Wings Over Pacoima: Whiteman Airport at Eighty
For eight decades, the little airfield has been part of Pacoima's story. Now the community is deciding what comes next.
On a clear morning in Pacoima, you can hear Whiteman Airport before you see it. A single-engine trainer climbs over San Fernando Road. A helicopter lifts off from the county fire base next door. Across Pierce Street, families in the San Fernando Gardens get their children ready for school under the flight path.
The airport has been here for eighty years, longer than most of the homes around it. For some residents, it is a proud landmark tied to Hollywood, postwar aviation, and generations of local pilots. For others, it is a daily risk they never chose. Both views come from people who love Pacoima. The Pacoima Historical Society shares this story to honor the airport's history, take the community's safety concerns seriously, and explain the facts behind a debate that will shape the northeast San Fernando Valley for years to come.
A Farmer's Field Takes Flight
The story begins with Marvin E. Whiteman Sr., a Texan born March 7, 1909. He and his wife, Hazel Thornton, raised two children, Marvin Jr. and Lynn, and owned the land now known as Hansen Hill. From his house on the hill, Whiteman could look down on the field that would carry his name.
Longtime residents still tell stories about him. In The Entrance: Pacoima's Story, author Crystal Jackson writes that the eccentric owner chased off neighborhood kids who wandered onto the property. Some old-timers even remember him firing gunshots to scare them away.
In 1946, Whiteman bought about thirty-two acres of carrot and corn fields at Osborne Street and San Fernando Road from Roger Jessup of Jessup Dairies. At first he used the land to park his fleet of retired Civilian Pilot Training aircraft: Interstate Cadets, PT-19s, Stinsons, and Beechcraft. But civil aviation was booming after the war, and Whiteman believed the northeast Valley needed an airfield. County records describe him as a businessman who set up "a badly needed aviation facility" on his own land. He later leased more acreage from the county and charged pilots only for parking and fuel (Whiteman Airport history newsletter). Whiteman Air Park opened as a private field with no control tower, and the Whiteman Manufacturing Co. was later built along its west side.
Marvin Whiteman (right) and aviator Bernie La Barr at Whiteman Air Park in the 1950s
Hollywood Lands in Pacoima
Hollywood came to the Air Park almost right away. Actors Andy Devine and Dick Probert had flown together before and after the war, and they wanted to start a flying school. They had worked mostly out of the Van Nuys Metropolitan Airport, but they chose Pacoima. In mid-1946 they bought Whiteman's school and his fleet of Interstates and named the business the Probert-Devine Aviation Corporation.
Devine, known for his raspy voice, was one of Hollywood's best-known character actors, with roles in A Star Is Born (1937), John Wayne's Stagecoach (1939), and How the West Was Won (1962). Probert was known for his flying stunts in Forced Landing (1941) and for television's Sea Hunt (1958–60). Devine sold his half of the school back to Probert in 1949.
The cameras stayed. According to Jackson, the Air Park ranked nineteenth in the world for the number of film and airport television scenes shot there. Perry Mason and The Andy Griffith Show filmed on the field, and so did 20th Century-Fox's Fate Is the Hunter (1964), starring Glenn Ford, with Jane Russell appearing as herself.
Whiteman also had famous friends: Senator Barry Goldwater, President Richard Nixon, Jimmy Stewart, and John Wayne. In 1947 he built a swimming pool on the south side of the field, and celebrities would fly into Pacoima to swim and party with the stars.
"Whiteman thought the northeast portion of the San Fernando Valley needed aviation badly after World War II."— The Entrance: Pacoima's Story
Drag Races, Roller Derby, and Speedway
The neighborhood grew up around the runway. In 1955 the San Fernando Gardens housing project opened directly across the street, and Glenoaks Boulevard was extended through Hansen Hill to Sun Valley. Over the next several years, the Air Park became a local entertainment spot, hosting drag races and roller derby.
In 1968, motorcycle racer and promoter Dude Criswell leased a corner of the property and built a quarter-mile asphalt oval to bring back speedway racing. He later added an eighth-mile track inside it. Mike Bast, one of America's top speedway riders and a champion in the 1970s, said that racing at Whiteman in 1968 was the middle of speedway's rebirth in America.
The County Steps In
By the late 1960s, airports across Los Angeles County were disappearing, and Whiteman Air Park looked likely to become an industrial park. In 1970, the County Board of Supervisors bought Whiteman's thirty-two acres and required that the land be used only as an airport (Whiteman Airport history newsletter). The county has owned and operated the airport ever since (LA County Public Works). Over the years it grew to 184 acres, and in the 1980s it was renamed Whiteman Airport (LA County Aviation). Old-time pilots still call it "the Air Park."
As traffic grew more complicated and incidents piled up, then-Senator Pete Wilson pushed the FAA for a control tower (Los Angeles Times, 1998), and one opened in 1988. Today Whiteman is open to general aviation around the clock and is home to more than 600 based aircraft, a flight school, a pilot shop, and a cluster of aviation businesses (LA County Public Works). Student pilots train with Vista Aviation and Glendale Community College, Civil Air Patrol squadrons are based on the field, and EAA Chapter 40's Young Eagles program has given thousands of local young people their first flight.
Setting the Record Straight: Who Fights the Fires?
People often say Whiteman Airport "provides fire and emergency services." The reality is more complicated.
The LA County Fire Department's helicopter fleet is based at Barton Heliport, which sits next to the airport. The department describes Barton as "a separate and distinct heliport and not part of Whiteman Airport" (LA County Fire Department). The fire helicopters do use Whiteman's control tower for takeoffs and landings (LA County Public Works). The county's 2026 study concluded that County Fire's air operations "would not be eliminated by a change in WHP's status" (Los Angeles Daily News).
Whiteman itself has proven valuable as a staging base. During the January 2025 Hurst Fire in Sylmar, Cal Fire refueled its helicopters there because Van Nuys and Burbank were full with Palisades Fire aircraft (The Signal). The airport also hosts the Civil Air Patrol's search-and-rescue squadron, news helicopters, and law-enforcement flights. The Los Angeles City Fire Department's helicopters are based at Van Nuys (LAFD).
A Community Divided
Supporters, organized as the Whiteman Airport Coalition, see the airport as an economic engine and a public-safety asset worth protecting. They cite roughly $110 million a year in regional economic activity and more than 400 jobs across over twenty aviation businesses and eight nonprofits (Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council). The county's own study found that Whiteman is the only one of the county's five airports that makes money, with a $1.1 million operating surplus from 2022 to 2025 (Los Angeles Daily News).
Supporters also point to the flight schools, youth aviation programs, and the airport's role as a backup base during wildfires. They note that neighborhood councils across the Valley, including Pacoima's, have voted to keep it open (Whiteman Airport Coalition). In their view, recent crashes were caused by pilot error or mechanical failure, not by the runway or the tower. They argue the solution is investment, such as burying power lines underground near the approach path (San Fernando Valley Sun).
The Case for Closing Whiteman
For many neighbors, the issue is the sound of an engine cutting out over their homes. Since 2020, at least five accidents have involved the airport (Los Angeles Daily News). In November 2020, a Civil Air Patrol pilot was killed when his Cessna crashed into a Pacoima neighborhood. In 2022, a plane came down on the Metrolink tracks, where police pulled the pilot free moments before a train hit it. That April, another pilot died beside the 210 Freeway. In April 2026, a Cessna hit power lines and landed upside down in an auto-parts store parking lot on Van Nuys Boulevard, and neighbors pulled the injured pilot from the wreckage. In June 2026, a plane with failed landing gear ran through the airport fence (Los Angeles Times). Supervisor Lindsey Horvath has cited county records of 35 crashes at Whiteman over 25 years (Los Angeles Daily News).
Residents also worry about health. Many small planes still burn leaded fuel, which the EPA says can cause "irreversible and life-long health effects in children." Whiteman now sells unleaded fuel, but about 30 percent of the aircraft that use it cannot run on it yet (San Fernando Valley Sun). Pacoima Beautiful and the Shutdown Whiteman Airport Coalition describe the issue as environmental justice. A mostly Latino, working-class community lives with the noise and the risk, while most aircraft owners live elsewhere (Pacoima Beautiful). They also see opportunity in 184 acres that could provide housing, jobs, and green space for the people who live here.
Their concerns have official support. In 2020, the Los Angeles City Council backed closure in a resolution introduced by Councilmember Monica Rodriguez (Los Angeles Daily News). In 2023, the county's own Community Advisory Committee recommended shutting the airport down (San Fernando Valley Sun). Even the county's new study called residents' fear of a plane falling on a home or school "a legitimate response to real events."
The Study Arrives
On October 28, 2026, more than 120 people filled a room at Los Angeles Mission College in Sylmar to hear the results of the county's long-awaited Whiteman Airport Land Use Study and Economic Analysis (Sylmar Neighborhood Council). The $2.1 million study was ordered by the Board of Supervisors in 2024. It weighed three futures for the airport and did not recommend any of them (Los Angeles Daily News):
Option | What it means | Key findings |
Renovate | Fix up old hangars and add new ones within the current footprint | Positive finances |
Airport plus development | Keep flying and add healthcare, life-science, logistics, and retail uses | About 1,933 jobs within a decade; positive finances; favored by the Whiteman Airport Coalition |
Close and redevelop | Turn all 184 acres into housing, offices, tech, and light industry | About $3.55 billion in costs, up to 40 years before the county sees revenue, and about 12,100 jobs by around 2075 |
(Costs: AVweb.)
The county will collect final public input before the report is finished and sent back to the Board of Supervisors. As of this writing, no decision has been made.
Who Owns the Land, and Who Decides?
People often ask about "the lease." There is no land lease. Los Angeles County has owned the airport outright since 1970. The lease discussed in earlier debates was a private management contract with American Airports, which ended in 2021. Since then, County Public Works has run the airport directly (LA County Board of Supervisors).
What ties the land to aviation is federal money. The county's most recent major FAA grant, for perimeter fencing in 2013, requires the airport to stay open through 2033 (LA County Board of Supervisors). An older 1999 grant has bigger consequences. The county used $250,000 in FAA money that year to buy two parcels on Osborne Street at the end of the runway (LA County Aviation). In January 2026, the FAA told the county that land bought with federal funds stays obligated indefinitely, and that the county "must use the airport as an airport until released by the FAA" (FAA). The county's study agreed: "Closure is not the county's decision to make alone."
In the meantime, the county is focusing on safety. Supervisor Horvath has paused new FAA grants while the study is completed (San Fernando Valley Sun). In June 2026, the Board approved pilot safety seminars, asked for tougher federal inspections, funded about $5 million in runway maintenance, and decided to seek sound-insulation grants for nearby homes (Los Angeles Daily News). Quarterly pilot safety classes began on July 27.
The Next Chapter
Whiteman Airport began as one man's dream on a carrot and corn farm. Over eighty years it welcomed movie stars and film crews, roared with drag racers and speedway riders, trained generations of pilots, and watched Pacoima grow up around its fences. Today the families who live closest to the runway are asking what the airport means for their safety, their children's health, and their neighborhood's future.
Both sides want a safe, thriving Pacoima. One sees a historic asset worth protecting and improving. The other sees 184 acres that could serve the community better and a risk it never chose. Whatever comes next, Washington, Los Angeles, and the voices of the people who live here will shape the decision.
The Pacoima Historical Society encourages every resident to learn the facts, attend public meetings, and help write the next chapter of this story.
About the Sources
The early history of Whiteman Air Park, including the Whiteman family, the Jessup land purchase, Probert-Devine Aviation, the swimming pool, the filming-location ranking, and the racing years, comes from Crystal Jackson's The Entrance: Pacoima's Story, used with appreciation. Current information comes from Los Angeles County, the FAA, and regional news coverage, linked throughout the article. Status reported as of October 29, 2026.
Dear Sir, Your talent to assemble historial background data re: Whiteman & Photos perhaps could be also used to investigate the present. A good thing about your meticulous footnotes is that you illustrate well you really care a lot about how your work is preceived; that's laudible. Another good thing about noting your sources is that it allows the reader to pinpoint your trusted sources where poor information was thought to be objective, but allegrdly wasn't. Community benefit is not always present just because a comment appears in print. Even seemingly little informational avenues like implying that Barton can function without the airport can be concerning. Firechief Robert Gaylor, Chief at Barton for years, stated to the CAC panel, th…
the 1950's picture is actually earlier