Midway Airport: The First Seventy-Five Years by Christopher Lynch Lake Claremont Press Phone: 773/583-7800 www.lakeclaremont.com

We passed the spot where another structure once stood, but now is gone. This was the site of the old Army Hanger, a sturdy brick one story hanger, where transient aircraft would pull into for service.

It was demolished only a couple of years ago, and before it was condemned, you could still see the sign, written faintly over the hanger door "U.S. Army Transient Aircraft". Monarch used to use this hanger for fixing fuel trucks. It was a wreck of a place, in disrepair since it had been abandoned decades before, but it was a fine spot for fixing aircraft. A friend of the family used to keep his Gull-Wing Stinson there, and whenever I was at the field, I would stop by the army hanger, and marvel at the silver piston cowling on this elegant aircraft, which was so authentic, it was made of canvas, which trembled slightly when touched, like the surface of a taut drum.

Continue the Tour: Jet Fuel Memories

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