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NEWSLETTER #62 - MARCH 2008 WHAT DO YOU KNOW
All answers this time. US member Chuck Sterba wrote re the Illinois Airways location “As to the question what airfield is depicted on page 16 of the latest newsletter, I believe it must be Ashburn Field. The usual address given for Ashburn Field is 83rd and Cicero. The field was 640 acres, and if it ran the way I think it did, that would put it at 79th and Western also. The plane pictured on the postcard appears to be World War I vintage (possibly a DH-4), and Ashburn Field was dedicated October 28, 1916. It replaced the earlier Cicero Field (where the Stinson sisters (Katherine and Marjorie) learned to fly under the tutalage of Max Lillie et al, and it was about 1911 the largest airfield in the nation. By 1913 Rober McCormick had sold the land in Cicero for development (they covered it with bungalows and there is no sign of it today). Ashburn Field lasted into the 20s to be replaced by what became Midway Airport.” In the absence of any other comment I still reckon the aircraft is a Springfield Vought VE-7.
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