Lambert, at his own expense, developed the field with runways and hangars. In 1927 he was one of the St. Louis committee of backers of Charles Lindbergh's purchasing of his airplane "The Spirit of St. Louis" for his epoch-making transatlantic solo trip to Paris. Lindbergh was at the time a resident of St. Louis as well as an airmail pilot flying the mail between St. Louis and Chicago. The following year, 1928, Lambert sold the field to the city of St. Louis for $68,000, the same price he had paid for it before making improvements. St. Louis Lambert International Airport thus became one of the first municipal airports in the nation.