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most of them would have been hard put to compete with first-class establishments. And as the years have passed, travel time from the loop to the airport has increased.

Traffic congestion at Midway often reached frantic dimensions. Each day hundreds of regularly-scheduled flights made their way into an airport whose runways were too short, whose approaches were obstructed, whose ramps were congested, and where there was altogether too little space. The pilots complained for years about the smokestacks on one final approach, but their protests were not heeded. Instead the owners of those stacks proceeded to build yet another. Garish neon signs were built closer and closer to the runways until one of them was removed by an airplane on its final approach in bad weather.

From almost any point of view, Midway Airport was a national disgrace. Boasting that it was the world's busiest airport, it was grossly inadequate from almost any point of view. Boxed in on ever side was its large buildings, it could be enlarged only at great cost. But even if that expense were undertaken, the fact remained that Midway was not conveniently located for any large segment of the traveling public. There was no good public transportation to take passengers quickly to the city. It made no connections with railroads or elevated lines. While some bus transportation was relatively satisfactory for airport employees living nearby, it was entirely too time-consuming to be used by people going any distance.

There is little doubt that Midway Airport might have been the scene of many more disastrous accidents had it not been for the alertness of pilots flying into it and the superb efforts of the often harassed and usually overworked control tower operators.

Since the jet age happily has taken much traffic away from Midway, the new O'Hare Airport proceeds to make many of the same mistakes, but on a larger and more expensive scale. There, too, facilities for handling passengers lag far behind the needs. Ramp space is inadequate and congested. It is not uncommon for incoming passengers to miss their connecting flights because their plane had to wait half an hour for a gate. Real public transportation is nonexistent, and thousands of passengers and employees are forced to drive private cars. Relatively fast access is provided by freeway to a few downtown areas, but nothing really substantial has been done to facilitate moving the passenger on his entire journey from his home or office to his ultimate destination.

It remains to be seen how many of the now relatively clear landscape will one day be filled with obstructions. Has the traveling public and assurance that safety at O'Hare too will not be compromised by smokestacks, television towers, and other hazards to low-flying planes?

Of course historical accident has not been responsible for all the airport "unplanning." Albuquerque, New Mexico, might serve as an example of a type of conflict which has unnecessarily arisen. There the Federal Government and an air-minded community built a marvelous airport -- far better in many

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