 Initially,
the area now known as Lambert - St. Louis International Airport
was a balloon launch location called Kinloch Field.
President Theodore Roosevelt, the first
president to ride in an airplane, took his first ride at the
Kinloch airfield. Soon after, the first experimental parachute
jump in the world took place in St. Louis. Then, Major Albert
Lambert purchased the 550 acres of land known as Kinloch Field
and renamed it Lambert Field. Major Lambert was the first person
in St. Louis to receive his private pilot's license, having
taken his first flight in an airplane with Orville Wright.
In June 1920, Major Lambert was not
only a man with a dream, but also one with great foresight and
generosity. His vision enabled St. Louis to become a key in the
growing aviation industry. What many would have viewed as an
ordinary hayfield, on June 18, 1920, became a 170 acre airfield.
At his own expense, he developed the airfield by clearing,
grading, and draining the land and erecting hangars. Eight years
later, Lambert's airfield was a base for passenger and freight
service.
 On
May 12, 1927, Col. Charles Lindbergh departed St. Louis for New
York to begin his historic non-stop solo flight to Paris,
France. About this time, Lambert Field was dubbed "The New Union
Station of St. Louis." However, the City of St. Louis had yet to
purchase the field as a municipal airport.
In November 1927, Major Lambert offered
Mayor Victor Miller and the City Administration, Lambert
Airfield for $68,000, the price he had paid for the field alone,
even though improvements had been made to the field. The
additional acreage was obtained through a passage of a $2
million bond issue. Prior to the passage of the bond issue,
Major Lambert agreed to lease the airfield to the city for
fifteen months for a total of $1. Finally, on February 7, 1928,
the city accepted his generous offer, contingent upon the
passage of the airport bond issue. Lambert - St. Louis Municipal
Airport became the first municipally owned airport in the
country.
Lambert's first passenger terminal was
constructed for Robertson Airlines, which featured St. Louis to
New Orleans service. Next, Marquette Airlines began service from
St. Louis to Detroit. In that year, 24,133 people arrived and
departed from Lambert. By 1938, that figure increased to 40,000
passengers with approximately 170,000 landings and take-offs of
all types of aircraft. Services at and from Lambert Airfield
continued to expand. McDonnell Aircraft was established on
Lambert Airfield. That was the predecessor to McDonnell Douglas
Corporation, which recently merged with Boeing Aircraft. Service
to St. Louis from Nashville, Tn, and Miami, Fl, was begun by
Eastern Airlines.
During WWII, airport traffic did not
increase at the same rate as in previous years, yet by the same
token, St. Louis' industry rapidly became aviation oriented.
Three companies came into the forefront: Curtiss - Wright,
Robertson, and the McDonnell Aircraft Company. Together, they
manufactured over 3,000 military airplanes. Further development
came when an air traffic control tower was built atop the Naval
Air Reserve Building, and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation
purchased land at Lambert to construct factory buildings.
Proceeds from the sale of the land were used in airport
improvements.
 In
1956, Minoru Yamasaki's domed design for Lambert's main terminal
became the forerunner of modern terminal building plans. Both
the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and the Charles DeGualle
Airport in Paris, France followed the lead of the domed design
of Lambert's Main Terminal. The present four-dome main terminal
was built originally with three domes; the fourth followed a few
years later.
The "Jet Transportation Era" began at
Lambert with the inauguration of Trans World Airlines' Boeing
707 service. Around this time, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation
started assembling the Mercury series spacecraft at Lambert.
Just after that, McDonnell Aircraft merged with Douglas Aircraft
Company. Working together, McDonnell Douglas watched the first
production model of the F-4E Phantom make its first flight.
By the mid-1970s, both parallel runways
had been extended, instrument landing systems were added, and
the operational capacity of the airfield was increased by 50
percent. In addition, new taxiways and aircraft ramp spaces had
been created. Terminal expansion brought gate capacity to 81
gates. The overall cost of expansion upon completion was
approximately $290 million, with an economic impact of $2
billion to the St. Louis area. Lambert's traffic increased to
428,000 aircraft operations and 19 million passengers annually.
By 1986, Lambert's traffic figures increased to 458,293 aircraft
operations and 20 million passengers. That breaks down to 54,000
travelers per day, just about the population of Columbia, Mo.
This surpassed previous studies which projected an average of 5
to 8 percent annual increase.
In 1987, construction began on an
18-mile long light-rail transportation system to be called
MetroLink. Completed in July 1993, the system now connects
Lambert - St. Louis International Airport with nineteen St.
Louis stations or stops.
Lambert now sits on approximately 2,000
acres of land. In 1996, over 27 million passengers traveled
through the airport. The airfield is comprised of 3 runways,
varying in length from 11,000 feet to 3,000 feet. There are 10
major airlines and 5 commuter airlines that use the 81 gates
within the 4 concourses at Lambert.
All Information About The Airport Was Extracted from the Airport
site http://www.lambert-stlouis.com/index/about_History.html
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