Peter O. Knight Airport in Tampa, Florida

The airport known by the code TPF is a general aviation field on the tip of Davis Islands, a few minutes from downtown Tampa, named for lawyer Peter Oliphant Knight.

The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority runs it as one of its general aviation airports, alongside Tampa Executive (VDF) and Plant City Airport (PCM), separate from Tampa International Airport. The authority's Peter O. Knight Airport page describes the field as situated on the tip of Davis Islands with panoramic water views, and says its feel has conveyed Florida living to travelers since the days of being Tampa's first commercial service airport.

For about a decade it was where Tampa's airline passengers boarded. Catalog notes in the USF Libraries Florida Photograph Collection state that the airport on Davis Islands was built mainly by money from the Works Progress Administration in 1935, and that both Eastern and National Airlines flew from it until 1946, when they moved to Drew Field, now Tampa International Airport. The same notes say it was named after a Tampa lawyer, Peter Oliphant Knight. The sections below trace how the field was built, what the archive photographs show of its airline years, how the airlines moved to Drew Field, and what TPF offers on Davis Islands today.

The airport was built on Davis Islands mainly with Works Progress Administration money and dates to 1935, according to USF Libraries catalog notes.

The site was part of a neighborhood that was itself built from dredged fill. The City of Tampa Davis Islands page explains that Davis Islands was created in the 1920s from two small natural islands, Little Grassy Key and Big Grassy Key, at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, and that the land was built up from mud dredged from the bottom of Tampa Bay.

Building a runway reshaped the islands. The city states that Davis Islands originally consisted of three islands, and that with the construction of the airport the end of one canal was filled in to make enough land area for a runway. That fill connected the two largest islands at their southern ends, which is why the city counts two islands today rather than three.

The first terminal was more than a waiting room. USF catalog notes say the airport originally had a restaurant and dance floor. A Florida Works Progress Administration photograph in the same collection, dated March 3, 1938, is described as an exterior view of the empty Davis Islands airport, and a Burgert Brothers photograph of July 9, 1938 shows the Peter O. Knight airport as seen from across the water; USF files that image under the keywords airports and seaplane bases.

The Davis Islands field was Tampa's airline airport from its 1935 construction until 1946, when Eastern and National Airlines moved to Drew Field.

The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority calls the Davis Islands field Tampa's first commercial service airport. During those years Eastern Air Lines and National Airlines served Tampa from Davis Islands, according to the USF catalog notes, so the field was the city's air gateway through the late 1930s and the war years.

Photographs held by USF Libraries document the period. A Burgert Brothers image dated March 30, 1939 shows men standing by a car observing a plane on the tarmac at Peter O. Knight Airport, with the administration building in the background. A 1940 Robertson and Fresh aerial view shows the Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands with a ship visible in the waters surrounding the runways, and a Gandy aerial from the 1940s shows the runways and terminal buildings along with a cargo ship navigating the adjacent channel.

Airline service left Davis Islands in 1946, when Eastern and National Airlines moved their Tampa flights to Drew Field, according to USF Libraries.

Drew Field had a longer history than the Davis Islands field. The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority newsroom states that the site was dedicated as Tampa's municipal airport on February 22, 1928, and was named for Tampa cattleman and land developer John H. Drew. During World War II it was developed as Drew Army Airfield and served as headquarters for the III Fighter Command, with 25,000 personnel.

The authority states that after the war the land was transferred back to the city, with the first international flights beginning on December 15, 1946, and that ten months later the airfield was renamed Tampa International Airport. Its first terminal designed for commercial aviation opened on August 17, 1952, replacing converted Drew Army Airfield facilities, and Eastern Airlines president Eddie Rickenbacker spoke at the opening. From then on, Tampa's airline service ran through the Drew Field site, while Peter O. Knight on Davis Islands served general aviation.

Peter Oliphant Knight, who lived from 1865 to 1946, was a Tampa lawyer and business organizer for whom the Davis Islands airport is named.

The biographical note in the University of Florida finding aid for the Peter O. Knight Scrapbooks states that Knight was born in Freeburg, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 1865, and received his Bachelor of Law degree from Valparaiso University in Indiana in 1884, the year he moved to Florida. He helped incorporate Fort Myers and was elected its mayor before he turned twenty-one, was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1886, helped create Lee County in 1887 and became its first county attorney, and served one term in the Florida Legislature from 1888. In the winter of 1889 to 1890 he moved to Tampa.

In Tampa, the UF note says, he co-organized the first electric street railway in 1892, helped create the Exchange Bank of Tampa in 1894, organized the Tampa Gas Company in 1895 and formed the Tampa Electric Company in 1899, and served as counsel or officer for firms including the Ybor City Land and Improvement Company. From 1893 until 1899 he was State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit (Hillsborough County), his last public office. In 1926 he aided the city of Tampa in financing the development of Davis Islands, and in 1934 he helped the city acquire land on Davis Islands to build a municipal airport, which would later be named in his honor. He received the Civitan Award in 1934 and died on November 26, 1946.

Today TPF is a general aviation field on Davis Islands with a fixed base operator, a flight school and hangar storage.

The authority lists Atlas Aviation as the fixed base operator, open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at (813) 251-1752. Listed services include Jet A and 100LL fuel, full service maintenance, a flight school, aircraft sales and rental, rental cars, pilot supplies, computerized weather briefing, and tie-down and hangar storage. The authority's general aviation page adds that the Davis Islands airport is five minutes from downtown Tampa and that services include scenic aerial tours of the Tampa Bay area.

The original terminal is gone. USF catalog notes record that the original administration building was demolished and replaced in 1965.

The low waterfront site was tested in 2024. The authority reported that TPF was inundated with three to four feet of storm surge when Hurricane Helene passed offshore of the Tampa Bay region on September 26, damaging the runway lighting system and hangars with salt water, and that Hurricane Milton, which hit the area as a Category 3 storm on October 9, added wind damage. Runway lights were fully repaired the week of Thanksgiving, taxiway lighting work followed, and in December 2024 the authority announced that Peter O. Knight Airport was again allowing nighttime flights. Tampa Executive and Plant City Airport suffered some damage, but not to the same extent as TPF.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by rereading the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority's TPF, general aviation and newsroom pages, the City of Tampa Davis Islands page, six USF Libraries photograph records and the University of Florida finding aid for Knight's scrapbooks.