Rantoul National Aviation Center, also known as Frank Elliott Field, is a public use airport located in Rantoul, a village in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. It is owned by the Village of Rantoul. Although most U.S. airports use the same three letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Rantoul National Aviation Center is assigned TIP by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA (which assigned TIP to Tripoli International Airport in Tripoli, Libya). In 2021, the airport was selected for the Illinois Department of Transportation's Transportation Improvement Program. The airport received $100,000 to convert existing fuel facility dispensers to self-service dispensers.

History

The airport was established in 1993 after the closure of Chanute Air Force Base (which was established as Chanute Field in 1917).

Facilities and aircraft

Rantoul National Aviation Center covers an area of 1,192 acre and contains two asphalt paved runways: 9/27 measuring 5001 by and 18/36 measuring 4894 by. For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2020, the airport had 20,000 aircraft operations, an average of 55 per day: all general aviation. For the same time period, there were 14 aircraft based at this airport: 10 single-engine and 2 multi-engine airplanes as well as 2 helicopters. The Village of Rantoul operates a fixed-base operator on the airport offering fueling, aircraft parking, crew cars, and computer stations.

Accidents and incidents

Ground transportation

While no public transit service is provided directly to the airport, Champaign County Area Rural Transit System provides bus service nearby.