DuPage Airport - West Chicago, IL
N 41° 54.413 W 088° 15.469
16T E 395677 N 4640202
DuPage Airport (IATA Designator: DPA) is a general aviation airport located between Illinois state highways 64 & 38 on the Kane/DuPage county line.
Waymark Code: WM18J0
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 02/23/2007
Views: 69
Originally a grass field used for barnstorming in 1927, DuPage Airport was developed into a modern airport in 1941 when the U.S. Navy requisitioned it for pilot training. The intersecting runways, which have since been extended, and some of the original brick hangars still exist.
DuPage is a designated general-aviation reliever airport and is located about 35 miles west of Chicago. The airport proper consists of about 1200 acres, with a total of four runways. An additional 1600 acres is used to provide a clear zone in the form of a Robert Trent Jones golf course and a technology park.
There are no scheduled commercial flights operating out of DuPage Airport, though there is occasional charter activity. Most of the air traffic is either private, or small jets & turboprops owned by corporations in the area.
In response to expansion plans for the airport by DuPage County, the neighboring communities successfully forced the creation of the DuPage Airport Authority, which was a separate taxing body and whose governing members were appointed by the mayors & city councils of the surrounding communities. Residents in the area eventually grew weary of providing tax funding for the airport, and the same communities that forced the formation of the Authority began to extricate themselves from it. Eventually, the DuPage County Board was able to force the complete dissolution of the Authority as it had existed, and regain control of the airport.
Air Angels, an air- and ground-based medevac service, operates a base at DuPage Airport.