Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Ren's Wayback, Burnley Airport / Pomona Airport, Pomona, CA

 
Burnley Airport, as depicted on the 1929 "Rand McNally Standard Map of CA With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
 
 
This airport was dedicated in 1928 as the Burnley Airport,
just 2 weeks after the opening of the nearby Kellogg Airport.
It occupied 20 acres on Garey Avenue south of the Pomona city limits.
The airport & its flying school were operated by John Burnley & August Clancy.
 
The 1929 "Rand McNally Standard Map of CA With Air Trails" (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
described Burnley Airport as being operated by J. Burnley,
and being 1,500' x 700' in size.
 
It was still depicted as Burnley Airport on the 1932 LA Sectional Chart (courtesy of Scott O'Donnell).
 
By 1934, it had been renamed Pomona Airport,
which is how it was labeled on the 1934 San Diego Sectional Aeronautical Chart (courtesy of Scott O'Donnell).
 
Pomona Airport, as depicted on the 1939 LA Sectional Chart (courtesy of Jon Karkow).

 
The 1939 LA County Airports Map depicted Pomona as having a single east/west runway.

A pretty 1945 photo by George Krens of George's wife & his Ryan PT-22 in front of a Pomona Airport hangar (courtesy of Dennis Lord).
Dennis reported, “Aircraft ID is NC48997 which is still an active number today [2010].
Indeed, the aircraft is no longer assembled but I have located it in a hangar at Compton Airport although the current owner will not permit access.”

The 1945 Haire Publishing Company Airport Directory (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
described Pomona Airport as a "Class 1" airport, owned & managed by T. T. Clarke.
It was said to consist of a single 2,000' oiled east/west runway, along with a 90' x 60' hangar.

 
A pre-1946 photo of the a Cessna T-50 & an Aeronca in front of Pomona Airport's hangar (courtesy of Mal Soare, via Dan MacPherson).
Mal Soare recalled, “The T-50 is one of four that my dad [Art Soare] operated in Pomona using them for GI multi-engine training.”


 
A pre-1946 photo of the Pomona Airport hangar & office (courtesy of Mal Soare, via Dan MacPherson).

The movie "Blaze of Noon" (starring William Holden) was filmed at Pomona Airport in 1947.

 
A 1948 aerial view of Pomona Airport depicted the field as having a single east/west runway,
with a hangar & over a dozen light aircraft on the northwest side of the field.

Pomona was still depicted as an active airfield on the 1950 LAX Chart, according to Bob Cannon,
but it closed that same year.

The 1953 USGS topo map no logner depicted Pomona Airport.
 
 
A 1954 street map (courtesy of Dan MacPherson) depicted the Pomona Airport property
as consisting of a very small rectangular plot, measuring only 2,000' east/west by 500' north/south.

A 1959 aerial photo showed that the site of the runway had been scraped clean,
and only the foundations remained of the Pomona hangars.

By the time of a 1965 aerial photo,
the site of the former Pomona Airport had been densely redeveloped with housing & a school,
and not a trace appeared to remain of the former airport.
 

 
As seen in the March 2004 USGS aerial photo,
the site has been extensively redeveloped with housing,
and not a trace appears to remain of the former airport.
 
The site of Pomona Airport is located northeast of the intersection
of Garey Avenue & County Road (known as Junipero Drive on the above 1954 map).

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