The City of Duluth purchased the original property for the airport in 1929 from St. Louis County. The airport was constructed on 640 acres (2.6 km2 ) of land with two 2,650-foot (810 m) sod runways. Subsequently, in 1930, the airfield was dedicated as a public airport. The airport was called the Williamson-Johnson Municipal Airport until 1963 at which time it was renamed Duluth International Airport.

The squadron was first activated as the 11th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge Field, Michigan in January 1941 as one of the original squadrons of the 50th Pursuit Group. It trained with Vultee BT-13 Valiant and second-line Seversky P-35 Guardsman pursuit fighters at Selfridge. In September 1941, the squadron moved to Key Field, Mississippi, where it equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks.

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the 11th was dispatched to Elmendorf Field to reinforce the defenses of Alaska against Japanese attack, departing on 19 December 1941. The urgency of the need for reinforcements in Alaska was so great that the squadron was picked even though its pilots were untrained on the flight conditions they could expect to experience in Alaska. Two weeks elapsed before the planes reached the Sacramento Air Depot at McClellan Field (later McClellan AFB) for winterization, and at the end of the month when the 11th was officially located at Elmendorf, none of its planes had left McClellan Field. Bad weather delayed necessary test flights and caused the loss of some of the squadron's Warhawks. The first plane finally left California on 1 January 1942. The lack of adequate landing fields enroute, poor communications, and pilot inexperience further delayed the squadron's movement. By 25 January 1942 only 13 of the 11th's twenty-five P-40s were at Elmendorf in flyable condition and six others had been lost during the movement.

After the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians in June 1942, the 11th Pursuit Squadron was engaged in combat operations (1942-1943), equipped with Warhawks and long-range Lockheed P-38 Lightnings for offensive operations against Japanese fortifications on Attu and Kiska; took part in the liberation of Attu, 1943. Remained in Alaska for the balance of the war, demobilizing during the summer of 1945; inactivating on Shymea in the Aleutians, 1946.

The unit was reactivated in December 1952 at Duluth IAP as the 11th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, replacing the federalized 179th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron of the Minnesota Air National Guard flying F-51D Mustangs. In the fall of 1953 the unit transitioned into F-89D Scorpions and later the F-102 Delta Dagger.

In June 1960 the 11th FIS transitioned into F-106 Delta Darts. On 22 October 1962, before President Kennedy told the nation that missiles were in place in Cuba,at the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the squadron dispersed one third of its force, equipped with nuclear tipped missiles to Volk Field. These planes returned to Duluth IAP after the crisis.

In September 1968 the 11 FIS was inactivated and re-designated the 87th FIS remaining at Duluth IAP.

In May 1971 the 87th FIS moved from Duluth AP to K.I. Sawyer AFB, MI replacing the F-101 equipped 62d Fighter Interceptor Squadron at K.I. Sawyer, which was deactivated in Apr 1971.

The 87th FIS was deactivated on 1 Oct 1985. The Red Bull lived on however for several years after as the 87 FITS, a training squadron.

RED BULL Insignia
When the 11th FIS deactivation, and the 87th activated in its place, it retired the 11th FIS Red Bull insignia. The new 87th FIS Red Bull insignia, however took many (most) of its cues from it and thus looked 'very' similar retaining the Red Bulls name and the basic Red Bulls design. Capt Dick Stultz, F-106 pilot and artist, was designated by the 11th Commander LtCol Tom Liner to do a new design with a renewed Red Bull. The AF did not fully use Dicks design which had more streamlined yellow lightning bolts and meaner, larger looking Bulls eyes - But, what the Air Force Heritage Office came back with looked more like a grade school color paper cutout, changing Dicks design a but and NOT what they thought they wanted. The old 87th design they were 'supposed' to adopt was a purple-black-gray-yellow (UGLY) profile of the city of LOCKBOURNE!!!! to be better memorialized in case of WWIII Nuclear obliteration!! Needless to say, the 87th insignia that was finally adopted turned into a proud heritage.