Walt Disney's Plane and the short lived WDW Airport

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Walt Disney's Plane and the short lived WDW Airport

Sam Terito
October 19, 2021

   If there's one single thing I look for literally EVERYTIME we go to Disney, it's this. Like clockwork when approaching the Magic Kingdom main gate, I pull up my phone and launch google maps to get a glimpse. It's something that's fading, something that's vanishing before our very eyes... But that wonderful relic of another time once had a more official sounding name: The Lake Buena Vista STOLport.




   Officially built in 1971 to serve as a STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) airport, people could literally fly into Walt Disney World from Orlando International or from Tampa International Airport. Although the official airline of WDW was Eastern, their planes were far too big to land on a small strip. Thus they subbed the small 15 minute trip out to Shawnee Airlines.


Although never large and only capable of holding up to 4 aircraft at a time, flights mostly ceased in the 1980's in favor or using the much larger Orlando airport. By the time EPCOT was built, monorail lines built near the strip made flying into it nearly impossible. Eastern Airlines would go out of business in 1991 and any hopes of an actual airport at Disney World would be a thing of the past.

Checkout some of my favorite blogs on this subject here:
https://insidethemagic.net/2021/08/walt-disney-plane-abandoned-ad1/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2f9sMn_hlo&ab_channel=InsidetheMagic
https://insidethemagic.net/2021/04/disney-world-abandoned-airport-ad1/
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_World_Airport
   

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