Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal (IATA: BMI, ICAO: KBMI, FAA LID: BMI) is a public use airport in McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of the city of Bloomington and southeast of the town of Normal. Owned by the Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority, it is also known as Central Illinois Regional Airport and informally known as CIRA.
CENTRAL ILLINOIS REGIONAL AIRPORT AT BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL HISTORY
Originally, the airport dates to the spring of 1927 when farmer Herman Will opened a 70-plus-acre tract in rural Normal Township. Bordering the field to the west was the recently paved Illinois 2 (today U.S. 51/Main Street), and to the east was the Illinois Central Railroad (today Constitution Trail). Along the IC, at the northeast corner of the airport grounds, was Kerrick, a busy grain elevator station that remains a local landmark. The Bloomington Flying Club helped rally the general public and local leaders behind the economic promise of “heavier-than-air” flight. The club owned a “Jenny”-type open-cockpit biplane, and the non-profit organization evidently helped pay for both the construction of a hanger and day-to-day operations of the field. Will offered to rent the field to the city of Bloomington for $1,000 a year, but there was little enthusiasm for a municipally owned or operated airport. In 1928 the Normal field featured a six-plane hanger, filling pump, wind cone, a circle of crushed stone 100-feet in diameter (the purpose of which was to identify the field from the air) and 75 acres of “comparatively level ground.
CENTRAL ILLINOIS REGIONAL AIRPORT AT BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL LOCATION
Central Illinois Regional Airport at Bloomington-Normal (IATA: BMI, ICAO: KBMI, FAA LID: BMI) is a public use airport in McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of the city of Bloomington and southeast of the town of Normal.
CENTRAL ILLINOIS REGIONAL AIRPORT AT BLOOMINGTON-NORMAL FACTS
ICAO/IATA: BMI/KBMI
Lat: 40.47710037231445
Long: -88.91590118408203
Elevation: 871 ft.
Runway length available: 02/20 8000×150 ft. :: 03/21 3723×100 ft. :: 11/29 6525×150 ft.
