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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
For the average commercial airline passenger, St. Louis Downtown Airport might seem like an enigma. For one thing, the name is a misnomer: The region’s second-busiest airport isn’t actually downtown; rather, it’s 3 miles southeast of the Arch in Cahokia, Illinois. To understand its business, think of aviation in its broadest and most miscellaneous sense. Under the auspices of the Bi-State Development Agency, the airport allows tens of thousands of niche users to take to the sky each year, supporting hundreds of jobs and infusing millions into the local economy.
The airfield seems serene, but that’s mostly because its activity is spread out over 1,000 acres. Driving his SUV along the maze of taxiways, airport director Erick Dahl explains how it all works. Up ahead is a nervous novice affiliated with Saint Louis University’s Parks College, taxiing to the runway in a small two-seat plane to clock hours toward a pilot’s license. To the right sits a cluster of news helicopters that fly out each morning to give updates on the region’s traffic. Fanning out to the north and east is the business park, dominated by 60 acres of cavernous hangars belonging to Jet Aviation. The company specializes in overhauling large aircraft, installing both mechanical parts and all the creature comforts inside a cabin.
Over there is the main terminal—comically small but packed with amenities—where chartered planes carrying visiting professional sports teams unload. The players are grateful for the airport’s location, an easy 10-minute drive from the city’s downtown hotels and stadiums. The terminal also serves as the face of the airport for business executives who use corporate jets, bypassing security screening and following flight schedules that they can change on a whim. Future growth depends on turning one-time corporate charter fliers into repeat customers, Dahl notes. Since a 2012 expansion, the airport has been able to accommodate more and bigger flights. The largest of the three runways can handle planes as large as a 737. “We can land planes all day and all night long,” Dahl says.
One section of the airport is earmarked for “experimental aviation”—a term that’s less cutting edge than one might imagine. A typical experimental aviator is a hobbyist who’s picked up a decommissioned military plane at a bargain price and needs someplace to tinker with it. Although many of these planes are American, it’s not uncommon for the airport to rent space to an aviator with a Russian MiG-15 or a Chinese Nanchang.
Dahl radios to the control tower and asks for permission to approach the runway in his car. We crawl past gargantuan signage and ground markings, utterly cryptic unless viewed from the sky. A few moments later, we are driving at 50 mph down the 7,002-foot runway. Dahl points out the increasing density of black skid marks clustered in the middle section of the runway, incontrovertible evidence of St. Louis Downtown Airport’s 8,500 monthly takeoffs and landings. This airport has seen significant growth in recent years, Dahl says, but it remains “one of St. Louis’ best-kept secrets.”
Fast Facts
St. Louis Downtown Airport is home to the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum, which contains one of reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes’ planes, as well as capsules from the Gemini space missions.
The Parks College flight school is based at the airport. The first federally certified flight school in the country, it dates back to 1927.
Two of the airport’s original four brick hangars are still in use and are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In the 1930s, the company that would become TWA hired Charles Lindbergh to recommend sites for its St. Louis operations. Cahokia was his first choice, Lambert Field his third. Lambert was chosen largely because some of the funds came from Missouri state coffers.
