Meigs Field

Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport (closed)
Characteristics
ICAO code	KCGX
IATA code	CGX
Coordinates	41 ° 51 '36 "  N , 87 ° 36' 31"  W Coordinates: 41 ° 51 '36 "  N , 87 ° 36' 31"  W.
Transport links
Distance from the city center	? km east of Chicago
Basic data
opening	December 10, 1948
closure	March 30, 2003
Passengers	91,343 (2001)
Air freight	0.54 t (2001)
Flight movements	31,240 (2001)
Start-and runway
closed	1200 m × 46 m

The Meigs Field (formerly IATA : CGX , ICAO : KCGX ) that full name Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport is, was an airport on the peninsula Northerly Iceland in Lake Michigan before Chicago .

On the occasion of the World Exhibition of 1933 ( Century of Progress International Exposition ), Northerly Island was raised in Lake Michigan off Chicago. On December 10, 1948, the airfield was opened on the island. As early as 1955, it was the most frequented of the airports with only one runway . The last tower was built in 1952 and the terminal in 1961 . The airfield was named by Merrill C. Meigs , the publisher of the Chicago Herald .

The runway at Meigs Field was approximately 3900 feet (1,200 m) long and 150 feet (46 m) wide. There were also four public helicopter landing pads at the southern end of the runway.

Closure and conversion

Former terminal building

After Richard M. Daley , then still a Senate member in the Illinois Senate , had already spoken out in favor of closing Meigs Field and converting it into a park in 1972, the square became mayor of Chicago in September 1996 during his tenure (from 1989) closed for the first time. After intervention by the State of Illinois , it reopened in February 1997. After long negotiations between the FAA ( Federal Aviation Administration ), the city and the state, a compromise was reached in 2001 , which should ensure the survival of the airport for the next 25 years. There was a media-effective handshake between the governor and mayor, but no legal anchoring at the federal level.

Nevertheless, the field received an instrument landing system in the spring of 1998 .

In a controversial act on March 30, 2003, Mayor Daley ordered the runway to be destroyed in the middle of the night. After the area was cordoned off by a large police force, large "X" s were dug into the runway with heavy equipment. Since neither the FAA nor the owners of the aircraft on the ground were informed, 16 aircraft were on the airfield after this action without it having an intact runway. These planes were later allowed to take off on the 3,000-foot taxiway.

Mayor Daley defended his actions by saving lengthy legal proceedings before the airport could close. In particular, he raised security concerns, according to which this airport in close proximity to the city was too dangerous after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 .

The controversial action caught Mayor Daley in negative headlines. The Chicago Sun-Times headlined, for example, with " without any advance notice or public discussion, the city vandalized its lakefront jewel, Meigs Field"

Although various interest groups tried to reopen Meigs Field in court, this could not be achieved because the airport was owned by the city.

Lake in Northerly Island, on the area of ​​the former airfield, 2015

In August 2003, the demolition work at Meigs Field ended. The transformation into a park that is intended to offer animals retreats is still in progress. For this, over 11,000 bushes and 400 trees were planted and a 5 hectare lagoon was built. A paved circular path is lined with various works of art.

Others

Although Meigs Field was a relatively small, rather insignificant airport, it was still known all over the world. The reason for this is the Microsoft Flight Simulator . In older versions, the first flight after installation started with a Cessna from Meigs Field, and it was a tradition in the virtual world to start from there and take the first sightseeing flight.

Web links

Commons : Meigs Field  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Friends of Meigs Field (en)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Air Traffic Data. (No longer available online.) FlyChicago.com, archived from the original on December 8, 2016 ; accessed on April 18, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.