A History of Orange County Airport

A History of Orange County Airport

by Scott A. Thompson

Eddie Martin Airport

Aviation in central Orange County started at the end of Main Street as it ran out the southern end of Santa Ana, just where it met and ended at Newport Avenue. There, aviation pioneer Eddie Martin started his little flying operation in 1923 on very rural Irvine Ranch land. Within a few years he had developed it into a real airport. Martin’s airport was the original Orange County airport, and it gradually expanded to encompass a large sod field with lights and a few hangars. Eddie Martin and his brothers, Johnny and Floyd, operated the airport and the company that bore the family name. Martin offered flight instruction, charters, sightseeing, and whatever else people would pay money for with airplanes. a late 1920s listing of equipment shows that a Eaglerock, a Waco 9 , a Special Monoplane, and two JN-1s were operated by Martin. As of January 1936, the airport was described by the CAA as a 2040 ft. by 1320 ft. sod field, all of which was usable for takeoff or landing. A rotating beacon and field boundary lights were installed. The beacon was operated by the Dept. of Commerce. The field lights operated from dusk until 2:00 a.m.

Eddie Martin’s Airport enjoyed a measure of notoriety in the 1930s, being the only substantial airport in the area. Howard Hughes based at the field during his 1935 speed record attempt with the Hughes H-1 racer, one that ended with a gear-up landing in a nearby bean field when Hughes managed to run his airplane out of fuel. (Note the “NAA speed course” on the 1929 map above, just southeast of the airport.) Paul Mantz was airborne as an observer during Hughes’ 352 mph record-setting flight.

The “First” Orange County Airport

Orange County, for its part, selected another site for a county-run airport. Details are a bit confusing, as the site of the airport has been variously located a mile east of the Martin Airport and “near the head of Newport bay,” as per contemporary media accounts. In any event, the first “Orange County Airport” was dedicated on Saturday, April 7, 1928, with local dignitaries in attendance. However, nothing seems to have come of this airport; there is no record of it ever being developed further. 

Orange County Airport Relocated in 1940

As the 1930s drew to a close, the local governments decided to extend Main Street southward toward the ocean, right across the Martin Airport, the extension causing the airport to relocate. (This new road was renamed as MacArthur Road in 1942 and ran all the way to Corona del Mar, southeast of Newport Beach.)

As part of the deal, the County of Orange granted Eddie Martin and company an exclusive 17-year lease to operate the new airport, thus paving the way for the old Eddie Martin Airport to be closed.

To obtain the proposed site of the new airport, the County of Orange did a land swap using the 141-acre undeveloped airport site (the one dedicated in April 1928) with the major land holder in the area, the Irvine Company. The swap granted the county a new 138-acre parcel that adjoined the new South Main Street Extension (later MacArthur Road) where it intersected with the newly proposed Paularino Road. The airport site was bordered on the south side by Palisades Road (now Bristol Street), and on the east side by Acacia Street (now Campus Drive). On April 5, 1940, construction began on a new 2,500 foot runway and adjoining taxiway, earmarking $7,500 for the initial work. As part of the project, an administration building and hangar were added, as were an airport beacon and airfield lighting. There was little if any development in the area of the airport, with most of the surrounding property being used for cattle grazing and other ranching activities. The new Orange County Airport opened for operation in September 1941, with Eddie Martin the leased airport operator.

Just a few short months later, however, the situation quickly changed. Within a few weeks after December 7, 1941, the U.S. government severely restricted civilian flying within a 150-mile distance from the west coast. This effectively shut down the new airport. Martin soon moved most of his flight training operation to the desert airport at Baker, California, just outside the 150-mile limitation, and flight operations at Orange County slid to a standstill.

Orange County Army Air Field in 1942

However, in August 1942, the Air Corps selected Orange County Airport for use as a dispersal field for west coast defense, and leased the facility from the county. Orange County arranged for the lease of an additional 140 acre parcel south of the original site, to accommodate Air Corps expansion of the airport. As was the case with many airports developed by the military during World War II, airport improvements were made with an eye to the post-war environment. A 4780′ hard-surfaced runway (asphalt) was constructed, with associated taxiways, hardstands, revetments, and hangars built to handle an Air Corps interceptor squadron. The runway extended from Paularino Road on the north side southwestward toward the upper Newport Harbor and was oriented 030 degrees-210 degrees, in other words, Runways 03 and 21. Significant land fill was required on the south end of the runway to create the level surface required. Palisades Road formed the southern end of the air field, and it was depressed below the end of the runway as a result of the land fill.

Beginning in late 1942 or early 1943, the 332nd Fighter Squadron with its P-38s was based on the field, renamed as the Orange County Army Air Field (AAF). The 332nd was a component of the 329th Fighter Group headquartered at the Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale. Revetments were built on the west side of the runway with a large ramp area dedicated to a large ramp area that extended for most of the length of runway. The P-38s were utilized for training and west coast patrols until mid-1944, when it was determined the Japanese were probably not going to invade after all.

Santa Ana Army Air Base

Also developed nearby was the Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) on a parcel of land surrounded by Newport Avenue on the east, Baker Road on the north, Wilson Ave. on the south, and Harbor Road on the west, in what is now Costa Mesa. The SAAAB was part of the West Coast Air Corps Training Center provided preflight training for Air Corps pilot, navigators, and bombardiers. Nearly 150,000 airmen were classified and trained at the base. The nearby airfield provided an auxiliary function for the SAAAB, which was deactivated in 1946. The Navy developed the Santa Ana Naval Air Station (Lighter Than Air) at Tustin, three miles north of Orange County Airport, beginning in 1942. The two huge blimp hangars, constructed the same year, have remained a landmark ever since. Also, the Marines came to town in 1942, developing the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station eight miles to the northeast of Orange County Airport, that facility also opening in 1942. Both El Toro and the Tustin facility remained active military installations, the LTA facility finally closing in 1997 and El Toro in 1999.

Post-War Orange County Airport

But the Army left the Orange County AAF in March 1946 and the facility was transferred as surplus property to the War Assets Administration (WAA). In May 1946, the county resumed operations of the airport under an agreement with the WAA, which released the airport completely back to the county in June 1948. The following year the heavy concrete P-38 revetments were removed, mostly by dynamite, and the airport resumed its civil role. Martin Aviation utilized two hangars just south of the small control tower and remained the primary operator on the airport. Balboa resident Paul Mantz commuted from Orange County to Burbank by plane on a regular basis, and he decided to move his operation to the airport in 1951.

The 1950s were relatively uneventful at the little county airport. The area was still largely undeveloped, with the airport bordered on two-lane Main Street on its east, Paularino on the north, and the narrow Palisades Road on its south. Not much else was around the field except grazing cattle and wide open spaces. As Orange County began to urbanize in the late 1950s and early 1960s, though, pressures began to mount to modernize the airport.

Orange County Airport Reborn in 1963-1967

In the early 1960s the county developed a plan to rebuild the airport to allow commuter airlines and larger airplanes to safely use the air field. The old northeast-southwest 4780′ runway would be mostly plowed under, replaced by a pair of modern parallel runways reoriented north and south (originally runways 01L-19R, 01R-19L, since renumbered), with a new taxiway, hangars, and a small passenger terminal constructed on the east side of the airport. The old Main Street, now MacArthur Road, was rerouted around the new runway layout, allowing the runways to be extended northward and providing for a 5200′ airline runway and a 2900′ general aviation runway. (Actually, MacArthur was moved far enough to allow a 10000′ runway, suggesting that there may have been a few long-range planners involved.) Paularino Road was cut by the new runways, the road now terminating on the west side of the airport, and the east side road eventually becoming an extension of Campus Drive, itself renamed from the old Acacia Street that paralleled the east side of the old airport. A new FAA control tower was constructed on the west side of the airport near where a P-38 revetment had once been. General aviation parking was along the east side and on the remnants of the old runway and taxiway on the south side of the airport. An FAA Instrument Landing System for RWY 19R was installed in 1969 to allow precision instrument approaches and a terminal VOR navaid named “Santa Ana” (SNA) was commissioned. Paul Mantz’s original leased parcel, now Tallmantz Aviation, remained in place on the southeast corner of the airport.

Construction moved forward and by 1966 the rebuilt airport was in operation. A grand opening of the rebuilt airport and new terminal was held in May 1967 with the Blue Angels giving a show and Governor Ronald Reagan giving a speech.

During construction, highway engineers were also building the San Diego Freeway (I-405) across the north edge of the airport parcel. An offer was made to work out a plan to bury the freeway under a runway bridge to allow expansion of the runway northward, maybe even to 10,000 feet, but that idea was nixed. The northern boundary of the airfield was firmly fixed by the new freeway, a problem in later years when noise complaints from residents in Newport Beach, off to the south, surfaced. The southern edge of the air field was marked by the renamed Palisades Road, now Bristol Street, and soon enough, by another planned freeway, State Route 73. On the eastern edge was Campus Street and on the west, Redhill Road, all built out over the rural fields but laying the infrastructure for a booming economy and thriving business community that came to simultaneously love and hate the airport, i.e. “It generates all the business, sure, but damn those airplanes. They are noisy and fly over my house” and/or “They should limit or maybe just ban all those jetliners (except when me or my company or my customers need convenient airline service).”

Airline Service at Orange County Airport

Speaking of airlines, Bonanza Airlines was flying DC-3s and, later, F-27s, from the airport in the early 1960s. Upstart Air California staked its airline future at Orange County, beginning service in 1967 with a few old Lockheed Electras but moving on to Boeing 737s and MD-80s before they were swallowed by American Airlines in the 1980s. Bonanza became Air West, and then was bought by Howard Hughes, becoming Hughes Air West, flying the famous yellow DC-9s. Hughes Air West soon enough became part of Republic Airlines, soon to become part of Northwest Airlines, etc. PSA, long dismissive of the Orange County potential, eagerly sought to get into the airport after Air California established the market, and succeeded only in 1979 after deregulation brought United, Alaska, America West, and a slew of others to the crowded little airport. PSA folded into US Air eventually as the few intrastate carriers dwindled away.

The little airport enjoyed a crushing success, with the huge Orange County economy being fueled and fueling an ever-increasing demand of airline and general aviation service. In the 1970s the airport was in the top five busiest airports in the country, with general aviation training and transportation flights making up most of that count. Companies like Martin Aviation, Mission Beechcraft, Newport Skyways, Shaw Airmotive, Sunrise Aviation, and Newport Jet, thrived through the busy 1970s. Long time FBO operator Cliff Frazier stubbornly held out as a tenant at the airport. Hundreds of general aviation airplanes were tied down on the northern edge of the airport alongside the San Diego Freeway and at the fixed-based operators on the east side. Lawsuits flew from wealthy Corona del Mar and Newport Beach customers who mostly hated the airplanes until they needed one. Noise limits were imposed, new traffic patterns developed, quieter jets used, and another 500 feet of runway squeezed into the northern edge of the airport, until a very uneasy peace was achieved.

New Terminal and “John Wayne Airport” (Ugh)

The 1967 passenger terminal was mostly inadequate from its opening, but it hobbled along using portable buildings and long lines to accommodate the users until the late 1980s when a new terminal was built on the northeast edge of the airport over the old general aviation tiedowns. The 1967 terminal building was ceremoniously named the Eddie Martin Terminal shortly before it was torn down, leaving the new terminal named after an Orange County politician.

And, the airport itself, in a note of irony, was renamed the John Wayne Airport-Orange County after a famous Newport Beach actor who actively opposed the airport because of those damned loud jets flying over his beach house at 2000 feet. There were numerous candidates (Martin, Mantz, and Tallman, for example) available for airport memorialization, who were skipped over by very noted and esteemed politicians promoting a higher cause. There are those amongst us who, nonetheless, still think of it as now, and always, Orange County Airport.

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