Zamperini Field is a public airport three miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Torrance, in

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California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. The airport is classified by the FAA as a Regional Reliever and was once known as Torrance Municipal Airport; it was renamed for local sports and war hero

Louis Zamperini Louis Silvie Zamperini (January 26, 1917 – July 2, 2014) was an American World War II veteran, an Olympic distance runner and a Christian Evangelism, evangelist. He took up running in high school and qualified for the United States in t ...

on December 7, 1946, the fifth anniversary of the

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

attack.

History

The airport was completed by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

on March 31, 1943, and was known as Lomita Flight Strip. It was an emergency landing field for military aircraft on training flights. It was closed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the War Assets Administration (WAA) turned it over to local government. Once turned over to the City of Torrance it was renamed Zamperini Field on December 7, 1946.

Facilities

Zamperini Field covers and has two asphalt/concrete runways: 11L/29R, 5,000 x 150 ft (1,524 x 46 m) and 11R/29L, 3,000 x 75 ft (914 x 23 m). It has one

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

helipad A helipad is the landing area of a heliport, in use by helicopters, powered lift, and vertical lift aircraft to land on surface. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fa ...

, 110 x 110 ft (34 x 34 m). In the year ending January 31, 2016, the airport had 119,034 aircraft operations, average 325 per day: 99%

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

, <1% military and <1%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. History The concept of air taxis existed as early as the 1910s. This concept goes back as early as 1917 with Glenn Curtiss’ prototype, the auto-plane. Furthermor ...

. 276 aircraft are based at the airport: 89% single-engine, 9% multi-engine and 2%

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

Terminal

Zamperini Field has a small terminal with a vending machine, conference room, bathroom, and flight planning room. Outside a patio has small tables. Inside the terminal are historical papers related to the airport on the wall and a security post. A

Lockheed T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

(#52-9239) is on display on the turn court outside the terminal.

Helicopter operations

The

for a neighboring hospital, the Torrance Memorial Medical Center, is at the north-west corner of the airfield.

Manufacturing

Zamperini Field is the home of Robinson Helicopter Company. Their entire production, assembly, and testing facilities are on the southeast side of the airfield and are the largest buildings at the field.

Museum

Zamperini Field is the new home of the Western Museum of Flight, previously in

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Accidents and incidents

*A crash on April 9, 1982, killed three people in a Cessna 177 Cardinal. No bystanders were harmed. The single-engine passenger plane plunged from the sky shortly after takeoff and crashed in front of Farrell's in the middle of Hawthorne Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Torrance. The nose-first impact created a fireball in the heavily trafficked street and shot flames over 100 feet into the air. Nearby parked cars were destroyed. Patrons of the restaurant referred to the scene as pandemonium. * The

Aeroméxico Flight 498 Aeroméxico Flight 498 was a scheduled commercial flight from Mexico City, Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, United States, with several intermediate stops. On Sunday, August 31, 1986, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the flight was clippe ...

or Cerritos air disaster happened in 1986, when a private Piper Cherokee owned by William Kramer en route from Torrance to Big Bear City Airport near

Big Bear Lake Big Bear Lake is a reservoir in the Western United States, western United States, located in the San Bernardino Mountains in San Bernardino County, California, San Bernardino County, California. It is a snow and rain-fed lake, having no other m ...

collided with a

Douglas DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell ...

owned by Aeroméxico en route from Mexico to

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...

. Both aircraft crashed, killing all on board and a few on the ground. *January 19, 2019: An Aviat Pitts S-1T, N31WK, collided with an experimental Rutan VariEze, N27GM, while taxiing to parking at Zamperini Field Airport (TOA), Torrance, California. The owner/pilot of the Pitts was not injured; the airplane sustained minor damage. The owner/pilot of VariEze sustained minor injuries; the airplane was substantially damaged. *September 19, 2019: A Cessna 177, N2323Y, airplane, was substantially damaged when it impacted a building about 3/4 mile east of the Zamperini Field Airport (TOA) Torrance, California. The commercial pilot was fatally injured, and the passenger was seriously injured. *November 7, 2019: A Cirrus SR-22 departed from Zamperini Field in Torrance and had been in the air for about 19 minutes before it crashed. It had been heading to Cable Airport, a small independently owned airport less than two miles from the neighborhood where the plane went down, according to flight records. The pilot of a single-engine plane flying to a small airport in San Bernardino County was killed when his aircraft crashed into a home as it neared its destination, authorities said. Two people in the home were unharmed. * February 19, 2021: A Piper PA-32-260 Cherokee Six, N57014, departed from Zamperini Field at 11:47AM and crashed into a semi-truck on Terminal Island in the

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shortly before 12:30PM. The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene while the driver of the truck sustained serious injuries. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Lobb, Charles. ''Torrance Airport''. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2006. * Shaw, Frederick J. ''Locating Air Force Base Sites: History's Legacy''. Washington, D.C.: United States Air Force History and Museums Program, 2004.

External links

Torrance Municipal Airport - Zamperini Field
page at city website
Zamperini Field
(unofficial information site)

* {{authority control Airports in Los Angeles County, California Flight Strips of the United States Army Air Forces Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in California History of Torrance, California Transportation in Torrance, California Airports established in 1943 1943 establishments in California