New Book Highlights History of Midway Airport

March 5, 2013 - PRLog -- New to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of Aviation series is Midway Airport by local author David E. Kent. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.

In 1903, Chicago fell in love with flying. Enterprising people opened airfields and designed and built aircraft, and aviators won big money at air meets. After World War I, aviation was a serious matter with explosive commercial potential. A transcontinental airmail service was established and became the impetus for the first airlines.

Aspiring to be first in aviation, the City of Chicago considered each of its existing airfields to develop into its new, modern municipal airport. It chose none of them and instead decided on a square mile of property 10 miles southwest of the city as the location for what would soon become the "World's Busiest Airport."

Images of Aviation: Midway Airport contains images and stories from the Midway Historians, of which author David Kent is a founding member. The book captures the ethos and thrill of the Midway experience during a time when people dressed up for air travel or just visited the airport, dined at the Cloud Room, and gazed from Midway's observation platforms at the incredible aerial ballet before them.

It was a magical time, when flying off into the clouds in beautiful silver airliners meant traveling in style and following aviation's romantic call. Today Midway Airport remains a roaring, rumbling, bustling center of air transportation and the busiest square mile in the world.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town? Visit arcadiapublishing.com.