Stories of Midway Airport and The Romance of Flight
For the romantics, the gearheads, the flying nuts and the aviation enthusiasts who make up the Midway Historians, it just doesn't get any better than this. Midway is about people as much as airplanes. Our purpose in bringing you some of the stories about our people and our Airport is to bring dynamics into why Midway has become what it is to so many. It's not any one thing that does it; rather it's the amalgam of lives, airplanes, adventures, love stories, mishaps, trysts and visits from people you could only read about in the newspapers or see in the movies or newsreels... but then Midway allowed you to actually spot them up close... and for just a few moments, you were part of the same world that they lived in.
There are many, many stories about the square-mile airport. And we don't just want you to read them and like them. We want you to feel the warmth of summer afternoons, hear the incredible, clustered roar of radial engines and the harmonics of the propellers as the pilots run up the engines before takeoff.
Our desire is that you'll begin to sense, as have so many of the Midway Historians, what it was like to see a DC-3,C-46, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7 or Constellation lifting off runway 22L toward the southwest, into the sunset, with radial-engines spitting fire and nav lights and spotlights blazing --while you stood gazing from the observation platform on the North Terminal, on a warm summer evening.
Let your imagination take hold. In you mind's eye, you just may start catching glances of the Duke, Marilyn, young JFK, Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Orville Wright, Wiley Post, Slim Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Benny Howard, Jimmy Stewart and many other stars and celebrities of the 1940s and 1950s, who walked from terminal to gate to tarmac, to board dozens upon dozens of waiting aircraft amidst the hustle, bustle and constant engine roar. Then they would fly off to all corners of the world from Chicago Midway Airport, the World's Busiest Airport, and most certainly the Crossroads of the World.
Here are a few stories to help set the stage. Just click on a photo below and a story will open on a new page:
There are many, many stories about the square-mile airport. And we don't just want you to read them and like them. We want you to feel the warmth of summer afternoons, hear the incredible, clustered roar of radial engines and the harmonics of the propellers as the pilots run up the engines before takeoff.
Our desire is that you'll begin to sense, as have so many of the Midway Historians, what it was like to see a DC-3,C-46, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7 or Constellation lifting off runway 22L toward the southwest, into the sunset, with radial-engines spitting fire and nav lights and spotlights blazing --while you stood gazing from the observation platform on the North Terminal, on a warm summer evening.
Let your imagination take hold. In you mind's eye, you just may start catching glances of the Duke, Marilyn, young JFK, Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Orville Wright, Wiley Post, Slim Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Benny Howard, Jimmy Stewart and many other stars and celebrities of the 1940s and 1950s, who walked from terminal to gate to tarmac, to board dozens upon dozens of waiting aircraft amidst the hustle, bustle and constant engine roar. Then they would fly off to all corners of the world from Chicago Midway Airport, the World's Busiest Airport, and most certainly the Crossroads of the World.
Here are a few stories to help set the stage. Just click on a photo below and a story will open on a new page:
Robert "Moose" Hill
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Robert Russo
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Christopher Lynch
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David Kent
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John Callaway
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David M. Young
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