Civic shortsightedness is the bedrock of our National Airspace System (NAS), but visionaries such as Stapleton-Ben or Jean-persist, and aviation survives, which segues to Nash Field (6Z6), Indianola, Iowa.

Denver’s viper-inspired airport opened over the objections of nonpilots who saw no need to waste tax dollars on aviation ventures. Either way, superb marketing possibilities squandered. The 1929 site for Denver Muni-later renamed Stapleton after whomever-was in Rattlesnake Hollow, not to be confused with Prohibition’s bootlegging pilot, Jake Hollow. Initially, it was Denver Municipal Airport, then renamed for Denver’s on-again-off-again mayor, Benjamin Stapleton (1923-47), a visionary who foresaw the limitless possibilities of forcing airline passengers to pass through his city, while their luggage transferred to points unknown. My editor says I’m misinformed about Stapleton’s name. For years I thought it was called Midway because it was midway between New York’s LaGuardia and Denver’s Stapleton Airport, named for Jean Stapleton of “All In The Family.” You’d be excused for not knowing that, since the sitcom went off the air in 1979, and Stapleton Airport closed in 1995, replaced by Denver International Airport (DEN), which won ICAO’s Most Boring Aerodrome Moniker award in 1997 and swallowed most available real estate in northeast Colorado.

Rebranding airfields as war memorials continued in 1949, as Chicago Municipal Airport became Midway (MDW), honoring the 1942 Battle of Midway.

He received the Medal of Honor, and in 1997 the Chicago Tribune dubbed him the “prototypical top gun.” Unlike the movie franchise that won’t die, even in space, O’Hare died in combat in 1943, so in 1949 Chicago’s Orchard Place/Douglas Field-home to a Douglas C-54 plant-was renamed O’Hare, while retaining the ORchard/Douglas ORD identifier. In 1942 naval aviator Edward “Butch” O’Hare, flying a Grumman F-4 Wildcat, became the Navy’s first ace by downing five Japanese bombers during one mission. Further west, Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway share World War II themes.

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