Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Wilmington Air Park (KILN) is a former Air Force base turned major cargo hub in Clinton County, Ohio, southeast of Wilmington's city centre, now home to Amazon Air and a cluster of aircraft maintenance operators. Its twin long, ILS-equipped concrete runways and control tower make it a striking destination for simulator pilots wanting to fly heavy freighters into a facility built to handle 747-class aircraft.
Wilmington Air Park lies in Clinton County, Ohio, close to the city of Wilmington itself, and operates today as an integrated aviation and logistics business park built around a working airfield. It began life in the late 1920s, served as an Air Force installation for decades, and is now a busy cargo airport, hosting Amazon Air alongside maintenance and freight operators. For the simulator pilot, its appeal lies in the combination of two very long, fully lit runways with ILS approaches, an active control tower, and a history that runs from a 1930s emergency landing field through to a modern package-sorting and air-freight hub.
The airfield is located two nautical miles southeast of the central business district of Wilmington, a city in Clinton County, Ohio, United States. It sits between the larger metropolitan areas of Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, with Dayton Approach/Departure providing the surrounding terminal radar service.
Wilmington Air Park has two parallel hard-surfaced runways, both lit and equipped with ILS. Runway 04L/22R is 10,676 feet long, and runway 04R/22L is 8,989 feet long. Both are substantial enough to accommodate large widebody aircraft, reflecting the field's role as a major freight facility.
The field is served by Wilmington Tower on 119.475 MHz, which also functions as the CTAF. Ground control operates on 121.6 MHz, and clearance delivery is available separately. ATIS broadcasts on 124.925 MHz, with ASOS also available on 126.675 MHz, and a further discrete frequency of 125.6 MHz is listed as CLD. Dayton Approach/Departure works arrivals and departures on 118.85 MHz. The airfield is equipped with ILS approaches to its runways.
As a towered field with an active control tower, ground control and clearance delivery, pilots should expect to work with Wilmington Tower for all arrivals and departures rather than operating on a self-announce basis. No specific circuit height, joining pattern or noise abatement procedure is detailed in available guidance beyond the standard use of the tower and ground frequencies.
The airport opened in 1929, with a small hangar built the following year, and the landing strip gained Civil Works Administration approval in 1933. In 1940 the Civil Aeronautics Authority took control of the field for use as an emergency landing ground, before the United States Army Air Forces assumed control in 1942 and renamed it Clinton County Army Air Field. Following the creation of an independent US Air Force in 1947, it became Clinton County Air Force Base, primarily supporting Air Force Reserve flying and training under the 302d Troop Carrier Wing from 1952 to 1967, which later became the 302d Tactical Airlift Wing and briefly the 302d Special Operations Wing until 1971. The base was decommissioned as an Air Force installation in 1972, after which the Community Improvement Corporation began developing the site as the Wilmington Industrial Air Park. Between 1972 and 1977 the charter airline Overseas National Airways based itself at the field, controlling the airfield and using it for major DC-8 reconfiguration work as well as domestic cargo dispatch for the US Air Force Logair system; employment there peaked at 140 in early 1976. After ONA's DC-8 fleet was retired in 1977, its assets passed to Ohio Air Center. In 1980 Midwest Air Charter was acquired by Airborne Freight Corporation, forming Airborne Express, which became the airfield's largest tenant. Following the 2003 merger of DHL and Airborne, DHL retained the ground operations while the air operations were spun off as ABX Air, and the facility served as a major DHL Express sorting centre from 2005 until its closure in July 2009. On 19 January 2010 DHL agreed to hand over the airport, including its runways, control tower, buildings and cargo storage facilities, to the Clinton County Port Authority, with the donation taking effect on 2 June 2010. A Redevelopment Study was completed in December 2011, and cargo activity resumed in the second half of 2015 under the code name Project Aerosmith, a trial cargo operation for what would become Amazon Air, using leased ATSG-operated Boeing 767s.
Wilmington Air Park now operates as an integrated aviation and logistics business park spread over 1,900 acres, with nearly three million square feet of industrial, office and hangar space. It is the highest-volume cargo airport in Ohio and remains an important employment hub, home to Amazon Air, Air Transport Services Group, Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services, ABX Air, Air Transport International and other tenants engaged in cargo and maintenance and repair operations. The field's ILS-equipped runways and CAT III approach capability allow it to handle aircraft as large as the Boeing 747.
