and military students learned to fly under the direction of the three Stinson siblings: Marjorie, Katherine, and Eddie.” 

The Stinson trio. From left to right, Marjorie, Eddie and Katherine. Image from San Antonio History. 

For more on these talented siblings, see “The Stinsons—High Family Values.”

Pearson Field, Vancouver, Washington. DailyPassport writes, “Pearson Field saw its first airplane flight in 1911. Before even that, it was the landing site for a dirigible airship six years earlier. That date leads some historians and flight lovers to consider Pearson Field the oldest operating airfield in the country. The site was also the landing place for the first non-stop transpolar flight, achieved in 1937 by the Russian ANT-25 monoplane.”

Well, er…, I may beg to differ with this last one. True, on June 18, 1937, an ANT-25 left Moscow and headed north. And 63 hours 25 minutes later, an ANT-25 landed at Pearson (its crew sensing less than adequate fuel to reach its intended San Francisco).  

Above, Moscow takeoff, June 18, 1937. Below it, Vancouver, Washington, after the transpolar flight. Images from Russia’s Shortcut to Fame.

See “Tupolev ANT-25″ for a tantalizing tale that there might have been two separate aircraft, the second one shipped by sea to a site near Sitka, Alaska.

What’s more, those crafty Soviets might have pulled the same scam twice. 

College Park Airport, College Park, Maryland. DailyPassport writes (and my other sources agree), “Widely accepted as the oldest continuously operated airport in the world, College Park Airport in Maryland has been in use since 1909. During that year, it was founded by Wilbur Wright to train the country’s very first military pilots.”

Image from General Aviation News.

The website continues, “It has since continued to play an important role in the history of the nation’s aviation. This airport has seen the first female to fly as a passenger, the first controlled helicopter flight, the first night landing, and other flying firsts.” ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024