History
The airport is located near the site of the old Ryan Airlines factory, but it is not the same as Dutch Flats, the Ryan airstrip where Charles Lindbergh flight tested the Spirit of St. Louis before his historic 1927 transatlantic flight. The site of Dutch Flats is on the other side of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, in the Midway area, near the current intersection of Midway and Barnett avenues.
Inspired by Lindbergh's historic flight and excited to have made the plane he flew, the city of San Diego passed a bond issue in 1928 for construction of a two-runway municipal airport to be operated by the city. Lindbergh himself encouraged the building of the airport and agreed to lend his name to it. The new airport, dedicated on August 16, 1928, was given the name San Diego Municipal Airport – Lindbergh Field, by which name it is still known. This naming occurred because San Diego was the city from which Lindbergh began the journey that would ultimately become the first solo transatlantic flight, in addition to being the place where his aircraft was designed, built, and tested, at Dutch Flats.
The airport was the first federally certified airfield to serve all aircraft types, including seaplanes. The original terminal was located on the northeastern side of the field, along Pacific Highway. The airport also served as a testing facility for several early U.S. sailplane designs, notably those by William Hawley Bowlus (superintendent of construction on the Spirit of St. Louis) who also operated the Bowlus Glider School at Lindbergh Field from 1929–1930. On June 1, 1930, a regular San Diego – Los Angeles airmail route was initiated. The airport gained 'international airport' status in 1934, and a United States Coast Guard Air Base located adjacent to the field was commissioned in April 1937. The Coast Guard's fixed-wing aircraft made use of the runway at Lindbergh Field until the mid-1990s when the fixed-wing aircraft were retired.
The Army Air Corps took the field over in 1942 to support the war effort, improving it to handle the heavy bombers being manufactured in the region. This transformation, including an 8,750 ft (2,670 m) runway, made the airport "jet-ready' long before jet airliners came into service. After the war commercial air service at Lindbergh Field expanded rapidly. Pacific Southwest Airlines established its headquarters in San Diego and inaugurated service at Lindbergh Field in 1949. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 42 departures a day: 14 American, 13 United, 6 Western, 6 Bonanza and 3 PSA (5 PSA on Friday and Sunday). American had a nonstop to Dallas and one to El Paso; aside from that nonstop flights didn't reach beyond California and Arizona.
In 1960 Lindbergh Field gained its first jet service, with American Airlines Boeing 720s to Phoenix and United Airlines 720s to San Francisco.
The original terminal was on the north side of the airport and was used until the 1960s; by then air traffic in San Diego had increased considerably and new facilities were needed in a location where aircraft did not have to cross the runway to get to the gates. The current Terminal 1 was opened on the south side of the airport on March 5, 1967. It was not until July 11, 1979 that Terminal 2 was opened. These two terminals were designed by Paderewski Dean & Associates. A third terminal, dubbed the Commuter Terminal, opened on July 23, 1996. Terminal 2 was later expanded by 300,000 square feet (27,871 m2) in 1998, opening on January 7, 1998. The expanded Terminal 2 and the Commuter Terminal were designed by Gensler and SGPA Architecture and Planning. In the 1990s, the official name of the airport became San Diego International Airport, but is still often referred to as Lindbergh Field by the local residents. As downtown San Diego developed, one of the airport's two runways was closed. This 3,600 foot runway was rarely used and insufficient in length for commercial aircraft.
Originally built and operated by the City of San Diego through the sale of municipal bonds to be repaid by airport users, then the San Diego Unified Port District, the airport is now operated by the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority.
Read more about this topic: San Diego International Airport
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