UK2000 Scenery recently released their rendition of the University of Illinois Willard Airport (KCMI), serving the Urbana metropolitan area, for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020. 

While it was dedicated in late 1945, airline flights were to start nearly a decade later, in 1954, albeit in a very barebones manner, as the passenger terminal was only erected in 1960.

By the late 1960s, Willard was the second-busiest airport in the state. However, it crumbled within a decade after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. Airlines found service to smaller airports inefficient and expensive. Airfares went up, whereas they went down at bigger airports like Chicago O’Hare, quickly killing the demand and leading many airlines to leave the airport altogether.

A new passenger terminal was built in the late 1980s and remains used today.

Until eleven years ago, the airport was home to the University of Illinois Institute of Aviation, which was voted by trustees to be closed in 2011, and everything was transferred over to Parkland College in 2013 so that the enrolled students could complete their courses. 

Parkland College still operates the airport, providing an annual subsidy of $433,000.

It’s currently served by a single airline, American Eagle, which flies passengers to Chicago O’Hare and Dallas/Fort Worth. 

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with full-detail buildings, realistic ground markings, performance-friendly optimization, custom vegetation, PBR materials, custom static aircraft, custom night lighting, and more.

It’s available on SimMarket for roughly $14.84, requiring at least 70.42 MB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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