Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport
Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Village of Bolingbrook | ||||||||||
| Serves | Bolingbrook, Illinois | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 670 ft / 204 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 41°41′46″N 088°07′45″W / 41.69611°N 88.12917°W | ||||||||||
| Website | www.bbclowairport.com | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
  1C5 Location of airport in Illinois  1C5 1C5 (the United States) | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2005) | |||||||||||
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Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport (FAA LID: 1C5) is a public airport in Bolingbrook, a village in Will County, Illinois, United States.[1] Located 29 miles (46 km) southwest of the Chicago Loop, it is a small general aviation facility catering to private pilots, students, and commuter aircraft.
Clow features a $100 hamburger diner, Charlie's Restaurant, which serves breakfast and lunch.
History
The airport was originally a grass airstrip built by Oliver Boyd Clow in the 1950s. By 1989 it was named the best privately owned, public-use airport in Illinois.[3] The airport was acquired by the Village of Bolingbrook in 2004. The village has expanded the airport, which include a widened runway, added taxiways, and landing glidepath lighting.[4]
The airport was used as a location for the 1992 film Folks! with Tom Selleck and Don Ameche, which also had a cameo by O. Boyd Clow, the founder of the airport.
Oliver Boyd Clow called the airport Clow International on the spur of the moment when filing a flight plan[5]. Boyd created the name, choosing the word international to reflect Chicago's mixed ethnicity, rather than the airport's size: Boyd's many friends and fellow pilots were of German, Polish, and other ethnic backgrounds now making their homes in Chicago. "It was named on a lark and borders on the ridiculous, but people remember it. Sometimes the absurd is easier to remember," says Boyd.[6]
Facilities and aircraft
Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport covers an area of 205 acres (83 ha) and contains one runway designated 18/36 with a 3,360 x 75 ft (1,024 x 23 m) asphalt pavement.[1]
For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2005, the airport had 50,000 aircraft operations, an average of 136 per day: 96% general aviation and 4% air taxi. There are 145 aircraft based at this airport: 83% single-engine, 10% ultralight, 3% multi-engine and 3% helicopter.[1] The Fixed-Based Operator (FBO) at Clow is JW Aviation.[7]
Illinois Aviation Museum
The airport is also the location of the Illinois Aviation Museum at Bolingbrook that includes a collection of restored and replica aircraft.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d FAA Airport Form 5010 for 1C5 PDF, effective 2007-12-20
- ^ Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport, official site
- ^ Illinois Aviation Museum at Bolingbrook
- ^ Chicago Tribune July 8, 2015 article: Bolingbrook paying $706,715 of $6.9 million Clow Airport upgrade
- ^ Chicago Tribune July 17, 1991 article: Clow's airport may be closing, but appearances are deceiving
- ^ AOPA March 5, 2003 article: Pilots - Oliver Boyd Clow
- ^ JW Aviation
- ^ "About". Illinois Aviation Museum. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
External links
- Resources for this airport:
- FAA airport information for 1C5
- AirNav airport information for 1C5
- FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
- SkyVector aeronautical chart for 1C5
- Bolingbrook's Clow International Airport is at 41°41′46″N 088°07′45″W / 41.69611°N 88.12917°W
- Illinois Aviation Museum
- JW Aviation