Portland International Airport history

In 1915, while a student at Harvard Dental College, he and several companions designed and built a hang glider that flew successfully from a hilltop in Cape Elizabeth.

One of the first fatal airplane crashes in Portland took place in June of 1919.

Doctor Clifford “Kip” Strange first created space on his extensive Portland land for his own plane in the late 1920s.

In 1922 he acquired several acres of farmland in Stroudwater, then on the outskirts of Portland, and graded a small, grass-covered runway for personal use.

As the nation became obsessed with flying, landing strips dotted Portland’s landscape in 1925 when the City of Portland asked the Port of Portland to build Portland’s first commercial airport on Swan Island.

Charles Lindbergh flew his Spirit of St Louis into the Portland Swan Island Airport on September 14, 1927.

Planes on the Tarmac and field at Portland Airport on Swan Island about 1930.

In 1935, the United States Bureau of Air Commerce denied authorization for the most modern aircraft, the DC-3 Mainliner, to operate out of Swan Island.

But 1936, the city bought the land on which it the Portland-Columbia Super Airport, now known as Portland International Airport.

The field was then renamed, "Portland Airport", which Doctor Strange gave [sold?] to the City of Portland in 1937.

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration built Portland’s first real terminal, a brick structure that is now the general aviation terminal.

It started out as a private field, and was used as a backup to the Portland-Columbia airport during extensive flooding in 1948.

With the completion of a new 8,800-foot runway capable of handling international flights, the Portland-Columbia Airport was renamed to Portland International Airport (PDX) in 1951.

The current terminal building opened in 1968, when jet aircraft arrived, and has been expanded at least twice since.