Illinois

Illinois history exceeds the capacity of the Sears Catalog for categorization and the World’s Fair for spectacle. And no matter what the self-appointed tour guide at the local diner might say, the heritage of the land of Lincoln doesn’t end with Capone’s demise. Like the Chicago Loop, the Prairie State’s past seems to defy straightforward chronology—Cahokia offered a version of urban sprawl more than a thousand years before the first Windy City skyscraper. From Park Forest to Cave-in-Rock, scan our shelf of Illinois history books with the unflagging enthusiasm of a Wrigley Field hot dog vendor. [View all Illinois books]
7 products
Cover image for Glenview Naval Air Station, isbn: 9780738541228
Glenview Naval Air Station
$24.99
Midway Airport
Midway Airport
$24.99
Forgotten Chicago Airfields
Forgotten Chicago Airfields
$21.99
Cover image for Prairie Flyers of Central Illinois, isbn: 9781467159296
Prairie Flyers of Central Illinois
$24.99
Lost Airports of Chicago
Lost Airports of Chicago
$21.99
Quad City International Airport
Quad City International Airport
$24.99
Cover image for Springfield Aviation, isbn: 9780738561592
Springfield Aviation
$24.99

Glenview Naval Air Station

9780738541228

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In 1923--just 20 years after the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk--a Naval Reserve aviation training program was established at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Originally, sea planes and a few small land-based planes were used for primary flight instruction. With the development of heavier, faster military aircraft, the Great Lakes facility became inadequate. Under Rear Adm. John Downes, commandant of the 9th Naval District, the search for a suitable new location was undertaken. Curtiss-Reynolds-Wright Airfield was deemed ideal for relocation of the aviation training program. From humble beginnings as Naval Reserve Aviation Base Chicago, Naval Air Station Glenview (the official U.S. Navy designation) went on to play a vital and unique role during World War II. Until closure in 1995, the base was home to thousands of Navy and Marine Reserve pilots, aircrews, and support personnel--proudly known as weekend warriors."
Cover image for Glenview Naval Air Station, isbn: 9780738541228

Midway Airport

9780738598505

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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."
Midway Airport

Forgotten Chicago Airfields

9781626195547

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Nick Selig excavates the highways to the sky that have been covered up by urban sprawl or dissolved by neglect. More than a guide to landing strips that have had startling second lives as shopping malls or retirement homes, he uncovers the excitement of the early days of air travel, when a man might cling to his job as a lavatory truck driver for a closer peek at aviation. In this follow-up to Lost Airports of Chicago," discover how a tractor swap gave birth to Clow International Airport and revel in the daredevil exploits of puddle-jumper pilots over the wide-open spaces of Harlem Avenue."
Forgotten Chicago Airfields

Prairie Flyers of Central Illinois

9781467159296

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Midwestern aviators changed the trajectory of flight itself—from barnstormers and military pilots to hot air balloonists and NASA engineers.

When Mother Nature made American prairies, she created one vast airfield. It’s not mere chance that so many aviation pioneers are from the Midwest—farm kids, small-town kids—who grew up accustomed to vast expanses of earth and sky. Barnstormers, flight attendants, NASA engineers, crop dusters, World War II bombers and Vietnam helicopter pilots were dispatched from areas of the heartland, places like Central Illinois. Their stories, big and small, bear testimony to America’s enduring fascination with flying machines, a fascination that has taken prairie flyers to every corner of the world. Edith Brady-Lunny, Denis Hambucken and John Warner offer a ground-level view of aviation history in the nation’s heartland, including personal stories of the flyers and the global legacy of the Flying Farmer organization. 


Cover image for Prairie Flyers of Central Illinois, isbn: 9781467159296

Lost Airports of Chicago

9781609499006

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To book a ride on the World's Shortest Airline or learn aerial stunts from the redheaded widow of Lawrence Avenue, you've got to go through the airports buried beneath the housing developments and shopping malls of Chicagoland. Many of these airports sprang up after World War I, when training killed more pilots than combat, and the aviation pioneers who developed Chicago's flying fields played a critical role in getting the nation ready to dare the skies in World War II. Author Nick Selig has rolled wheels on his fair share of Chicago's landing strips but faces an entirely new challenge in touching down in places being swallowed by a city and forgotten by history.
Lost Airports of Chicago

Quad City International Airport

9780738583716

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In 1922, three men were so captivated with flying they leased 30 acres of cow pasture south of Moline to serve as a landing field. Other early aviators and barnstormers began using Franing Field, and it soon became known as Moline Airport. The field hosted the Ford Reliability Tour four times, served as part of the original New York to Dallas airmail route, had passenger service as early as 1927, became one of Illinois's largest Works Progress Administration projects, weathered financial struggles and a battle with neighboring Davenport, Iowa, over which community would possess the area's commercial airport, and has enjoyed constant growth and updates for both airline and general aviation traffic. This collection of historical photographs and images will present the people, planes, events, and development of that former pastureland into today's modern Quad City International Airport, the third largest airport for passenger traffic in the state of Illinois.
Quad City International Airport

Springfield Aviation

9780738561592

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Citizens of Springfield first witnessed human flight, a balloon ascent, on July 5, 1858. In 1861, the capital city's most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln, then residing in the White House, authorized the creation of the first U.S. "air force," a balloon to observe Confederate troops. Springfield's interface with aviation has been a steady stream of hot-and-cold-running enthusiasm since airplanes began flying from the state fair racetrack infield about 1910. Springfield Aviation chronicles that flow and concludes with photographs from Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in early 2008. It presents photographs of memorable airplanes, airships, and prominent aviators from the author's extensive collection, augmented by contributions from Springfield Airport Authority, Lincoln Library's Sangamon Valley Collection, and many others.
Cover image for Springfield Aviation, isbn: 9780738561592