Ashburn Flying Field was the first airport built, after the 1911-established aerodrome named Cicero Flying Field closed in April 1916, to serve Chicago, Illinois.

[1] It opened in November 1916 in Ashburn, a community at the southwest corner of Chicago.

[2] The airfield site was a marshy area approximately a square mile in size, and previously devoid of trees or buildings, before the Aero Club of Illinois, itself founded on February 10.

[4] It was offered for the use of the US government by the Aero Club of Illinois,[5] The Ashburn facility's opening was shortly before the start of a pioneering airmail flight in 1916 by Victor Carlstrom, in a Curtiss biplane, from Chicago to New York City, sponsored by The New York Times.

It was supplanted by nearby Midway Airport as a major aviation center for Chicago.