Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport

The Little Miami River valley is the site of the first Cincinnati-area settlement (in 1788), and it is here that Cincinnati Municipal Airport (Lunken Airport) opened in 1925 on 1,000 acres (although the first aviation-related activities in the area took place in 1921 when John “Dixie” Davis offered flying lessons). At the time, it was the largest municipal airport in the world. It was named after Eshelby Lunken, whose father, Edmund H. Lunken, ran the Lunkenheimer Valve Company (they had shortened the family name). In 1928 the T.E. Halpin Development Company (later known as the Metal Aircraft Corporation) produced 22 high-wing Flamingo at the airport. That same year, Aeronca Aircraft Corporation was formed to build cheap aircraft (the original hangar is still in use). In the late 1920s, airline flights began at the airport, and in 1938 American Airlines and Maquetter Airlines were using the new terminal building (which had cost $172,000). During WWII, the airport was initially the headquarters of the I Concentration Command and later the Air Transport Command. The introduction of larger aircraft that necessitated longer runways (as well as flooding from the Ohio River) caused Lunken to eventually be supplanted by the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. From 1948 until at least 1966, the Greater Cincinnati Airmen’s Club held an annual cross-country air race at Lunken. In the early 1960s, Conrad International Corporation was located at the airport. In 1964 the airport was designated a general reliever airport by the FAA, while the following year, Runway 2R (a parallel runway that extended 6,100 feet) was added to accommodate business jets. In 1967 the airport was renamed from Lunken Field to Lunken Airport.

The airport is located three miles east of Downtown Cincinnati. 

• The Ohio River Flood of 1937 caused both the airfield and the two-story terminal building to submerge, earning the nickname "Sunken Lunken." 
• The airport control tower is the oldest-standing control tower in the U.S. and is home to the Lunken Cadet Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol. 
• In the 1940s, American Airlines was born at Lunken Airfield. 
• The Sky Galley restaurant provided continuous service for decades, and its name was derived from the fact that the first meals served aboard a commercial airliner (America Airways) were prepared there. Unfortunately, the restaurant was forced to close due to COVID-19, and a new restaurant is said to be under development.