Ashburn Flying Field | |
|---|---|
| Summary | |
| Airport type | General aviation |
| Owner/Operator | Aero Club of Illinois |
| Serves | Chicago, Illinois |
| Location | 41°44′44.00″N87°44′44.64″W / 41.7455556°N 87.7457333°W /41.7455556; -87.7457333 |
| Opened | November 1916 |
| Closed | 1939 |
 Interactive map of Ashburn Flying Field | |
Ashburn Flying Field was the first airport built, after the 1911-establishedaerodrome namedCicero Flying Field closed in April 1916, to serveChicago, Illinois.[1] It opened in November 1916 inAshburn, a community at the southwest corner of Chicago.[2] The airfield site was a marshy area approximately a square mile in size, and previously devoid of trees or buildings, before the Aero Club of Illinois, itself founded on February 10. 1910,[3] the organization that had operated the Cicero facility, moved its aerodrome's hangars and buildings to its new Ashburn Field facility some time before it had opened.[4] It was offered for the use of the US government by the Aero Club of Illinois,[5] The Ashburn facility's opening was shortly before the start of a pioneering airmail flight in 1916 byVictor Carlstrom, in aCurtiss biplane, from Chicago to New York City, sponsored byThe New York Times.[6][7] During World War 1, it was aSignal Corps training camp. After the war, it had airmail contracts. It was supplanted by nearbyMidway Airport as a major aviation center for Chicago. It closed in 1939. The site is now Scottsdale Shopping center and subdivision.[2]
The day before his two-day exhibition flights at theHawthorne Race Track in Cicero, Illinois, on October 16 and 17, 1909,Glenn Curtiss spoke to the Chicago Automobile Club and suggested that an aero club be formed in Chicago. In response to his remarks, the Aero Club of Illinois ("A. C. I. ") was incorporated on February 10, 1910, withOctave Chanute as its first president - a perfect choice, to be sure.
On April 16, 1916, when "Matty" Laird took off from Cicero Flying Field, at the controls of his self-designed and self-built Boneshaker biplane and flew to the new Partridge & Keller aviation field at 87th St. and Pulaski Road, in Chicago, Cicero Flying Field ceased to be. The next day, the Aero Club of Illinois (A.C.I.) officially opened its new 640 acre Ashburn Field on land purchased by A.C.I. President "Pop" Dickinson for the A.C.I.. Ashburn was located at 83rd St. and Cicero Avenue, about 7-1/2 miles almost due south of Cicero.All of the hangars and buildings at Cicero had been moved to Ashburn Field some months earlier.
