Lost Airports of Chicago

To book a ride on the World’s Shortest Airline or learn aerial stuntsfrom the redheaded widow of Lawrence Avenue, you’ve got to go through theairports buried beneath the housing developments and shopping malls ofChicagoland. Many of these airports sprang up after World War I, when trainingkilled more pilots than combat, and the aviation pioneers who developedChicago’s flying fields played a critical role in getting the nation ready todare the skies in World War II. Author Nick Selig has rolled wheels on his fairshare of Chicago’s landing strips but faces an entirely new challenge intouching down in places being swallowed by a city and forgotten by history.