South St. Paul Municipal Airport , also known as Richard E. Fleming Field or simply Fleming Field, is a city-owned public-use airport located two miles (3 km) south of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

South St. Paul South St. Paul is a city in Dakota County, Minnesota, Dakota County, Minnesota, United States, located immediately south and southeast of Saint Paul, Minnesota, St. Paul. It is also east of West St. Paul, Minnesota, West St. Paul. The population ...

, a city in

Dakota County Dakota County may refer to: *Dakota County, Minnesota in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area of east-central Minnesota *Dakota County, Nebraska Dakota County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of th2020 United States Census the populati ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is named for

Richard E. Fleming Captain Richard Eugene Fleming (November 2, 1917 – June 5, 1942) was a United States Marine Corps, United States Marine who received the Medal of Honor for his heroism in World War II during the Battle of Midway. Fleming piloted a Vought SB2U Vi ...

, a

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

Naval Aviator during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

who was posthumously awarded a

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...

. It is the only reliever airport for Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport that is not operated by the

Metropolitan Airports Commission The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is the airport authority, owner and operator of Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in Minnesota as well as six other reliever airports in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Twin Ci ...

. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter

location identifier A location identifier is a symbolic representation for the name and the location of an airport, navigation aid, or weather station, and is used for staffed air traffic control facilities in air traffic control, telecommunications, computer programm ...

for the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

and

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...

, South St. Paul Municipal Airport is assigned SGS by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA. Over the decade of 1950 and 1960 the airport was the main launch center for Winzen Research Inc. One of the most important companies devoted to the construction and operation of stratospheric balloons. The proximity to their headquarters in Minneapolis, made the ideal place for testing of new balloon models, as well as for technological flights and a number of scientific experiments. In 1957, Fleming Field was the site chosen to launch the first manned flight of the MANHIGH program of the Air Force, commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Kittinger. According to our records the latest balloons flights from there dating from the mid 60's. Currently, inside the installations of the airport, there is an important museum with a very prominent collection of WWII aircraft.http://stratocat.com.ar/bases/23e.htm

Facilities and aircraft

South St. Paul Municipal-Richard E. Fleming Field covers an area of and contains one

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

designated 16/34 which measures 4,002 x 100 ft (1,220 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending May 31, 2016, the airport had 51,000

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

aircraft operations, an average of 140 per day. In January 2017, there were 401 aircraft based at this airport: 375 single-engine, 20 multi-engine and 6 helicopter.

References

External links

South Saint Paul Fleming Field
official web site * Airports in Minnesota Buildings and structures in Dakota County, Minnesota Transportation in Dakota County, Minnesota {{Minnesota-struct-stub