Leg 147 KCGX - Chicago (USA) to KMIE - Muncie (USA)
KCGX - Airport Info
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ICAO code: KCGX
Airport name: Merril C Meigs Airport
Location: Chicago
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Chicago Info
Chicago (city, Illinois), city and seat of Cook County, located in northeastern Illinois, on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Chicago River. Chicago is the third largest city in the United States and one of the country’s leading industrial, commercial, transportation, and financial centers.
Chicago covers a land area of 588.2 sq km (227.1 sq mi) and extends 47 km (29 mi) along Lake Michigan. It occupies flatland traversed by two short rivers: the Chicago River, which flows west from the lake through the downtown area, where it forks into a North Branch and a South Branch; and the Calumet River, in the south, which connects with the small Lake Calumet. Both rivers are linked by canals with the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, establishing Chicago as the connecting point in the waterway between the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. The city’s rapid growth was due in large part to its location, with ready access to markets and raw materials.
After a population decline since the 1950s, the population of Chicago increased from 2,783,726 in 1990 to 2,896,016 in 2000. According to the 2000 census, whites constitute 42 percent of the city’s population; blacks, 36.8 percent; Asians, 4.3 percent; Native Americans, 0.4 percent; and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, 0.1 percent. People of mixed heritage or not reporting race were 16.5 percent of inhabitants. Hispanics, who may be of any race, represent 26 percent of the city’s population.
Chicago has a highly diversified economy that has been aided by an extensive transportation and distribution network. It is the nation’s most important rail and trucking center and is the location of one of the busiest airports in the United States, Chicago-O’Hare International Airport. Chicago has several commuter railroad lines that serve the suburbs. In addition, the Chicago Transit Authority operates bus, subway, and EL (elevated train) services in the city.
The city is a significant port for both domestic and international trade. Great Lakes freighters and river barges deliver bulk commodities such as iron ore, limestone, coal, chemicals, petroleum, and grain. Some of this freight is destined for processing plants in the heavily industrialized Calumet River area. Foreign vessels arrive via the St. Lawrence Seaway, bringing products such as automobiles, steel, fish, and alcoholic beverages. The boats depart carrying machinery, farm equipment, hides, and lumber, as well as a variety of food products.
Manufacturing employs about one-fifth of the metropolitan area’s workers. Chicago’s largest employer is the food products industry, followed by the printing and publishing, metal fabrication, electronic equipment, chemical, machinery, and transportation-equipment industries. The manufacture of furniture and agricultural implements has declined in importance in recent decades. Chicago is one of the nation’s leading producers of steel, metalware, confectionery, surgical appliances, railroad equipment, soap, paint, cosmetics, cans, industrial machinery, printed materials, and sporting goods.
Chicago contains the headquarters of numerous corporations and is an important wholesale market for grain, machine tools, produce, fish, and flowers. The Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange are among the world’s largest commodities markets and have led in the development of futures trading and related concepts. The city has long been an important convention and trade-show center, with numerous hotels and extensive exhibition facilities. The increasing importance of this industry has made it necessary to renovate and enlarge several facilities, including the McCormick Place (built in 1960), a multipurpose facility on Lake Michigan and the largest trade-show facility in North America.
KMIE - Airport Info
ICAO code: KMIE
Airport name: Johnson Fiel Airport
Location: Muncie
Useful information
Airport elevation: '
Time zone: UTC-
Lighted runways : Yes
Maximum runway length: '
Runway surface : Asphalt
Instrument approach (ILS, LOC, LDA, and SDF):
Muncie Info
Muncie, city, seat of Delaware County, eastern Indiana, on the White River; incorporated as a city 1865. Manufactures include aerospace and telecommunications equipment, pharmaceuticals, metal products, machine tools, and electrical components. Ball State University (1918) and two junior colleges are here. The city is named for the Munsee group of Delaware people, who settled on the site in the 1770s. Industrialization was spurred by the discovery of natural gas in 1886. Muncie, as the “typical” American town, was the subject of the Middletown books (1929, 1937) by the anthropologists Robert S. Lynd and Helen M. Lynd. Similar studies of the city were made in the early 1980s. Population 77,216 (1980); 71,035 (1990); 67,430 (2000).