Santa Monica Airport historical photos

[John Baker]

I've only flown in there twice, I had no idea of the history behind the place.

-John



http://www.smgov.net/uploadedFiles/... Santa Monica Airport Historical Overview.pdf



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[Hawker800]

We go there a lot. What a great collection. Link works nice in ebooks.

 

[BillTIZ]

All that history, and a nice play park for the kids, and now the City wants to close the airport.

 

[comanchepilot]

Take a photo today - it'll be historical in 2016.

 

[Dav8or]

Wonderful pictorial history! Interesting to see the housing infill. As the Douglas plant expanded, the houses crept in... hmmm. I might suggest the airport killed itself. I know the airport isn't dead yet, but I think we can all agree that that is a forgone conclusion. Maybe not this year, or the next, but very soon. Maybe if they went back to flying the types of planes shown at the beginning of the photo sequence, kind of like the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in NY, they could keep it an airport?

 

[Hawker800]

The CJ2 fatal crash last month didn't help.

 

[silver-eagle]

The CJ2 fatal crash last month didn't help.

BUT... It's an airport. Taking off or landing is where a large majority of accidents occur. If one lived on a road, and a car crashed once every few years, you certainly wouldn't want to close the road.
The other folly in all this nonsense about closing the"whatever" is it was probably there long before you bought or built your house. In the case of Santa Monica Airport, in its Douglas days, it was more than twice the size it is today.
We pilots adhere to the noise abatement procedures most airports instituded because of the "neighbors". The ones who built NEXT to an airport. The very same ones who call said airport to complain they hear airplanes. We hardly get the same thing from drivers who try their damnedest to kill us as we drive to the airport. Or blast us into next week with their radios.
So let US pilots be good neighbors. Close the airports. Pave them over for parking lots shopping malls, or condos. Hope that your loved ones do not need an emergency medflight somewhere.

 

[wsuffa]

I don't see the toll booth in any of those photos...

 

[MAKG1]

Those are fabulous photos, but they clearly show why the airport's days are numbered.

The reason for the field (well, not originally, but fairly early on) was the Douglas plant. Since that merged with McDonnell and moved to Long Beach, the airport lost its reason for existing. Few airports can survive indefinitely in an urban environment unless they have scheduled airline traffic or a factory, or there is some reason why the land is unsuitable for other development. The land is just too valuable otherwise.

The Northrup field is still there, but the Hughes one is gone. Same deal. The Lockheed field survived by going commercial in a big way (it's KBUR).

It's amazing how many of the LA area airports are there because of aircraft manufacturers. McDonnell Douglas is in Long Beach for the moment (not much longer), Robinson is at Torrance, every defense contractor in existence is at Palmdale, etc.