Horace Williams Airport is a public use airport located one nautical mile (1.85 km) north of the central business district of Chapel Hill, a city in Orange County, North Carolina, United States. It is owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, this airport is assigned IGX by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.Horace Williams Airport is home to North Carolina's Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program, which flies doctors and medical specialists participating in instructional and outreach programs, serving outlying communities in under-served areas of the state. In addition, some private flights also help bring distant patients to the UNC Hospitals, as well as occasionally serving as rapid air link with hospital helicopter service for time-critical organ transplants.HistoryOriginally known as Martindale Field for Chapel Hill contractor Lee Martindale and one of the first airfields in North Carolina. Then renamed "Chapel Hill Airport" and offered pilot training and air shows. The airport was purchased by the university in 1940 and renamed for Prof. Horace Williams, Chair of Mental and Moral Science (Philosophy) at the University during the first half the twentieth century, who also donated much of the land needed to expand the airport.
