Now there’s another reason to make a special visit to STL Airport:
By Steve Jones
A whimsical exhibition titled “Rat Race,” and featuring the work of fifteen artists associated with the Foundry Art Centre in St. Louis, MO, has opened in the airport’s Meeting Place Gallery, which is in the Terminal 1 baggage claim level, next to the Concourse C exit.
The repair bill might have been much more had not Charles Lindbergh’s plane – a 1934 Model D-127 Monocoupe which had hung in Terminal 1 over the C Concourse checkpoint since 1979 – been moved to a storage hangar just a few weeks earlier in preparation for terminal renovations.
According to the Missouri History Museum, which received the plane in 1940, Lindbergh flew this airplane regularly, but didn’t really love it. And even though he’d had it personalized extensively, he wrote that “it is one of the most difficult planes to handle I have ever flown. The take-off is slow…and the landing tricky…[it] is almost everything an airplane ought not to be.”
During the 30 years the airplane had been suspended from the STL ceiling it gathered a great deal of dust and was subject to a great deal of stress. So while the monocoupe was in storage, the museum gave it a conservation make-over and on Sunday, October 20, 2013 returned the plane to its original spot in the airport.
The nine-hour installation process is documented in this time-lapse video.
This is Customer Appreciation Week at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport (STL) and there’s a full schedule of fun underway, including live music, giveaways, special appearances in the terminals and “random surprises” for passengers riding the shuttles to and from the airport parking lots.
It all looks like a lot of fun, but my favorite events will be taking place on Friday, May 10th, when reps from Explore St. Louis will be on duty handing out one of the city’s signature food items, pre-packaged Gooey Louie cakes and passengers will able to get their pictures taken with (a cardboard cut-out of) St. Louis rock & roll icon Chuck Berry.
Chuck Berry, courtesy St. Louis Convention and Visitor’s Commission. Photo by Dan Donovan
In addition to daily live music performances, here are few other highlights of the week:
Tuesday, May 7 is Mascot Day. Look for the mascots from the St. Louis Cardinals (Fredbird), the St. Louis Rams (Rampage), the St. Louis Blues (Louie) and Six Flags WB characters Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.
Wednesday, May 8, is Airlines Day, and carriers will be handing out candy and other giveaways.
