Hamilton County has purchased the Sheridan Airport in a move that county officials say will serve the growing demand for private aircraft use in two of Indiana’s most affluent counties.
Sheridan Airport, 27405 Jerkwater Road, about a mile east of the Boone County-Hamilton County line, opened 77 years ago and has a 3,760-foot paved runway and two grass runways. The airport can house nearly 40 aircraft in three multi-unit hangars and one corporate hangar.
The $4.2 million sale from Crouser Properties LLC to the Hamilton County Airport Authority was completed July 14. The county plans to spend up to a decade making improvements to Sheridan Airport’s runway, lighting and facilities.
Sheridan Airport opened in 1948 as a private airfield for Ken Biddle, who was founder of Biddle Precision Components, a Sheridan-based precision machine shop that was purchased in 2009 by EMC Precision Machining. Eventually, the airport grew to support the needs of northwest Hamilton County, according to the airport’s website.
“It’ll be a slow process [improving] it,” Hamilton County Commissioner Mark Heirbrandt told IBJ. “We will invest heavily into that airport and bring it up to Hamilton County standards. There’s going to be a lot of money that’s going to need to be invested in it to get it where we want it to be.”
Sheridan Airport is the second airport managed and maintained by the Hamilton County Airport Authority. In 2002, Hamilton County purchased Indianapolis Executive Airport, which handles thousands of corporate jet aircraft each year in Zionsville.
Heirbrandt said Indianapolis Executive Airport’s growth led the county to examine a long-term vision of how to meet the area’s increasing private aviation needs as construction continues on projects such as the Eli Lilly and Co. campus at the LEAP Lebanon Research and Innovation District in Lebanon and companies relocate their corporate headquarters to Boone and Hamilton counties.
In 2023, the county completed a $15.2 million project to extend the Indianapolis Executive Airport runway from 5,500 feet to 7,001 feet.
More than 10,000 business flights operate in and out of Indianapolis Executive Airport annually, making the airport the fourth-busiest non-towered general aviation airport for business traffic in the United States, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s traffic flow management system counts.
The airport is the busiest non-commercial airport in the state that specifically caters to business travel or jet aircraft, but Heirbrandt said the county expects Indianapolis Executive Airport will transform into more of a commercial airport.
“We’ve got people moving in there, and they want to be able to fly in and out of there and go right home in Hamilton County or Boone County,” he said.
Heirbrandt noted that Indianapolis Executive Airport recently received a preliminary permit for a U.S. Customs & Border Protection facility, which will make it the fourth airport in the state with a customs office, along with Indianapolis International Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport and South Bend International Airport.
“We have a strong demand, and we see that changing significantly in the upcoming years, and we think it’s going to be more commercialized,” Heirbrandt said. “With a customs office and the things that we’re going to be offering there, it’s going to open up international flights.”
To relieve pressure from Indianapolis Executive Airport, Hamilton County plans to shift smaller planes to Sheridan Airport in the coming years.
“This is a strategic investment in our county’s future,” Hamilton County Council member Brad Beaver said in written remarks. “Indianapolis Executive Airport continues to see an increase in business jet traffic. By contrast, Sheridan Airport will serve piston-engine aircraft. It gives us the flexibility and space we need to support growth across all sectors—commercial, private, and recreational.”
Copyright © 2025 All Rights Reserved.