Since shortly after the first airplane appeared in 1903, designers have been aware of its disadvantages. Airplanes need long runways for takeoffs and landings, so airports need a lot of land. This makes flying rather inconvenient. Unless you live at an airport, in order to fly your plane, you'll have to travel to the airport by some other means. Worse yet, the appetite of airports for real estate conflicts with the high population density in cities.
Airports tend to be located far from the center of cities.
City folk who wish to fly somewhere must usually take a car, or a train, or a bus to an airport, then board an airplane and fly to another airport near their destination, then find ground transportation for the final leg of their journey. Only the excellent speed and safety of air travel persuades anybody to put up with this hassle. Ideally, you could step out of your door, enter a vehicle, and proceed straight to where you're going without changing vehicles. Several solutions to this problem have been tried. Alfred McCormick lived on the shore of Lake Michigan in Evanston and worked in downtown Chicago.