Roger Wilco Wear does its flying out of Chicago Executive Airport (KPWK), formerly known as Palwaukee Municipal Airport. We felt it was the fitting selection for our first featured airport for the Roger Wilco Wear Aviation T-Shirt of the Week.
We did some research and found out how little we knew about our home airport. The airport was originally founded in 1925 with the name of Gauthier’s Flying Field. It was renamed Pal-Waukee in 1928 due to the airport’s location near the intersection of Palatine Road and Milwaukee Avenue. The airport was privately owned up until 1986 when it was sold by the Priester family to the cities of Wheeling and Prospect Heights, at which point the name was slightly modified again to Palwaukee Municipal Airport, which is the version of the name we have selected for our t-shirt. In August of 2006 the airport when through its most recent identity change, selecting the name Chicago Executive Airport.
The airport caters heavily to general aviation and corporate traffic and is the fourth busiest airport in Illinois. Over 90% of the traffic is general aviation based which makes us happy.
The most interesting tidbit we learned about Palwaukee is its tie to the 10 litu’ banknote of Lithuania. The currency, which is one of Lithuania’s most widely circulated, features two Lithuanian pilots, Steponas Darius and Stasys Girenas. The two pilots, who had ties to Chicago and then-named Pal-Waukee airport, attempted to break Lindberg’s non-stop distance record across the Atlantic with a flight from New York City to Kaunus, Lithuania. Unfortunately, the pilots did not succeed and were lost in a crash at Soldin, Germany. The pilots are honored on the 10 Litu Banknote. The image depicts Darius wearing a hat he was known to wear often that included a Pal-Waukee Airport Patch. You learn something new every day.
We currently offer two Palwaukee t-shirts; a short sleeve t-shirt for $27 and a long sleeve t-shirt for $30. We hope you will enjoy our Palwaukee Municipal Airport T-shirts that can be found in the online store.
