Van Nuys Airport
Encyclopedia
- for the United States Air Force use of the airport (1942-1990), see Van Nuys Air National Guard BaseVan Nuys Air National Guard BaseVan Nuys Air National Guard Base is a former United States Air Force base, located at Van Nuys Airport, California. It was originally opened in 1942 during World War II. The Air Force closed its facilities at Van Nuys in 1990.-History:...
Van Nuys Airport is a public airport
Airport
An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...
located in Van Nuys
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California
Van Nuys is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.-History:Look at the two photos of Van Nuys' first year—and then listen to what the Los Angeles Times wrote on February 23, 1911, the day after the Van Nuys town lot auction--"Between dawn and dusk, in the...
in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
section of the city limits of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. No major commercial airlines fly into this airport; it is used by private, chartered, and small commercial aircraft. It is owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports
Los Angeles World Airports
Los Angeles World Airports or LAWA is the airport oversight and operations department for the city of Los Angeles, California, United States...
.
Van Nuys Airport is currently one of the busiest general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
airport in the world (the second busiest being Phoenix Deer Valley Airport
Phoenix Deer Valley Airport
Phoenix Deer Valley Airport is a public use airport located 15 nautical miles north of the central business district of Phoenix, a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is owned by the City of Phoenix...
), and the 25th busiest airport
World's busiest airports by traffic movements
The thirty world's busiest airports by aircraft movements are measured by total movements . One total movement is a landing or take off of an aircraft.- 2010 final statistics :-2009 final statistics:...
(in terms of takeoffs and landings) in the world. With just two parallel runways, Van Nuys Airport handled 448,681 aircraft movements in 2005, averaging over 1,200 operations/day; in 2006 it handled 394,915 movements, nearly 1,100 per day. By comparison, Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
(with 4 runways and exceptional amounts of commercial traffic) has roughly 1700 operations a day. The airport was the world's busiest general aviation airport through 2005.
Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and business executives are known to use this airport because it offers them convenience and anonymity.
The airport is also home to the Van Nuys FlyAway Bus
FlyAway Bus
The FlyAway Bus is a shuttle bus service created and funded by Los Angeles World Airports, which transports passengers non-stop to and from Los Angeles International Airport . Coach America provides the drivers and daily operations for the service...
service, which provides non-stop bus service from the airport to Los Angeles International Airport. This allows travelers to park their cars at Van Nuys and not have to deal with driving to LAX or parking fees at LAX.
Most news helicopters from the Los Angeles area are based at Van Nuys Airport. The Los Angeles City Fire Department operates its Air Operations Unit at Van Nuys Airport.
Facilities
Van Nuys Airport covers 725 acres (293 ha) and has two runwayRunway
According to ICAO a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and take-off of aircraft." Runways may be a man-made surface or a natural surface .- Orientation and dimensions :Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally one tenth...
s:
- Runway 16R/34L: 8,001 x 150 ft (2,439 x 46 m), Surface: AsphaltAsphaltAsphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...
- Runway 16L/34R: 4,011 x 75 ft (1,223 x 23 m), Surface: Asphalt
Incidents
- In 2001, a KTTVKTTVKTTV, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Los Angeles, California. Serving the vast Los Angeles metropolitan area, KTTV is a sister station to KCOP , Los Angeles' MyNetworkTV station...
news helicopter "Sky Fox 2", a secondary helicopter that was previously owned by KTLAKTLAKTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
, crashed at Van Nuys airport after experiencing problems while covering the Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
.
- A Cessna 525 Citation CJ1 twin-engine jet departing for Long Beach Airport crashed 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) north of the airport on January 12, 2007, killing two people on board the plane. One was reported to be the owner of the company which operated the aircraft.
- On November 25, 2008, a Cessna 310 plane carrying 2 people experienced landing gearLanding GearLanding Gear is Devin the Dude's fifth studio album. It was released on October 7, 2008. It was his first studio album since signing with the label Razor & Tie. It features a high-profile guest appearance from Snoop Dogg. As of October 30, 2008, the album has sold 18,906 copies.-Track...
problems. After burning off fuel, it was able to land on the runway without incident, although its front gear collapsed upon landing.
Filming locations
Many movies and television shows have been filmed at the airport, including a scene showing the arrival of Major Strasser in CasablancaCasablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
, an episode of the TV show Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
, and several episodes of Season 5 of 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
. The 1980s action-espionage series Airwolf
Airwolf
Airwolf is an American television series that ran from 1984 until 1987. The program centers on a high-tech military helicopter, code named Airwolf, and its crew as they undertake various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme....
used the Van Nuys Airport hangars regularly as the site of "Santini Air", the charter air service company owned and operated by Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
's character (Dominic Santini
Dominic Santini
Dominic Santini is a fictional character on the U.S. television series Airwolf, which ran from 1984 to 1987. Veteran actor Ernest Borgnine portrayed the character during the series' first three seasons....
) in the series.
In 2005, a film documenting the history of Van Nuys Airport was released under the name One Six Right
One Six Right
One Six Right: The Romance of Flying is an independent film about the general aviation industry as seen through a local airport. Within a short period of time, it has achieved a passionate following and presence among pilots and aviation enthusiasts worldwide who see the film as being able to...
, named after the more popular runway at the airport.
Legend has it that Burbank Airport provided the setting for Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
's famous goodbye in the film Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
. But the airplane that departed with Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
and Paul Henreid, who played her Nazi-resisting husband, was actually filmed during a late-night shoot in Van Nuys, at what was then called Metropolitan Airport. All the runway scenes that included actors took place inside sound stage No. 1 at Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, where technicians re-created a dim Moroccan airstrip.
A major part of the science fiction classic Silent Running
Silent Running
Silent Running is a 1972 environmentally themed science fiction film starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumbull, who had previously worked as a special effects supervisor on such science fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Andromeda Strain.-Plot summary:Silent Running depicts a...
was filmed at the Van Nuys Airport in March 1971. The Domes from the spacecraft that contained the last surviving forests were filmed there. The main interiors were filmed aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
USS Valley Forge (CV-45)
USS Valley Forge (CV-45)
USS Valley Forge was one of 24 s built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the first US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for Valley Forge, the 1777–1778 winter encampment of General George Washington's Continental Army...
, which was docked at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard
Long Beach Naval Shipyard
thumb|right|300px|Long Beach Naval Shipyard in 1993The Long Beach Naval Shipyard, which closed in 1997, was located at Terminal Island between the city of Long Beach and the San Pedro district of Los Angeles and approximately 23 miles south of the Los Angeles International Airport.The Long Beach...
in Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. Shortly after filming was completed, the carrier was scrapped. The forest environments were originally intended to be filmed in the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, but the production budget forced the sequences to be shot in a newly-completed aircraft hangar in Van Nuys.
In the last episode of Season 1 of the HBO series Entourage
Entourage (TV series)
Entourage is an American comedy-drama television series that premiered on HBO on July 18, 2004 and concluded on September 11, 2011, after eight seasons...
, the final scene takes place at Van Nuys Airport, where Vincent Chase
Vincent Chase
Vincent "Vince" Chase is a fictional character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. He is played by Adrian Grenier.-Personal life:...
and company take off for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It was also used in the 4th season when Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
offers the group a plane ride on a Marquis Jet
Marquis Jet
Marquis Jet is a wholly owned subsidiary of NetJets, Inc. and sells the Marquis Jet Card by NetJets. Marquis Jet Card by NetJets program flights are operated by NetJets Aviation or NJI under their respective 14 CFR Part 135 Air Carrier Certificates...
to Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
. In Season 5 episode 7, Ari Gold and Vincent Chase run into each other in a hangar as each are about to depart on separate flights to Geneva, Switzerland and Hawaii respectively. The last episode of season 6, episode 12, is used as a location where Vincent Chase
Vincent Chase
Vincent "Vince" Chase is a fictional character on the comedy-drama television series Entourage. He is played by Adrian Grenier.-Personal life:...
and his crew run into Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
on the way to Italy for a shooting.
Van Nuys Airport was also a location for filming of pop punk band Blink-182's music video for "All The Small Things".