After
the Wright brothers’ historic flight on December 17,
1903, the entire world was infected with flight fever. By
the late teens, Joplin had built a grass landing field for
aircraft at Schifferdecker Park. Thomas Webber, a World
War I pilot, returned to Joplin in 1919 and opened Joplin
Aviation School at the park. Meanwhile, the Hiland-O’Brien
Airplane Company was busy manufacturing Curtiss aircraft
in a building at 3rd and Kentucky. The next closest airplane
factory at the time was in Chicago. The Hiland factory,
which produced seven airplanes between February and October
of 1919, urged city leaders to invest in Joplin’s
bright future in aviation by constructing a real airport.
In the fall of 1927, the new facility opened near 7th and
Schifferdecker, just west of the Empire District Electric
substation. Air service continued to grow during the next
decade. With federal funding from the WPA and CWA programs,
Joplin completed a new airport north of the city in 1937.
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