By John Gibbons
While Bader Field was not the first airstrip or airfield, it is widely considered the first airport. That’s since the term “airport” was coined here. The description was first used in a newspaper article written by Robert Woodhouse in 1919, naming the airfield adjacent to Atlantic City. “Airport” was a fitting name for article about the famous Traymore Hotel’s Flying Limousine’s destination. The seaplane flew between Atlantic City and New York City.
Bader Field first opened in 1910 and aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss began passenger service from the field in 1911. The airfield was the first municipal airfield with facilities for both land-based aircraft and seaplanes.
Even before the field was called an airport, Atlantic City was quite the aviation hotspot in the earliest days of flight. In October of 1910 explorer Walter Wellman made the first attempt to fly cross the Atlantic from the resort in a dirigible named America. A dirigible is a lighter- than air motorized craft, like a blimp. The flight was unsuccessful with a rescue made on the third day of the voyage.
Atlantic City sponsored one of the first Air Carnivals in 1910. Lasting ten days, the event spawned several aviation records including Walter Brookins’ altitude record (6,175 feet) and Glenn Curtiss’ speed record covering 50 miles in 74 minutes- a blistering 39 miles per hour! Glenn Curtiss also dropped oranges from his airplane for accuracy, demonstrating his “bombing” prowess. These Air Carnivals were regular occurrences during the early 1900s on the Jersey shore.
Atlantic City Municipal airport was purchased by the city and named Bader Field in 1922 after Edward L. Bader, Atlantic City’s mayor from 1920 to 1927. The airport hosted some of the nation’s first privately owned aircraft- many of them flown by local businessmen. On July 17th 1933 Dr. Albert Forsythe and C. Alfred Anderson became the first black men to make a round trip transcontinental flight. They took off from Bader Field and navigated to Los Angeles and back using only by an altimeter and a map. The aircraft had no lighting or radio. Naming their plane “Pride of Atlantic City”, they returned to Bader Field and were honored with a parade.
The popularity of Atlantic City and Bader Field’s proximity to the resort kept the airport busy. Because of the draw of Atlantic City, every United States President from Theodore Roosevelt to Gerald Ford flew into Bader Field during their terms in Office.
Charles Lindbergh landed his famous Spirit of St. Louis at Bader Field after his historic solo flight across the Atlantic. In 1931 Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart all celebrated the formation of Eastern Airlines at Bader Field.
A minor league baseball stadium was built on the airfield grounds, opening in 1944. The New York Yankees held spring training at Bader Field that year, playing several games there. The Bronx Bombers used the Senator Hotel for their spring training headquarters and practiced indoors at the Atlantic City Armory. The Boston Red Sox also used Bader Field for spring training in 1945. After the war ended, Bader Field was used primarily for private aviation. A municipal football stadium (John Boyd Stadium) was opened at Bader Field in 1949 and stood there until 1994. The airport was modernized, adding field lights, a control tower, paved runways and additional hangars.
Bader Field went into decline in 1978, when commercial traffic shifted to Atlantic City International Airport in Egg Harbor Township. A brief surge in activity coincided with the arrival of the casinos in town but soon subsided. The control tower, fuel trucks, and onsite aircraft maintenance disappeared in the late 1980s. It finally closed in 2006.
