Last of local aviation flys away

Like the secret aircraft built in Burbank during the Cold War, the Burbank Aviation Museum facility was here in plain view but unknown by most. Changing plans in the Portal of the Folded Wings at Valhalla Memorial Park have necessitated that the fledgling aviation museum move out.

The all-volunteer nonprofit group was formed in 1993 by a group of aviation enthusiasts who realized and wanted to preserve the great aviation history that took place in the Burbank-Glendale area. They believed their nonprofit status would allow the Lockheed Corp., the Burbank Airport Authority and the Burbank Redevelopment Agency to offer support in the form of land or an abandoned structure somewhere on or near the airport from which they could start a museum. Once they secured a home, the group pledged to build support for and to manage the ongoing effort.

Their first attempt to preserve aviation history was also the most historically significant. The last hangar from the original Union Airport was at the corner of Hollywood Way and Winona. For more than 60 years, it had remained unchanged in its original location. Used by Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart and Roscoe Turner during the Golden Age of aviation and later as a main gate to the Lockheed Skunkworks, Hangar 14 was a defining structure for aviation in our area and it was designated a California Point of Historical Interest in February 1994.

The California Historical Commission told me the building would have easily qualified for a National Register of Historic Places listing. I don't know if that would have changed anything, but it would have been great to see it happen. At the time, I choose the lesser listing, trying to not scare anyone off with preservation issues. We had a bad reputation at that time with Lockheed, the airport and the city because our former president had become quite vocal and very negative about the groups involved. We tried to be as non confrontational and community minded as possible.

The building was quickly torn down within weeks of its listing as a historic structure, without review and before we had a chance to rally support for our goals. What a tragically shortsighted waste of our cultural heritage.

One by one, the many aviation-related buildings in the Burbank and Glendale area were demolished until only the A-1 site remained. It was outside the airport's interest and was very historic, from the days of World War II with the Vega-built B-17s and Constellations up to the F-22 prototype, which was built and displayed there in 1997. By this time, the museum group realized that the power brokers in the area had already divided up the pie and that, having no money, they had no power and no chance in the Burbank turf war. The A-1 site was visited often for photo documentation and recovery of memorabilia but no effort was made to preserve any buildings or land.

There are now no original aviation-related buildings left in Burbank that could be used as a museum. The last remaining building of profound aviation significance in the San Fernando Valley is the Grand Central Terminal building in Glendale. Now owned by the Walt Disney Co., it will most likely be used to further their corporate interests.

In retrospect, there may never have been a chance to save any building. The Lockheed Corp. appears to have a policy of complete removal of all former facilities. The airport staff explained to us that there would be a tight security fence around the airport and that no nonprofit would ever have a physical site within that fence, as it would reduce overall profitability and anger their other clients. Anything we could do outside of their fence was OK with them. As for the city of Burbank, we heard that if they helped us, they would have to help everyone else, so there would be no substantial help coming from them. To my knowledge, the Burbank Redevelopment Agency has never responded to us.

In spite of our not having a home, there were many good things that came from the effort. Public meetings brought Tony LeVier, Bob Gilliland and many other pilots and technical people together once again in Burbank. The BAM Newsletter documented what it could of the history as we heard it. Several hundred individuals gave donations to support the effort. Even a few individuals from the Airport Authority and Lockheed and the city of Burbank have been supportive when they could be.

In the eastern San Fernando Valley area, most people have no idea what happened here. There is no dedicated place to go to learn about it and no space honoring the men and women who made it all happen.

I support the preservation of our local aviation history because I was born here in 1947 and somehow I never knew how special this place was. I never worked at Lockheed and I just figured that every town must have acres of nondescript beige buildings and dozens of Connies beyond the fence and the occasional U-2 or C-5 coming or going. How am I to know what went on here without a museum dedicated to aviation history to learn from?

So many times we heard, "Well, when you get a place to display it, I have some boxes of aviation stuff that I've had for years and the kids don't seem to value it, so you can have it." Of course, we never saw that memorabilia.

The thing that really hurt was to hear, "Oh, we never heard of you guys, so we just dumped it". The group is still active and efforts to gather memorabilia are ongoing. The group can be reached at 845-3300. I'm particularly interested in preserving written and oral history. The stealth museum is in temporary blackout.

J. Ron Dickson

Burbank