Like most airports across our nation, Chicago Executive Airport was once a modest grass strip created by early aviation enthusiast, in the days when airplanes were a novelty and travel by air was an uncommon luxury. In the roaring twenties the grassy 40 acre plot, with dirt and sod runways, was known as Gauthier's Flying Field. In the 1928, the field was renamed Palwaukee, after the two highways that formed its southern and eastern boarders. The airport was purchased, in 1953, by George Priester who over the next 33 years expanded and developed facility until 1986, when it was purchased by the neighboring Villages of Wheeling and Prospect Heights. Re-named Chicago Executive Airport in 2007, to more accurately reflect its regional importance, the facility now covers 411 acres. Today, Chicago Executive is the third busiest airport in Illinois, after O'Hare International and Midway. Approximately three hundred aircraft are based on the field and approximately 200,000 take-offs and landings occur annually. Chicago Executive Airport is a powerful economic engine for the City of Wheeling, the Village of Prospect Heights the surrounding communities, the region and the entire Midwest. Aviation related businesses, both on and off the field, employ hundreds of technical experts, managers, pilots, mechanics and support staff. The airport produces direct and indirect economics benefits including sales tax revenue, increased business activity for local industry and retail operations including hotels, restaurants, and a wide range of aviation related and not-related enterprises. Chicago Executive Airport, an intergovernmental cooperative of the City of Prospect Heights and the Village of Wheeling, is a major aviation facility catering primarily to general aviation and the corporate aviation user.
