Why Hollywood Burbank Airport was once disguised to look like a California suburb

The Hollywood Burbank Airport is one of L.A. County's favorite secrets when it comes to travel. The smaller size and lower foot traffic make it a breeze to fly through.

But it’s also been a secret in another way. During World War II, military leaders and Hollywood came together to protect the airport under “Operation Camouflage.”

Why the disguise?

The airfield opened as United Airport in 1930, during a time when commercial flying was a luxury reserved for those with deep pockets.

Burbank was the destination for travel because most public carriers flew out of there, but within a decade, its use had shifted. The new era came when the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation purchased the airport in 1940 during World War II.

Lockheed Air Terminal — as the airport was renamed — largely transitioned from commercial flying to building combat planes. (That’s also why most public carriers left for LAX instead.) The airport was also directly next to the Lockheed-Vega plant, where thousands of fighter aircraft were being made.

A woman works on an aircraft part at the Lockheed Vega plant in Burbank in 1943.

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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But when the Pearl Harbor attack happened in December 1941, and Japanese aerial strikes on the West Coast became a distinct possibility, the military moved to quickly protect strategic facilities, including those at Burbank.

Army members placed barricades around the Lockheed buildings while higher-ups called in an expert, Col. John F. Ohmer.

His charge: find a way to hide the plant by turning it into a fake suburb.

The idea was something Ohmer was already into — he’d proposed it earlier and got brushed off. But with new fears of more attacks on American soil, Ohmer practically got a blank check to get to work.

How the trick happened

Lockheed Air Terminal's main building in partial camouflage, with a control tower visible and camouflage coverings the lower levels.

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San Fernando Valley History Digital Library/ California State University, Northridge University Library

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Under Ohmer’s direction, his camouflage engineering battalion teamed up with set designers and artists from Disney, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox to figure out how to disguise the buildings — an effort that took more than a year to complete, according to Burbank history.

They came up with an outlandish idea. Drape all the buildings with a 1,000-acre canopy that could create a suburban illusion from the air.

Aerial view of the Lockheed buildings under camouflage in 1942.

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San Fernando Valley History Digital Library/California State University, Northridge Digital Library

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The canopy was made of chicken wire, netting and canvas that was made to blend into the grass around it. Set designers created the illusion of fake trees by blowing chicken feathers onto wires painted with waterproof adhesive. These feathers were spray-painted green or brown to create realistic scenes of growth and decay.

The activity posed some inconvenience to workers creating bomber planes and other powerful wartime machinery. “We were picking chicken feathers out of our airplanes, out of our hair, all at the time we were building airplanes,” said Harvey Christen, a longtime employee in a 1991 oral history video on Lockheed.

Airfields and parking lots were also painted green to look like alfalfa fields. Employees played their part too; during their breaks, they’d go back to “burlap bungalows” and take down laundry from clotheslines.

From 5,000 feet above, the plant looked like a complete California suburb. The only giveaway, Christen said, was that he could spot a railroad track beginning and ending within the canopy.

The camouflage also required work underneath the canopy to maintain working conditions. Underground walkways and air ducts were built to provide proper ventilation.

Ultimately, millions of dollars were put into the efforts. It’s unclear how long the canopy for “Operation Camouflage” stayed up, but photos taken in 1945 once again showed a normal airport.