In 2020, Lambert-St. Louis International Airport will celebrate its centennial.
Ahead of that time, we spoke with Daniel Rust, a former UMSL professor studying transportation and logistics, who recently published the book “The Aerial Crossroads of America: St. Louis’s Lambert Airport.” Rust currently is a researcher and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
“Lambert Airport was one of the earliest municipal airports, of city owned airports,” Rust said. “It really came out of a vision of Albert Bond Lambert – Lambert, a great St. Louisan, he was on the Board of Alderman … his great passion was aviation.”
To fund his passion, Lambert used his family’s wealth that came from his father Jordan W. Lambert, whose company was behind the development of Listerine mouthwash.
“[Lambert] would spend most of his life promoting aviation and wanting St. Louis to be an aviation center,” Rust added. “His grand vision was that St. Louis needs a grand airport that would really put St. Louis at the center of this new technology in transportation.”
Lambert leased the property for what is now Lambert – St. Louis International Airport in 1920 and would later sell it to the city eight years later.
Check out St. Louis Public Radio reporter Mary Delach Leonard’s five things to know about A.B. Lambert and his airport for more detail about The Aerial Crossroads of America. And, listen to the interview from St. Louis on the Air with author Daniel Rust below.
St. Louis on the Air brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Mary Edwards, Alex Heuer and Kelly Moffitt give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.
