New terminal a fresh chapter in Pittsburgh’s long aviation history | The Homepage

All departure gates on the third floor of the new terminal at the Pittsburgh International Airport on Nov. 18. Photo by Kyle Ferreira for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership Newsroom

By Bob Regan

With the Nov. 18 opening of the new airport passenger terminal (the third one) at Pittsburgh International Airport, it is a suitable time to reflect on the airports that have served Pittsburgh over the years.

Pittsburgh has an interesting aviation history. It has even been argued, unsuccessfully, that Gustave Whitehead achieved the first powered airplane flight here in 1899. We know for sure that flying became quite popular in the ‘Burgh in the early 1900s with planes landing in fields around the city. One popular landing spot was a field near the intersection of Forbes and Braddock Avenues, and another was the Schenley Park Oval. But as aerial activities increased, it was soon apparent that more formal landing facilities were needed. During the 1920s three landing fields or airports were created from parcels of vacant farmland.

Mayers Field

Mayers Field, in Bridgeville, began operation in 1919. Historians have called it Pittsburgh’s first commercial airport; it offered sightseeing flights for a fee. Mayers Field operated until about 1950, when the land was sold. In 1954, the Great Southern Shopping Center opened on the site.

Bettis Field

Bettis Field was established in West Mifflin in 1924. It was named the Pittsburgh-McKeesport Airport in 1926. A few months later, in November, it was renamed Bettis Field in honor of U.S. Army Air Corps Lt. Cyrus Bettis. It was home to the first U.S. Air Mail route between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. In 1930, it was rededicated as Curtiss-Bettis Airport but was always referred to as Bettis Field. In 1949 Westinghouse Electric bought the airport. It is now the site of the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory.

Rodgers Field

The first real airport in the Pittsburgh area was Rodgers Field, formally known as the Pittsburgh Municipal Airport. It was located on the site of today’s Fox Chapel Area High School in O’Hara Township. Rodgers Field was named for Calbraith Rodgers, who was the first aviator to fly across the continental United States. It started in 1925 and served as Pittsburgh’s Municipal Airport for the rest of the 1920s. However, it was an unpaved field and thought too small and narrow to serve the larger airplanes. Soon after Allegheny County opened the county airport, Rodgers Field stopped being used. It closed in 1935.

County Airport

Only one mile away from Bettis Field, the county airport was dedicated and opened on Sept. 11, 1931. When it opened, it was the third largest airport in the country and the only one with a paved runway. Helen Richey of McKeesport, the first woman commercial airline pilot, was based at the County Airport when she flew for Central Airlines. The airport is also the home of the renowned Pittsburgh Institute of Aviation. Its design was suitable for small to midsized private and commercial airplanes but not for handling larger jet airliners. Thus, after serving as the main airport for Pittsburgh for 20 years, it ceased doing so in 1952 when the new Pittsburgh airport opened in Moon Township.

Greater Pittsburgh Airport

In the early 1940s the U.S. government decided that Pittsburgh should have a military airbase for training and defense. In 1942, Allegheny County bought the 1,100-acre Rieck Dairy farm in Moon Township to provide a site for the airbase. That year the federal government began construction of the runways. Around this time, the county was considering replacing the Allegheny County Airport and in 1944 decided to expand the Moon Township military airbase to include commercial air operations. Ground was broken on the expansion on July 18, 1946. The Greater Pittsburgh Airport opened on June 1, 1952.

Pittsburgh International Airport

In 1968, ground was broken to add an international wing to the airport terminal. At its completion, the airport was renamed the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport. The airport underwent a massive expansion starting in 1987, which culminated with the opening of new airside and landside terminals. At this time, the airport’s name was also changed to Pittsburgh International Airport. In 2017, plans began for a new landside terminal, which opened this past November.

Bob Regan of Greenfield has written several books on Pittsburgh, including “The Steps of Pittsburgh: Portrait of a City,” and “Bridges of Pittsburgh.” Although retired from the University of Pittsburgh, he still teaches one course a year.

Kyle Ferreira is a Pittsburgh Media Partnership Newsroom intern, and Newsroom Production Assistant at WESA.