St. Paul Downtown Airport , also known as Holman Field, is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

just across the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

from downtown

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center ...

. It is one of several

reliever airport A relief airport or reliever airport is an airport that is built or designated to provide relief or additional capacity to an area when the primary commercial airport(s) requires additional capacity, on a long-term or temporary basis. Reliever a ...

s in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

operated by the

Metropolitan Airports Commission The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) is the owner and operator of Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport in Minnesota as well as six other reliever airports in the Twin Cities region, which primarily provide se ...

. The airport has three

runways 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, o ...

and serves

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or by using the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in ...

operated by

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

s in the local area, a flight training school and the Minnesota Army National Guard aviation unit, as well as transient general aviation aircraft. The airport is home to an installation of the

Minnesota Army National Guard The Minnesota Army National Guard, along with the Minnesota Air National Guard, is an element of the Minnesota National Guard. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and state missions. I ...

. Two properties at the airport are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

: the 1939 Holman Field Administration Building and the 1942 Riverside Hangar.

History

Holman Field was named for Charles W. "Speed" Holman (1898–1931), who was a

stunt pilot Stunt flying refers to any stunts performed in an aircraft. It encompasses aerobatics, wing walking, and transferring from one airplane to another or to a moving vehicle on the ground, such as an automobile or train, and vice versa. History From th ...

, barnstormer, wing walker,

parachutist Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachute or parachutes. For ...

, airmail pilot, aviation record holder and

airline pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. Born in Bloomington, he was the first pilot hired by Northwest Airways in 1926. In 1928, Holman set a world record of 1,433 consecutive loops in an airplane in five hours over the St. Paul Airport. He died in an accident during an air show in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest c ...

in 1931 at the age of 32. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

employed up to 5,000 people at the site, modifying new

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models ...

bombers, some of which received the highly classified

H2X radar H2X, officially known as the AN/APS-15, was an American ground scanning radar system used for blind bombing during World War II. It was a development of the British H2S radar, the first ground mapping radar to be used in combat. It was also k ...

, which proved to be an invaluable tool in the European theater. The terminal was used as a backdrop for scenes in the 1972 film ''

Slaughterhouse-Five ''Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to h ...

''. During the 1970s and early 1980s, commuter airline Lake State Airways offered scheduled airline service between the St. Paul Downtown Airport and Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport in

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 t ...

. It cost $5

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

for a one-way ticket between the two airports, and $10 round-trip. Capitol Air flew MDW-STP with a Swearingen Metroliner for roughly a year starting in December 1993.

Facilities and aircraft

St. Paul Downtown Holman Field covers an area of which contains three

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 ...

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 ...

s: 14/32 measuring 6,491 x 150 ft (1,978 x 46 m), 13/31 measuring 4,004 x 150 ft (1,220 x 46 m) and 9/27 measuring 3,642 x 100 ft (1,110 x 30 m).St. Paul Downtown Airport was actually Minnesota's first international airport, with having a Customs and Immigration center on site. For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2014, the airport had 66,475 aircraft operations, an average of 182 per day: 74%

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 ...

, 15% military and 11%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

. In January 2017, there were 68 aircraft based at this airport: 20 single-engine, 12 multi-engine, 18 jet, 7

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

and 11 military.

Annual aircraft operations

Based on annual reports and data released by the

, aircraft operations declined 65.3% in the decade 2011-2020.

Charter Airlines

Cargo airlines

Flood wall considerations

Recently local debate has ensued over plans to build a

flood wall A flood wall (or floodwall) is a primarily vertical artificial barrier designed to temporarily contain the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or extreme weather events. Flood walls are mainly u ...

around the airport. In 1993, 1997, and 2001, the airport was flooded due to its proximity to the

. Supporters do not want to deal with the future inconvenience of having to deal with the flood again, while critics say that the proposed wall would ruin views and make the airport "ugly". A dike to protect the airport from the nearby

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

was considered since the National Guard stated that they may leave if the dike is not constructed in a timely manner. In 2009, a removable flood wall was installed that is only erected when flooding is imminent, leaving the views of the river intact for the rest of the year. Steel plates are embedded in the concrete on the river side of the runways. The flood wall is composed of steel posts that anchor to the embedded plates and aluminum planks that are stacked between the posts to form a flood barrier. These are then removed and stored when the flood event has passed.

Gallery

Image:Holman_Control_tower.jpg, Holman Field administration building with historic control tower Image:Holman field Building.jpg, Holman Field administration building Image:KSTP.JPG, 1990s flood Image:spairport1.jpg, St. Paul Downtown Airport Image:Landing at the Downtown St Paul Airport Runway 4643320357 o.jpg, View from a plane landing on runway 32 at Holman Field

References

External links

MSP Reliever Airports: St. Paul Downtown Airport
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Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HAER) documentation, filed under Saint Paul, Ramsey County, MN: ** ** {{Airports in Minnesota Airports in Minnesota Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota Transportation buildings and structures in Saint Paul, Minnesota Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces Technical Service Command Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Minnesota