Lewis University Airport is a public use

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in the village of

Romeoville Romeoville is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The village is located southwest of Chicago on the Des Plaines River. Per the 2020 census, the population was 39,863. It is located in the southwest suburban area of Chicago near I ...

Will County Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, United States. The Joliet Regional Port District assumed ownership of the airport in 1989. The

National Weather Service Chicago, Illinois National Weather Service Chicago, currently based in Romeoville, Illinois, is a weather forecast office responsible for monitoring weather conditions for 23 counties in Northern Illinois, the Chicago metropolitan area and Northwest Indiana. The Ar ...

(Chicago Forecast Office) is adjacent to the airport.

History

Lewis University Airport was the original base for Clarence A. "Clancy" Hess's operation " Wings of Hope". The airport has had numerous upgrades in recent years, including widening and reconstructing of taxiways and lights, construction of a control tower, and renovation of ramps. With construction of the control tower, the airport hopes to attract more business aviation and more business jets to be based at Lewis University Airport. The airport's new control tower was completed in November 2022, and the tower will open on December 1 of that year. The project was supported by the Rebuild Illinois program, which was an economic bill sponsored by the State of Illinois to help recover from the

Coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

Facilities and aircraft

Lewis University Airport covers an area of which contains two

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s: * Runway 2/20: 6,500 x 100 ft (1,981 x 30 m), surface: concrete * Runway 9/27: 5,500 x 75 ft (1,676 x 23 m), surface: asphalt For 12-month period ending August 1, 2019, the airport had 104,000 aircraft operations, an average of 285 per day: 96%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

and 4%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

. For the same time period, there were 133 aircraft based at this airport: 109 single-engine and 13 multi-engine

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...

s, 7 jet airplanes, and 4

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

Accidents and incidents

*On July 14, 1989, three people were killed when a Cessna 177 Cardinal crashed into a factory shortly after takeoff from Lewis. The engine reportedly was running but developing little power. All three aboard died, and two people on the ground were injured. *On June 26, 2011, a

Cessna 210 The Cessna 210 Centurion is a six-seat, high-performance, retractable-gear, single-engined, high-wing general-aviation aircraft. First flown in January 1957, it was produced by Cessna until 1986. Design and development The early Cessn ...

crashed while attempting to land at Lewis. Witnesses said the plane appeared to be having troubles and wanted to divert to Lewis. The aircraft impacted power lines, killing one and seriously wounding another. *On May 13, 2021, the pilot of a Beechcraft B24R Sierra 200 reported that engine speed "suddenly dipped down" on climbout after takeoff from Lewis. Attempts to restore power were unsuccessful, and the plane landed on a nearby highway.

References

External links

{{US-airport-ga, LOT Airports in Will County, Illinois Romeoville, Illinois University and college airports

History

Facilities and aircraft

Accidents and incidents

See also

References

External links