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

The pioneering airmail pilots used all of their senses, flying in open cockpits through the elements. Walt Braznell, (1907-94), a pioneering airmail pilot for Robertson Aircraft, flew the mail from St. Louis to Chicago so many times, that even 50 years later, he could recite from memory the geographic landmarks that guided him to Chicago. Fellow airmail pilot Charles A. Lindbergh also flew this same route for the same airline, and in his memoir The Spirit of St. Louis writes that the idea to fly the Atlantic to Paris first occurred to Lindbergh somewhere over Peoria Illinois on the St. Louis to Chicago run.

Braznell's recollection is taken from a remarkable book written by his son William titled An American’s Odyssey: Walt Braznell and the Pilots He Led into the Jet Age. Anyone who has an interest about the transition from the early airmail days to the rise of commercial aviation is encouraged to read Braznell's book.

"A cup of coffee and a bit of gab with the Peoria Station Manager, and you’re on your way, again, heading Northeast, about 60 degrees magnetic, over the bluffs, across the broad Illinois River valley, past the bluffs once again, and down the Main Streets of Wenona and Grand Ridge. Before heading into Chicago for landing, you’ll want to buzz Grand Ridge at treetop level so you can check and reset your altimeter against the town’s known elevation. Past Marseilles and the emergency field at Stravenger, the grain elevator and quarry at Plainfield are usually visible from several miles. Northeast of the elevator you intercept the Des Plaines River where it bends to the Northeast, near Lockport. Once over the river you continue to the Argo Starch Plant on the outskirts of Chicago. Don’t worry about missing this landmark-if you can’t see it, you’ll smell it. Turn Right at 63rd Street and you’re all lined up for your approach to Chicago Airport, about a quarter mile dead ahead.”

William Braznell, An American’s Odyssey: Walt Braznell and the Pilots He Led into the Jet Age University of Missouri Press, Columbia, 2001, P. 47