The Curtiss-Wright Corporation built planes for WWII in a historic building just north of the Lambert St. Louis Airport runways. The historic building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. As of 2023, Lambert Airport, the FAA, and Boeing are trying to demolish the historic building to replace it with a new airplane production facility. Here is an article from 1940 about the building. Here is the 2023 report where they are hoping to demolish the building (contains photos).

The St. Louis airport is named for Albert Bond Lambert, a golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics. His father was Jordan W. Lambert, founder of Lambert Pharmaceutical Company which made Listerine. In 1909, Lambert met the Wright Brothers, and purchased his first airplane from them. He took flying lessons from Orville Wright, and in 1911 became the first St. Louis resident to hold a pilot’s license. In 1925, for $68,000, Lambert purchased Kinloch Field of Kinloch, Missouri, a 170-acre (0.

Howard Hughes acquired control of TWA in 1939. TWA had a Hub in St. Louis until 2001 when it was sold to American Airlines.