Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Chicago Executive Airport (KPWK) is a busy general aviation and business aviation field at Wheeling, Illinois, some 18 miles northwest of downtown Chicago and just north of O'Hare's Class B airspace. Formerly known as Palwaukee Municipal Airport, it traces its roots back to 1926 and today operates as a controlled Class D field with three paved, lit runways and full instrument approach capability.
Chicago Executive Airport is a public-use general and business aviation airport owned jointly by the City of Prospect Heights and the Village of Wheeling, Illinois. Long known as Palwaukee Municipal Airport, it was renamed Chicago Executive Airport in 2006 to better reflect its role serving corporate and charter traffic into the Chicago area. It is a controlled field with an operating tower and sits close beneath the Chicago Class B airspace, making it a useful and interesting destination for simulator pilots wanting to fly a busy Midwest reliever airport without tackling O'Hare itself.
The airport lies in the village of Wheeling, Cook County, Illinois, about 18 miles northwest of downtown Chicago and roughly seven miles north of Chicago O'Hare International Airport. It has its own Class D airspace with a ceiling up to but not including 3,000 feet MSL, and this Class D airspace underlies the Chicago Class B airspace associated with O'Hare, so pilots transiting or departing the area need to be conscious of the Bravo shelf overhead.
Chicago Executive has three paved runway pairs, all hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 16/34 is 4,999 feet long and is equipped with an ILS on runway 16. Runway 12/30 has a hard, lit surface with a length of 4,116 feet from runway 12 and 3,977 feet from runway 30. Runway 06/24 is also hard-surfaced and lit, with a length of 3,275 feet from runway 06 and 2,404 feet from runway 24; runway 24 is notably shorter than its reciprocal.
Chicago Executive operates as a tower-controlled field. The tower and CTAF frequency is 119.9 MHz, with ground control on 121.7 MHz. Clearance delivery is available on 124.7 MHz, and ATIS broadcasts on 124.2 MHz. Chicago Approach/Departure works the airport on 120.55 MHz, and UNICOM is available on 122.95 MHz. An ILS serves runway 16 for instrument approaches.
As a Class D tower-controlled airport, all arriving and departing traffic operates under the direction of the tower on 119.9 MHz. Runways 6/24 and 12/30 have displaced thresholds, and runways 16 and 34 are each fitted with an EMAS (Engineered Materials Arresting System) at their ends; none of the runways have an overrun area. VFR departures leaving the airspace to the north or northwest are advised to avoid the final approach path for runway 16 by turning once altitude and safety permit. There are noise-sensitive areas both north and south of the airport, and pilots should be alert to numerous cranes in the vicinity as obstructions to the tower's view.
The airport lies near the intersection of Palatine Road and Milwaukee Avenue, from which its historic name Pal-Waukee was derived, and is close to Interstate 94, a useful landmark for inbound traffic from the Chicago area. A public viewing area with parking and bleacher seating was established in 2007 east of the south end of runway 16/34 along Palatine Frontage Road, and can serve as a ground reference for the runway 16/34 threshold. The Des Plaines River runs close to the south of the airport and has featured in local incident reports, making it another notable feature near the final approach paths.
The airfield opened in 1926 as Gauthier's Flying Field and was soon renamed Swallow Airplane Field after an OX-5 Swallow aircraft based there. In November 1928 it became Pal-Waukee, reflecting its location near Palatine Road and Milwaukee Avenue. During the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair, the airport hosted the Goodyear Blimp, which used a wooden hangar on the field for maintenance and storage while offering sightseeing flights. A first gravel runway was laid soon after the Second World War, alongside 70 hangars built to meet post-war demand, many of which remained in use decades later. In 1953 George J. Priester bought the airport and spent the next 33 years developing it with paved runways, lighting, hangars and an air traffic control tower. His son Charlie negotiated the sale of the field to the Village of Wheeling and City of Prospect Heights in 1986, when it became Palwaukee Municipal Airport. Sally Strempel, a pioneering aviator and member of the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame, ran a flight school at the airport from 1950 to 1966 and was among the first women in the United States certified by the FAA to give private and commercial flight exams. The airport's first control tower was built in 1997. Following a name-change vote by Wheeling trustees and Prospect Heights aldermen in August 2006, the field was renamed Chicago Executive Airport on 17 October 2006.
Chicago Executive today is a major general and corporate aviation airport, ranked among the busiest in Illinois, logging tens of thousands of take-offs and landings annually and hosting hundreds of based aircraft, many of them corporate jets. Fixed-base operators on the field include Atlantic Aviation, Signature Flight Support, Chicago Private Jet Charters and Hawthorne Global Aviation Services, providing fuel and handling for both based and transient aircraft, alongside charter operators such as Priester Air Charter and Palwaukee Flyers. A dedicated Customs and Border Protection facility opened in October 2021 and was later recognised as the 2022 General Aviation Airport Architectural Project of the Year. The airport operates around the clock throughout the year.value