Famous people's places / Detroit – East Side
Coleman A. Young International Airport
Detroit's east side airport, opened in 1927 and renamed in 2003 for Coleman Young, the city's longest-serving and first Black mayor.
01 / The story of this place
Make time for these
Detroit City Airport opened on the east side on October 14, 1927, and quickly grew into the region's busiest airfield through the 1930s and 1940s, handling the city's passenger flights until Willow Run and later Detroit Metro took over that role after 1947. It settled into a long career as a hub for private pilots, flight training and corporate aviation, still handling some commercial service into the 2000s. In 2003 the city renamed it for Coleman Young, Detroit's longest-serving mayor and its first Black mayor, who led the city from 1974 to 1993. After years of uncertain footing, the airport has seen fresh investment in the 2020s, including new hangars and a helicopter base, as the city works to anchor development on the east side around it.
- Opened October 14, 1927, as Detroit City Airport
- Detroit's primary airport until the late 1940s
- Renamed for Coleman Young in 2003
- Still an active general aviation airport today
- Undergoing new investment and expansion in the 2020s
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 2
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Coleman Young 1918–1997 · labor organizer, state senator, mayor of Detroit
Memorial
The city's general aviation airport on the east side, renamed after him in 2003.
- Neal Vernon Loving 1916–1998 · aviator, aircraft designer, aeronautical engineer
Related place
Detroit's city airport, where the ground trainer he built as a young mechanic was put on display.
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Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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Official website & visitor information ↗