Airport Stories - Denver Stapleton Airport
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- Опубликовано: 4 дек 2020
- By popular demand, today's video will be looking over the history of Denver's Stapleton Airport, once one of the busiest airports in the world, but now buried under residential developments as demand outstripped supply.
All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated RUclipsrs. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
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References:
- Colorado Airports (and their respective sources)
- Stapleton MCA (and their respective sources)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references) 
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Interesting video. As a retired Untied Airlines Captain, the building at 6:30 was not the expansion of the terminal but was actually the UAL pilot training center. Every pilot from United and many other airlines had and continues to have classroom and simulator training in that building complex. It's the largest airline pilot training facility in the World.
My dad worked at the DEN TK and I had the same thought...
I recognized that too!
I have to go back and see that now that you mentioned it. Thanks for flying United!
I remember that building. That building had been there for a while even long after Stapleton closed down
My dad was a UAL mechanic at Stapleton, then Phoenix. I remember him taking me to the Stapleton training simulator and the large model of the Denver area on the wall that a camera was 'flown' around for the simulator. It was pretty awesome for its time.
Never really knew the history of Stapleton Airport, until now. Thanks for the video, and views of yesteryear, and those smokey jets.
I flew into Stapleton on business in the early 1990's. It was kind of weird in that my customer was across the street from the airport boundary; they had buildings completely surrounding the airfield. I rented a car but I could have walked.
Now, of course, the airport is halfway to Kansas.
It really freaking is. It’d be awesome having it be so close by. Nothing more frustrating than worrying you’ll miss your flight due to the distance, or having to take that long drive back from the airport when you just want to get back home to rest in your own bed again. 😑
I was just at this comedian show here in Denver and he said,"where should we put Denver airport. Denver? Nah, 40 minutes from Denver and p*** people off". Or something like that.
Kinda wonder why'd someone complain about airplane noise when they built their house next to airport
Its the same people who moved into homes or built homes on Lookout Mountain near Golden next to the TV transmission towers that were built in the 50's way before anyone was up there, and broadcasters who pioneered and improved the road for access to those transmitter sites. Yet, when the broadcasters wanted to consolidate multiple towers into one digital "super" tower in the early 2000's, suddenly everyone objected, citing false claims like those (TV) Radio Frequencies were causing cancer. Funny they didn't say that before they decided to build a new tower, hmm.
Your cell phone against your head has more RF energy penetrating your skull than a 50kW transmitter 2 miles away. Odd, no one seems to object to that notion. Never mind the new tower would remove older towers and locate the new 'super' tower lower down the mountain to obscure it's visibility against the backdrop of the mountain while improve digital reception for the viewing area. Including reducing the amount of RF radiating towards those residence to concentrate the energy towards Denver and the front rage. Something that was now possible vs the old style antennas. In the end, an act of Congress had to be passed so Denver could move into the digital TV age. While a few broadcaster backed out of the super tower master plan, and went on their own, resulting in several towers not being removed. Doh!
NIMBY's, want their cell phones to work everywhere, including up in the mountains, radio, and TV and power delivered to their homes. But don't want to see or have any of that infrastructure near their homes. If you buy a home near an airport flight path or next to the airport, expect to hear planes, plain and simple. You should have thought of that and your homes value before you bought the place, but man did you get a deal on that place! Now you wonder why you can't sell your house for more... If only they removed those ugly towers, or high tension power lines in your backyard, or moved that airport someplace else.
@@highvision5061 thats sad tbh
That is a big problem everywhere. Cities push right up to airports and air force bases fences and then Karens complain about the noise. I don't now where are they coming from, these developments aren't that cheep.
Same reason people who build homes next to railroads and race tracks complain: A refusal to take responsibility for their own poor choice/judgement.
Similar story in Leeds England. The Tetley's brewing had stood since 1822 but it was only until the early 2000s that high rise apartments were built close by that people started to complain about the smell and noise! Why buy an apartment next to a smelly brewery and then have the audacity to complain about it! HAHA
I remember staying at a hotel near Stapleton shortly after the airport closed because all the hotels near the convention center were booked. Kind of weird to look out at the abandoned facility and runways from a semi-abandoned hotel.
I used to visit Stapleton a lot back in the mid 1960's, when my dad used to travel a lot for his job at Martin Marietta. Back then, most people entered and left the planes through those old mobile steps, and one a Continental pilot gave me a tour of his 707, and I even got a set of 'wings'!
I was at the Stapleton last in 1994 for family. It was so sad watching that last flight take off from my office window. RIP Stapleton.
Thank you for sharing this great history.❤ Being a former Purser Flight Attendant and still having good friends Pilots and Flight Attendants who still fly, they have always talked about the old airport there in Denver. I even had a layover there way after the old airport closed. I started flying back in 1999 and in that year I think I had about two or three layovers at the Marriott Hotel that was out there back then as the Denver City Council Members were trying to turn the old Stapleton Airport area into homes and retail development. Former coworkers liked the old airport a lot. For me, I flew into the new airport which is further distance out from the downtown area. That used to be an hour plus some minutes when our vans/mini bus services were taking us to and from our downtown Denver layovers.😊 The downtown layovers were really nice. It was nice to see how downtown crowed of people were! Riding the free downtown bus tram that took you from one side to the other there!😅 Nice it was to me. The downtown Hyatt Hotel was nice. I also stayed at the Marriott Hotel as well. Both were and are nice there!!😊
Worked at Stapleton till they closed it. Continental Airlines. Best years if my life.
Was it as bad as some say?
@@trr9230 From my prospective, working in the hangars was not bad at all. It was old Western Airlines facilities. It worked very smoothly. It was organized and the hangars were suprisingly weather tight and the roofs did not leak as bad as you would expect.
that was fun, and sad, and brought back memories. I moved to Denver in 1980 and flew in/out of Stapleton regularly, usually from Seattle. I remember always having to make a quick descent, often in pretty turbulent conditions...probably because flying over the close-by mountains and the weather the mountains generated, but probably more to all the homes right next door, which was the real death to the airport...approaches to the new DIA are much more gradual. Even then, as a newer resident, I could not understand how all that development was allowed right across the street from a major airport...its starting to happen again with the new DIA. There was a Marriot next door to the old airport, on the Quebec freeway exit, done in the best soviet brutalist style, that was extraordinary in its menacing ugliness...was probably nice inside. Visited the area again about 10 years ago for a car show in a preserved hangar used for large events, and the tower...not sure now if all that is still there as haven't been back...I was struck by all the big-box chain development and sprawl, emblematic of the town that still had traces of its western heritage in 1980 but now filled with the type of characterless development that is omnipresent in a gazillion other developments across the country.
The hotel is still there. The United Airlines training facility is still there. The hangar you are talking about is at the former Lowry AFB, not Stapleton.
Anyone flying into Stapleton will always remember the decents over Estes Park and 3 second zero G drops!
I never knew that Stapleton airport was that influential to modern aviation. Sad considering I live in Denver.
Me too! (Well, Aurora, but same thing)
KKK Member
Even more sad that the neighborhood which is named after him (Stapleton) will be changing the name since people here are dumb. Welcome to Stap.... I mean "Central Park". Very sad!
@mjncad Yep, it breaks my heart. I will personally call that area "Stapleton" like where the Broncos play as Mile High. Keep fighting for the history of Denver to stay alive!
Mile High Salute,
Chadeo
@mjncad I remember it from the late 80s. Zephyrs/Broncos played there and then Rockies (baseball) came around. I have two glass mugs with the Rockies (hockey) logo on it with the old Coors logo on them from 1977. My folks had season tickets to Rocky hockey from 1976-1980 and got the mugs from a game.
Very cool. Loved this place when I was a kid. It was larger than life. Thanks for the memories.
I've flown into Denver so frequently the last couple of years that I actually remember the unique smell of the pine-scented air fresheners they use in their restrooms!
I wish Stapleton was still in operation. The design for DIA is terrible. Trying to move people by train to each concourse is a joke. The train was obsolete almost as fast as it began. Trying to board the train at concourse B going to the terminal is almost always so full, you can't budge once on the train (if you can get on it at all). I understand the runways at Stapleton were highly restricted during bad weather, but as far as gate space, Stapleton had plenty. Almost all of concourse "D" at Stapleton was empty in the few years before DIA opened. Maybe it's just because of all the great memories I have of Stapleton, but I still much preferred it over DIA.
A couple of weeks I was in DIA, and after passing through security, I intended to walk to my gate in order to bypass the crowded train. But once I got down the escalator, I found you could only walk to the concourses on the upper level and all the escalators were going down ONLY so I couldn't go back up and walk across. Only later did it occur to me there were probably elevators to go back up, but then again, being in a crowded elevator is just as bad as being on the train.
Several hangers are still left as well. As well as the United Airlines Training Center. Arise Church Denver is in an old Hanger off Central Park Blvd, and across the street is the Denver Police Academy, in another old hanger.
Next in the Airports - Lost in Time series: Meigs Field, Chicago! Please??
Beeeeennnnnfffffffff
Used to fly out of Stapleton a lot on business in the 1970s & 80s. Westbound outbound, I flew right over my house in Golden. So many jets flew over our house that their radio transmissions would trigger our garage door and our TV too. We were so far west that the jet noise wasn't a bother, but we could smell beer brewing, so that was good too.
That control tower still sticking around in the middle of residential redevelopment reminds me a lot of Mueller Municipal Airport in Austin, TX. It was never as large as Stapleton got, but like Stapleton it was Austin's first and primary airport, was very close to downtown, was later replaced by one further outside of the city, and the land was later redeveloped into a housing community with the control tower being one of the only structures still kept standing.
Though some of the hangers also survived as well, and are now used as the studios for Rooster Teeth.
Another factor is proximity to winds coming off the front range and the risk of LLWS. I was on a United flight when they had cockpit communications on channel 9, and the tower frequency had airspeed callouts from departing planes in their initial climb phase. It was serious business to listen to, totally quiet except for speed callouts.
What an wonderful documentary ... well written, great graphics and very articulate narration .... and NO mistakes in pronunciation. Nice.
I'm jealous. Denver International Airport is thoroughly away from the city in the middle of nowhere, bit of a pain to get to even with no traffic.
Haven't lived in Denver area for years. Do public transit trains go out there?
@@billolsen4360 I live in Denver and yes, there is a train that goes to the airport from Union Station in downtown. Not sure if it's more convenient since I live in the Suburbs rather than directly in downtown, but at one point the train (more specifically the RTD A line) had almost 10 million riders a year at one point. It still runs today although COVID decimated air travel and most likely it's ridership too and now a mass resignation event is now starting to strand RTD trains and passengers.
I drive a truck over the road and deliver to Denver area, and warehouses of all kinds were/are built on top of old runway and taxi aprons to this day! I still see the centerline lighting still embedded on some of the properties mainly cold storages, it’s kinda cool to see they left some parts of the airport around.
Nice to learn about more history involving Denver! I don't see that a lot.
I love how you really dig into the details in a logical way. Great video.
I felt bad to see Stapleton close, but the new DEN soon became one of my favorite airports. There was no more pleasant place to spend a few hours than the cavernous main terminal building, with its stunning multi-peaked roof, which, unlike most major airports was _outside_ the secure gate areas, and therefore could support some very interesting shops and restaurants.
After 9/11, though, getting through security at the new airport was a nightmare, with outrageously long lines forming in the center of the main terminal. A time-saving trick was to go through the separate security check at the north end of the bridge to the northern gate concourse.
I can barely recall what it was that I liked about Stapleton, aside from being a bit nostalgic for all older airports.
As much as I liked the Denver airports, though, was exceeded by the hatred I grew to feel toward United Airlines... the worst of the worst. They had to earn my dislike through repeated ill-treatment, as I was inclined to forgive them in consideration of the small containers of macadamia nuts they used to give out on every flight.
Excellent job on the video BTW. Well done! Some great historical photos and videos, including that stunning overhead shot of a jet approaching the Stapleton runway, seemingly just barely above the rooftops. (reminds me of Midway in Chicago!! 🙀😳)
Whoa, I never thought what that whole security area would’ve been like before 9/11. You’re saying it was all just wide open?? That sounds so cool…
This channel deserves more subs
Excellent. Appreciated. Traveled through Stapleton as a kid with my family...
Interesting videos as always although this could have also been a Places - Lost In Time episode
fascinating, you put forth great effort on this, thank u.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! Never knew of an older Denver stapleton airport prior to the current Denver International airport. 👍🏻
Another fine piece of work -- you produce excellent videos on so many diverse subjects. Thank you.
Never forget the experiences with this airport as a kid right after it had opened and many years after it was a magical place for a kid like me and massive is was a huge spotless castle. To be honest I was only going out to west coast over multiple summers just to fly and experience the airport. These were the 90's when flying was still enjoyable
i miss Stapelton
Superb historical retrospective! Bravo!
As I recall, Stapleton airport had more than its share of air turbulence problems because of its proximity to the Front Range; winds across the plains ran into the mountains in that region. Flights to and from the west had abrupt ascents and descents because of the mountains. I flew through Denver a few times circa 1980 and once slept overnight in the terminal to make an early morning connection. Some curious history about the big new airport that replaced Stapleton: it was a long ways out of town, and when it first opened in 1995 the state-of-the-art automated baggage handling systems had major malfunctions.
Excellent history video. I hope a video about the new terminal at Kansas City International Airport can be produced sometime after its opening in March 2023. The old terminal once had the most convenient access from parking to plane anywhere in the world. But by 1992 when I was traveling alone with three large pieces of luggage and the terminal didn't have carts I knew the end of curbside drop-off to boarding within 200' was over.
Dude!! These Airport videos, along with the Plane vids, my favourites you do!!! Keep them coming! There's a vast world of forgotten airports/aircraft out there!! Cannot wait for the next one!! 👏👌💪👍💯
I have just checked my flight logs. I flew on COA DC10 N12061 twice. Gatwick to Newark and return. Interesting video.
Stapleton was also close to Rocky Mountain Arsenal, where chemical weapons were manufactured until 1969 and stored through the 1990s. Pesticides were also manufactured there. Massive environmental cleanup had to be done from the 80s through the 2000s.
Excellent video! Enjoyed! 👍🙂
Boy were those old aircraft smokey!
Great vlog as always! The same happend to FBU. Only 5mi from the city center of Oslo. GEN had been the STN of OSL from 1946-1998. FBU closed Oct. 7th and OSL opened for business on Oct 8th 1998. I have worked at both airports. Keep up the good work!
Outstanding quality documentary Ruairidh!
I moved here in 2012. Thanks for the video! Crazy how the runway went iver I70 thats nuts
Let's build/buy a house right next to a very busy international airport, then we will complain that the airport, that was there before we where, is to loud. Boy aren't we smart.
People moving next to a noisy thing and then complaining about the noisy thing being noisy despite the noisy thing being there first will never not annoy me
You get the same with racetracks. People build houses next to the track then complain about loud car noises🤔
@@EFFEZE oh mate, don't get me started on racetracks, I'll just go off on a rant about the debacle over Western Springs Speedway in Auckland
You can hear the damn planes all over the city. Doesn't matter where you are.
I always enjoy your videos.
That's cool that they kept the tower.
Fantastic work and appreciated
Great video.
Thanks.
i enjoyed this as it reminded me of my father taking us to sit under landing jets at stapleton which i think of sometimes on my long slog to my current hometown airport LHR.
Brilliant! I’m lucky enough to visit DEN most months of the year (prior to covid).
I had no idea about Stapleton field, if after this pandemic has past & i’m lucky enough to return I will definitely go and take a look at the old control tower👀
Great video as usual👍
Cheers John B😷
Really enjoyed this video, please do more airports!
The wreck of the Edmund dog toucher
Well done! Very interesting
I much preferred Stapleton to DIA.
Remember driving eastbound on I-70 and the North South runway was on an overpass, so you could have a DC10 or 747 on top of you?
Of all the closed airports, this is the truly fascinating one.
To think that this iconic and huge airport is gone entirely.
Imagine demolishing EWR, YYZ, LGW or maybe AMS?
The size of it was immense, and it was one of the staples(no pun intensed) of international air traffic.
One of the classics.
Now it's all but gone.
That's so strange and fascinating to me.
Same thing is happening to Red Rock's Amphitheatre and Bandimere Speedway here in Colorado. Bunch of idiots move in next to a concert venue, complain about the noise, power-hungry politicians get involved, and all the history and entertainment is erased from history. Humanity sucks.
Love the video! I was waiting for Arnold Schwarzenegger to drop down from the DC-10 at 10:02 like he did in “Commando”.
Wonderful videos! keep it up!
Used to fly in and out of there when I was a kid.
Very well done, thanks. How about Los Angeles next?
Interesting. It made me think of Heathrow operating as a hub and the issues with capacity and local residents that has now. I would really like to know how the subjects are chosen as they are always unexpectedly unique.
Heathrow used to have more runways than you could shake a stick at. At least Denver had room to grow before being hemmed in.
5ocietyx.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/aerial_photograph_of_heathrow_airport_1955.jpg
Would love to see an Atlanta Airport video (the one that closed in 1980)
Interesting the Airport and the Army’s Fitzsimons Hospital was were practically next door neighbors. I was assigned to the Denver area and loved going to Fitzsimons to explore after the shutdown. I believe during WW2 and VM AF planes would fly in with patients, and use a railroad spar that ran from the Airport to Fitzsimons to carry wounded servicemen to the hospital. If you knew were to look the Airport fence had a large gate, I think was located in the Airport’s SouthEast corner, and across the street were matching gates to the hospital grounds. I loved that area.
You should do one about the new Denver airport and all the conspiracies about it and the huge evil horse statue that killed its maker
That horse statue is SICK! Makes me shudder every time I see it - not exactly a comforting image when you're on your way to take a flight.
Super content.
3:50 Block D's! My grandfather was part of the 100th air group.
Cool!
Did anyone else notice that VW Bug almost got plowed by that train ?! Obviously before safety gates and safety lights and warnings. Love your videos as always. Keep up the good work.
Yep I caught that too! Almost a big whoops
Why build houses near the airport if you know there will be too much noise?
Complain, have the airport closed and see the value of your real estate increase drastically. Same thing in Stockholm city airport opened in 1930.
Not a single person has bought a house in the vicinity before the airport was opened 90 years ago. still people complain like crazy. 🤯
DIA was a really horrible airport when it first opened. Nothing worked right, including the machinery that was supposed to handle your luggage but more often lost it or tore it up. The airport itself was massive. You had to use busses to get around because the trains system didn't work either. My son used to live in Boulder, and the joke was that, once you landed, you'd still end up taking a bus to Boulder because it took so long to get to the terminal building from the flight line. Most of the worst problems have been fixed now, but you still need your hiking boots to get around.
They should have kept it as a Southwest hub like Houston Hobby or Dallas Love Field.
Does UAL still have any of its training academy and/or flight simulators on the property? Went there in the late 90s for differences training on the DC-8-70 series a/c.
Don't like airplane noise? Don't buy a house by an airport. Sheesh.
That tall control tower could be used as a high lookout post by the police and city fire departments.
And it's still there. Made into a restaurant.
About the same time the airport was having it's logistical issues someone crash landed a Cessna onto the White House lawn. The running joke was the difference between the White House and the Denver International Airport was you could land a plane at the White House. 🙂🙂🙂
Starting at 6:30. Those images are of the United Airlines Training Center. Not of Stapleton. The airport is gone but the training facility is still there in use.
I was thinking the same thing. That's stock footage from the film " the man up front" about the united training center in the 1960s.
If only Denver was as big of an international hub as this airport.
Once again, absolutely cracking.
My only problem would be when you mention lengths and heights could you please give the conversion into metric? Wouldn’t have to be big just flash it up on the screen or something, Ik I could go to google and convert but it kinda kills the flow of the video if I have to do that.
Otherwise Brilliant thanks.
Daniel Field. It is very simple math.
Aviation does not use metric, so get used to the imperial and nautical units.
@@johnklar5131 well yes, its hardly Fourier transforms or second order linear inhomogeneous differential equations, but it would be nice if I dont have to pause my mind to think about it, I do maths & Physics all day, I'll take any break from it when I can.
I just think it would make the videos more accessible to people who aren't familiar.
@@dynasty0019 true, they do. But I don't intend to go into Aviation and I doubt everyone in this comment section does either, I think it would just help people who aren't familiar with the systems to have a visualisation.
Noticed the abandoned/lost suitcase on the tarmac waiting to be rolled over/sucked into an engine?
People: "Builds house on a cheap land near an airport."
Same people: "Complains about noise."
The teflon roof concept was used on the Olympic stadium in Montreal, however, they kept ripping due too high winds and snow accumulation. Furthermore, the Olympic stadium is only a few hundred feet above sea level. So how does Stapleton manage to keep their roof intact?
Stapleton is gone and never had a teflon roof.
The tower is still there in central park (formerly stapleton)
@5:32, if someone did that now they'd be crucified by OH&S/ HSE
great video though thanks for the upload!
Colorado native and I’m just looking for a recording of the “welcome to Stapleton international airport, the white zones are for loading and unloading only…” I have echoes of it in my memory and could repeat it verbatim as a child. Anyone have a link to the full recording? TIA
Denver airport is full of demonic art and general weirdness. It has all sorts of strange underground tunnels that were bizarrely abandoned (or were they) This airport was made for a future event.
Sounds like an interesting place to check out. thankyou for the suggestion
I have a beautiful pair of lizards 🦎 🦎 carved out of turquoise, still embedded in the dark grey host rock that I bought in one of the galleries in the main terminal building. Not demonic... or at least, not that I’m aware of 😳👺👹🤖👾😯😦
@@MendTheWorld How about the Swastika shaped Airport of DIA? Alongside with that creepy tall horse structure that has red eyes glowing at night to greet people at the entrance of the airport.. I mean, come on? My understanding is that queen Elizabeth owns DIA. Owe, don't forget the Mosonic tablet that was at the west end of concourse B if I remembered correctly. But that's been removed as well as one of there disturbing wall paintings.
@Rich Bud you are fooled about the world in general I feel.
@R Bud what do you know about anything really? If I were you I would go back to sleep and forget about stuff like this. How do you explain the demonic blue horse and the Nazi style art then for a start?
Was a regular out of DIA for years...
Colorado Native CJ...
Google Earth Pro always exists
Employment centers? That should be your last worry when building a new development, what you need is employment opportunities...
10:22 but had largely abandoned their proposals
I went on da internets, and discovered 4 airports with runway longer than of Denver's
@Rich You have just factually incorrectly used word "Your" instead of "You're". What else is there to discuss with a person incapable of basic grammar? Anyway: please do your googling and find 4 more airpors with paved runways over 16k ft, one in So Africa, one in China, one in Brazil, one in Russia.
Basically, Stapleton was too small and too close to peoples’ houses for it to expand, so it was forced to be replaced in 1995.
It looks huge to me?
10:57 no structure could
Toronto Airport
Wasn't that were that "miraculous" Air France plane ran off the runway & crashed into a big ditch, caught fire but no one died?
At 6:15, why are all those guys carrying canes or sticks?
Thought that looked funny too. People used to carry them for self-defense when there were few police and would have one end filled with buckshot. Then it was just fashionable for some reason.
I loved air port!!! I only came here 1 time to fly but 40 or 50 times to see of grandpa or dad going places. It was a sad day it closed. Now DIA is a cool but like they said city grow around them then bitch about it. I loved how DIA took so much land around it so homes and hotels could not build there then bitch!!! LOL
I'll NEVER fly United again. I was treated so poorly in 2011 that I swore they'd never receive another dime of my money.
i dont think Capital airlines or Chicgo and southern served Denver
Denver International’s Overall design is copied from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport! ⚡️
I moved to Denver in 1993, and traveled frequently for business. I hated the old airport with a passion, as it would have to restrict operations to just two runways when there was inclement weather. I flew out of Stapleton on the Sunday before it closed, and my return flight brought me to DIA. RTD shuttled me from DIA to the parking lot where I left my car.
I spent sooo much time there when I was young then lived and worked there as an adult after they redeveloped it. They are moving forward to remove the Stapleton name, new name for the development being Central Park