Albert Whitted Airport
| Albert Whitted Airport | |||||||||||||||
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| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | City of St. Petersburg | ||||||||||||||
| Serves | St. Petersburg, Florida | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 7 ft / 2 m | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 27°45′54″N 082°37′37″W / 27.76500°N 82.62694°W | ||||||||||||||
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Source: Federal Aviation Administration
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| Aircraft operations | 96,827 |
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| Based aircraft | 184 |
Albert Whitted Airport (IATA: SPG, ICAO: KSPG, FAA LID: SPG) is a public airport in St. Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida. It is on the west edge of Tampa Bay, just southeast of downtown St. Petersburg and east of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg is recognized as the birthplace of scheduled commercial airline flight. On January 1, 1914, a Benoist XIV flying boat from the company St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line piloted by Tony Jannus, took off from the central yacht basin of the downtown waterfront, on the first scheduled commercial aircraft flight in history. His passenger was A. C. Pheil, a former mayor of St. Petersburg. Albert Whitted Airport began construction in October 1928 and opened in the summer of 1929.
The airport is named for Lieutenant James Albert Whitted, USNR, a St. Petersburg native. Albert was one of the U.S. Navy's first 250 Naval Aviators, commissioned at age 24 just as the United States entered World War I in 1917. He served as chief instructor of advanced flying at NAS Pensacola, Florida and was later assigned to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Leaving active duty, he returned home in 1919 and introduced the people of St. Petersburg to flying. Albert would take people up in the "Bluebird", a plane he designed and built. He never charged for the flights. Albert's aerial maneuvers always left spectators in awe. Albert also designed and built the "Falcon". The Falcon and Bluebird were used in a commercial flying business he had with his brother, Clarence. On August 19, 1923, James Albert Whitted and four passengers were killed during a flight near Pensacola aboard the Falcon when the propeller broke off. The city's airport, known until then as Cook-Springstead tracks, was renamed Albert Whitted Airport on 12 October 1928.
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