United Airport, or United Air Terminal, at Burbank, CA in 1933 boasted a, "Five-finger asphalt paved runway system, directional N/S, E/W, and NE/SW, each 3,650 ft. x 300 ft."

As well, it had 130 acres of alfalfa landing turf and concrete taxi and hangar strips. The image on the right shows all of these amenities.

The airport was located 11.5 miles northwest of Los Angeles, adjacent to the Southern Pacific Railroad route.

Complete aircraft and pilot services were available, including fuel, oil and storage day and night, repairs, spares and accessories, fire apparatus, service trucks and first aid. It had five steel and concrete hangars (with "UNITED" and "BURBANK" written on the roofs), a restaurant, lounge, barber shop and rest rooms. Bus fare from the airfield to Los Angeles was $1.00. It had 24-hour air travel, information and ticket sales.

United Airport must have been a wonderful place at night. It was well-equipped with pilot guidance devices. White boundary lights, a 64-million candle power flood lighting system, red obstacle lights, green approach lights, a green/amber/white rotating beacon and a lighted wind sock were installed. During daylight, a smoke wind indicator operated at the runway intersections.

United was the base for several government and commercial operations. The U.S. Weather Bureau and U.S. Department of Commerce Aeronautics Branch offices were located there. A U.S. Airmail Post Office was on the field, as was Western Union's Postal and Telegraph Branches.

Commercial transport operators maintained ground stations there, including United Air Lines Radio Ground Station ("KEU"), American Airways Radio Ground Station ("KGUR"), and Western Air Express Radio Ground Station ("KSI").

The business tenants at United Airport were leaders in Golden Age aviation. Besides the three transport lines listed in the paragraph above, Bird Aircraft Co., Consolidated-Fleet Aircraft Co. (Reuben Fleet signed the Register in 1929), Stearman Aircraft Corp., Waco Aircraft Co., Western Air Express and Varney Speed Lines were located there. An assortment of flying clubs and maintenance facilites were also present.

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United Airport was renamed Union Air Terminal in 1934. Below, from site visitor Tim Kalina, a 1934 photograph of the terminal building. Note the rotating beacon on the top, and flood lights around the base of the cupola.

Union Air Terminal, 1934 (Source: Kalina)

Photo owner Kalina states, "Written, in pencil, on the back of the photo is ‘Burbank Airport. December 1934’. Since the airfield was sold in 1934 the correct title would be Union Air Terminal. Before that the field was owned by United Transport and known as United Air Terminal."

A nice, short history of the airfield can be found here. Note, the image of the terminal at the link is from the front entrance. The image above is the rear entrance from the aircraft landing, ramp and taxi areas.

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UPLOADED: 05/06/05 REVISED: 01/15/06, 01/30/09