Bill Long & His Airports – Part 1

I’ve accumulated several news clippings about “Bill” Long and his Lorain airports (yes, he had two of them). The articles provide a timeline of sorts for anyone interested in how Lorain became a hotbed for airports, and Long’s role in making it happen.

In July 1928, the idea of the City of Lorain having an airport was being promoted, and rapidly gaining in popularity. The original proposal was to lease an airport owned by Bill Long that was located on West Erie Avenue, about a mile west of Lorain.

As this article from the July 24, 1928 Lorain Times-Herald noted, “The plan in mind is to lease 80 acres of land fronting on the Lake-rd a mile west of Leavitt-rd now being used by William Long as a commercial airplane site. Expenses of the airdrome would be defrayed by the taxing of companies using the field for passenger and freight flights.”

This article commended “the site west of Lorain on the Lake-rd, now being used by William Long, as probably the most suitable of any in the vicinity."

I’m not sure what happened, but the plan to lease Bill Long’s airfield never got off the ground. Instead, a new airport – Port Mills – opened on the northeast corner of Meister and Leavitt Roads on July 27, 1929. It was operated by Lorain Airways Service, Inc., headed by Richard W. Mills and his son, Leland, who was the manager of the field. At the time it was said to be “the largest privately owned airport east of Mississippi.”

But that didn't stop Bill Long from promoting his airport as “Lorain’s Oldest Airport” in this ad that appeared in the Lorain Journal on October 12, 1929.

Next: Bill Long’s second airport