Meigs Field

[Crobar]

Just google earthed Chitown and the shot is prior to the biggest dumbass in the worlds distruction of Meigs, what are the black squares on the runway at the taxiway intersections?

 

[skyward80]

Looks like they may have torn up those areas and replaced them.

Skyward80

 

[ALSF 2]

I'm sure someone with more knowledge on the subject can correct me, but I believe that Daley did get the airfield shut down temporarily about 3-4 years before the "midnight raid."

Those black marks are covering up the large X's he had placed on the airfield when he closed it the first time. That closure, I believe, was turned over by the Republican Governor at the time.

Hope this helps!

Cheers!

 

[SpaceBall 1]

Meigs was shut down for a while, but I believe reopened in 1997. Regardless, it was open for business until the "midnight raid" which stranded several aircraft on the airport. I believe they were all light aircraft and later departed off the taxiways.

 

[WillFlyFoCookie]

Something that's also really sad and makes the whole destruction of the airport seem pointless is that the land is not really being used for anything anymore. I was just in downtown Chicago and the place they call "Northerly Island" now is a ghost town. There are some jogging paths and that's it. In a city of millions of people I saw one jogger there and I was there brooding for about an hour.

The old terminal and control tower haven't been torn down yet. I found one tiny little sign that spoke of the history of the island and only 1 sentence said there was ever an airport there. Daley wants to pretend there wasn't this beautiful gem of an airport there for 70 years. Kind of reminds me of a dictator that would like to re-write history.

The bottom line is what he did was wrong and the Federal government proved that by sending the City of Chicago, a city already in terrible financial troubles, a bill for 1.5 million or so.

 

[RP170]

What's up Cookie? Be joining you at NJA here soon. Got the job.

 

[EdAtTheAirport]

And Meigs had such a deep, rich, history with Microsoft, too. It's very sad.

 

[WillFlyFoCookie]

Yeah that was great on the original Flight Sim! Meigs was the default airport you took off from. I actually got a 737 off the ground once from there. The gear drug in water at the departure end a bit but she made it up! It was also funny the one time I went into Meigs in real life. Me and a bunch of guys where talking about how many times we've crashed into Soldier Field and the planetarium as I was landing. Fun times and truly wish there could have been more.

R.I.P. old KCGX

Peace,
WFFC