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Stillwater Regional Airport lies three miles northwest of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and is the home of Oklahoma State University's Flight Center as well as the city's link to Dallas/Fort Worth on American Eagle. Its long concrete main runway, ILS approach and part-time tower make it a straightforward and interesting stop for the VFR or IFR pilot exploring north-central Oklahoma.
Stillwater Regional Airport, identified as KSWO, serves the university city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and is owned by the City of Stillwater. It combines a busy general aviation training environment, centred on the Oklahoma State University Flight Center, with scheduled regional airline service to Dallas/Fort Worth. For a simulator pilot the field offers a genuine mix of traffic: airline regional jets, flight-school singles and twins, and the occasional charter bringing OSU athletic teams and visitors, all against a backdrop of an airfield with real wartime and aviation heritage.
The airport is situated in Payne County, Oklahoma, about three miles (4.8 km) northwest of the city of Stillwater and close to Oklahoma State University, which the airport serves as its nearest aviation gateway.
Stillwater Regional has two physical runways. The primary runway, 17/35, is 7,405 feet long, hard-surfaced, lit, and equipped with an ILS on runway 17. The crosswind runway, 04/22, is 5,000 feet long, hard-surfaced and lit. Field elevation is 978 feet.
Weather is available on ASOS at 135.725 MHz. Kansas City Center can be reached on 128.3 MHz. Ground movement is on 121.6 MHz, with McAlester Radio available on 122.3 MHz. A tower frequency of 125.35 MHz is published, alongside a CTAF/UNICOM frequency of 122.7 MHz for use when the tower is not in operation. The field's ILS provides an instrument approach to runway 17.
The airfield opened in May 1943 and played a distinctive role after the Second World War, when it became one of only six locations nationwide used to store surplus military aircraft; around 475 aircraft were flown in from 1945 onward. In 1946 the aviator and stunt pilot Paul Mantz bought the entire stored fleet, retaining twelve aircraft for use as camera and stunt planes and selling the remainder for scrap. Among the aircraft he acquired at Stillwater was the B-17 Flying Fortress 41-24577 'Hells Angels', notable as the first B-17 to complete 25 combat missions, predating the more famous Memphis Belle. Scheduled airline service began in 1953 with Central Airlines Douglas DC-3 flights to Oklahoma City and Tulsa; Central later merged into the original Frontier Airlines in 1967, which operated Convair 580 services linking Kansas City and Dallas/Fort Worth via Stillwater until late 1975. After a gap, Metro Airlines flew Twin Otters to Oklahoma City from 1980, followed briefly by Exec Express with Piper Navajo commuter flights to Tulsa until the mid-1980s, after which Stillwater again went without airline service for three decades.
After thirty years without scheduled airline flights, American Airlines regional partner Envoy Air began operating as American Eagle from Stillwater on 23 August 2016, flying Embraer 145 regional jets nonstop to Dallas/Fort Worth, typically with two daily flights and a third at busier times. The airport remains predominantly a general aviation field, with the large majority of operations being general aviation traffic. It is home to the Oklahoma State University Flight Center, which trains students in professional pilot studies using a fleet including Cessna 152s, Cessna 172s, a Cessna 182, Cirrus SR-20s and Piper PA-44 twins. A Civil Air Patrol squadron is also based on the airport, and the field regularly handles charter traffic associated with Oklahoma State University sports teams and visiting opponents.
