DOWNERS GROVE, lll. -- Imagine being able to pull a plane out of your garage door, drive down your driveway and take off on a trip.
No driving to the airport. No security lines. No waiting at all.
Well that’s just what happens in one suburban community.
From one side it looks like any other Downers Grove, Ill., neighborhood. But on the other you can see what makes it so unique.
Hangars are attached to houses, and small planes sit in driveways. This is Brookeridge Airpark, where plane enthusiasts come to live.
The airport has a primary runway that’s about 2,800 feet, along with a secondary runway, and its own fuel tanks. It’s owned by a group of the residents who live here… and has been around since the early 1960s.
Pilots can simply pull their planes out, taxi to the runway and take off.
It isn't the only neighborhood of its kind in the area. There are others, in Naperville and Monee, Ill., to name a few.
Some of the pilots say they offset the cost by being their own mechanics.
John Mohan
A 28,000 foot runway? Right…. Perhaps they can rent it out for Shuttle landings if the program’s ever rejuvenated. :-) I think you’re off by a zero.
William O'Neill
Naper-Aero is another one just NW of Clow International in Bolingbrook. I used to fly into Clow when the restaurant was just a hot-dog stand and there were very few houses around. Now look at that area. :-)