In the FAA's airspace data, the Chicago Class B centered on O'Hare International reaches the ground around the airport, while over the Loop, the West Loop and Lincoln Park its floor sits at 3,000 feet above sea level. Midway International has a Class C that reaches the ground around the airport in Garfield Ridge, on the Southwest Side.
The City Council added its own text on November 18, 2015: section 10-36-400 of the Municipal Code of Chicago (ordinance SO2015-5419, read in the City Clerk's record). It lists limits for small unmanned aircraft in city airspace, among them no flight over property without the owner's consent, none within five miles of any airport, none between dusk and dawn, none above 400 feet, and none over schools, hospitals, places of worship or open air assembly units such as stadiums, beach enclosures and street festivals without the owner's consent.
The same section states that nothing in it restricts a person the FAA has authorized to operate a small unmanned aircraft in city airspace, under a certificate of waiver or authorization or another FAA grant of authority for a specific flight operation, from flying in accordance with that authority. It also keeps every FAA temporary flight restriction and notice to airmen in force over the city.
In controlled airspace (Class B, C or D, or the surface area of Class E around an airport), section 107.41 of the FAA's Part 107 rule requires prior authorization from air traffic control. The FAA grants it through LAANC, in near real time at the altitudes shown on its UAS Facility Maps, or through FAADroneZone.
Summary of the official pages listed below, read on 11/14/2026.
