FeelThere has recently released their rendition of St. Louis Lambert International Airport (KSTL) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, serving metropolitan St. Louis with a yearly average of 13 million passengers.

Opened 100 years ago, St. Louis started its life as an airfield with the addition of hangars and a passenger terminal two years later, in 1925. In that same decade, it became one of the first airports to have an air traffic control system, although via flags instead of radio communication.

In 1928, it became one of the first municipally owned airports in the United States after the city paid 2 million dollars to Albert Bond Lambert, its owners, and one of the most famous precursors of aviation in St. Louis, being the first licensed pilot in the city and part of the leadership of the Missouri Aeronautical Society.

During World War 2, it became a manufacturing facility for McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and Curtiss-Wright.

In the 1950s, the airport got a new passenger terminal to handle the increased air travel demand, costing 7.2 million dollars and bringing an innovative dome design that preceded JFK (New York) and CDG (Paris). By 1957, they had 44 weekday TWA departures, 24 from American Airlines, 16 from Delta, 14 from Ozark Airlines, 13 from Eastern Air Lines, six from Braniff, and two from Central. 

In the 1970s, Missouri residents rejected a proposal to build a new airport in suburban Illinois. Later in that decade, the airport underwent a massive expansion project that expanded the runways, increased the number of gates to 81, and boosted its overall capacity. 

Following the airline deregulation in 1978, the dominant forces at St. Louis were TWA with 36 routes and Ozark with 25, followed by American and Eastern with 17 and 12, respectively. 

As a direct consequence of the deregulation, airlines adopted a hub model. St. Louis became one of TWA's hubs, flying people all over America and even across the ocean to London, Paris, and Frankfurt. 

With the aviation crisis that followed 9/11, TWA ceased operations and got bought out by American, which couldn't afford to keep St. Louis as one of their hubs. Southwest preyed on that by boosting their daily departures and overall participation. Currently, they hold 61.40% of the passenger market share, followed by American Airlines (12%) and Delta Air Lines (7.70%). 

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with over 60 custom buildings, custom animated jetways, custom night lighting, custom ground clutter, realistic terrain elevation, and high-resolution ground textures.

It's available on SimMarket for roughly $15.07, requiring at least 685.08 MB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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