Date: c. 2008

 

Description: This souvenir wing pin bears the International Air Transport Association (IATA) code for the Sioux City Municipal Airport, better known today as the Sioux Gateway Airport: SUX. The airport was built in association with the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency that founded many different public projects in the city. Building began in 1937 but was not complete until 1940. At his construction the airport featured three runways, several taxiways, a parking apron, and terminal building. Mid-Continent Airlines was the lone carrier at the time of the airport’s completion. At the dawn of World War II in 1941 the Army Air Corps converted the airport into a bomber training base, and the Corps constructed longer runways, a new terminal building and several other buildings on the site. It was turned back over to the city at the end of the war, but the Iowa Air National Guard retained ownership of some of the land for the local air base. The Air Force retained the right to reclaim the airport as a military base whenever necessary, which it did during the outbreak of the Korean War in 1951. The Air Force lost reclamation in 1966 and the airport became a purely public airport. The airport was renovated in 1986 with funding from Gateway Computer Co., and the airport was renamed to the Sioux Gateway Airport. Several airlines have been in service in the airport over the years, including Braniff International, Northwest, Frontier, Delta, and Ozark. Today American Eagle, a subsidiary of American Airlines, is the major national carrier at the airport, with two daily flights to Chicago O’Hare.

 

Donor: Curt Miller