Day In the Life of an Airport: St. Louis Downtown Airport Thrives With Diverse Mix of Traffic

By Carmelo Turdo

St. Louis Downtown Airport serves the greater St. Louis area as a reliever for Lambert-St. Louis Airport and host to general and business aviation aircraft of all kinds.  The airport hosts three fixed-wing and several rotary-wing flight schools, two FBOs, maintenance and jet finishing businesses, a restaurant, the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum, growing emergency responder training facility, numerous warbirds and essentially any type of transient aircraft on a given day.  On just one day this week, such a variety of aircraft were documented that we wanted to share them with you as a testament to this thriving Midwest Aviation community just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. 

Here is a photo essay of what came through St. Louis Downtown Airport yesterday: 

General Aviation and Business Aircraft - Home Based and Transient:

Helicopters, from vintage Hughes to Coast Guard Jayhawk and everything else:

The "Pink Plane" visits:

Mitsubishi MU-2 brings its distinctive engine sound:

A U.S. Navy KC-130T Hercules visited the ramp around dusk:

Kevin Kegin giving a ride in his 1941 Waco:

A third aircraft is moved to the future emergency services training area: