About The Flight DepotTM

The Flight Depot has been serving the aviation community since it opened its doors in 1996, supplying quality products combined with the absolute best prices to be found anywhere. Our online store began in 1996, making us one of the oldest providers of pilot supplies on the internet. Our shop is located in the main terminal building at the Cincinnati Lunken Municipal Airport, one of the most historic airfields in the midwestern United States.

The Flight Depot is a store about flying. The folks here know about aviation because they all work in aviation, and can give you valuable information and assistance in selecting the best products for your needs. Our sales force ranges from student to ATP pilots, from high time Commercial Airline Pilots to Flight Dispatchers, former Flight Examiners and a Flight Navigator. When you stop in or call, you will more than likely be talking to someone who has been around for a lot of years and knows what he's talking about.

We have personally tested all of our aviation products in the air and can give you product recommendations based on our own first-hand experience. In fact, it is not unusual for us to talk you out of a more expensive item for one which better fits your needs!! And if you want an item not in our catalog or website, call us. We will order it for you at no extra charge and guarantee the best price anywhere.

In addition to pilot supplies, we also carry a wide range of gifts and novelties for adults, flyers and non-flyers alike. We are one of the few stores that still carry old time balsa wood gliders for kids, desktop models of airliners and historical aircraft, and a good selection of diecast model aircraft. Check us out and enjoy shopping!


About Cincinnati Lunken Municipal Airport

In 1921, aviator pioneer Dixie Davis began teaching flying lessons on the present site of Lunken Airport until 1925, when he established a permanent airfield at Lunken. Also in 1925, the Embry Riddle Company was organized at Lunken by T. Embry and J. Paul Riddle and provided airline, air mail service, and flight training, and became the first government approved flight school in the United States. The U.S Airmail contract awarded to them was one of the earliest contracts in American aviation history. Embry Riddle later went on to become Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, now headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh, a 26 year old air-mail pilot, made his historic non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, flying his Ryan monoplane, the “Spirit of St. Louis” from New York to Paris in 33 hours and 29 minutes.Lindbergh later used to land regularly at Lunken airfield while flying to and from New York to refuel.

The early beginnings of American Airlines started here in 1929 with passenger flights to Chicago.  Lunken soon became the center of aviation in Cincinnati with increasing airline traffic and the periodic appearance of famous celebrities. 1929 saw 29,059 flights and 8,528-recorded passengers making their way through Lunken. The "Flamingo", one of the first all metal monoplanes built in America, also was produced at Lunken by Metal Aircraft Company.

In 1930, Lunken Airflied was formally dedicated as the largest municipl airport in the world. The dedication was a three-day celebration that drew such notables as Howard Hughes, Jimmy Doolittle, Freddie Lund, the Cincinnati Air Corps Reserves, and Jean Harlow. Howard Hughes would later use Lunken exclusively to hangar numerous of his racing and test aircraft, and he flew out of Lunken on a regular basis throughout the 1930's. American Airlines was founded at Lunken Airport in 1940 and flew out of the airfield until 1946, when the major airlines began to pull out of Lunken to start operations at the "Greater Cincinnati Airport" located in Northern Kentucky. 

Lunken continued expansion with corporations establishing their flight operations out of the airfield in 1951.  To date, most Cincinnati Corporations base their flight departments at Lunken. Throughout the years, it became known as a "reliever" airport, handling most general aviation traffic operations in the Cincinnati area.  Admittedly, a small airplane operating at CVG is like riding a bicycle on an interstate freeway. Lunken also had its fair share of celebrities over the years including Charles Lindbergh, Howard Hughes, Jean Harlow, The Beatles, John F. Kennedy, Bob Hope, Charleton Heston, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Neil Armstrong, and Ronald Reagan, to name just a few.

Read more about Lunken Airport.