LAPD Hooper Heliport is a city-owned private-use
heliport
A heliport is a small airport which has a helipad, suitable for use by helicopters, powered lift, and various types of vertical lift aircraft.
Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff areas and may also hav ...
located one
nautical mile
A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at t ...
(2 km) northeast of the
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, in
Los Angeles County
Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...
,
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 United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
History
Hooper Heliport is located on the roof of the C. Erwin Piper Technical Center, the world's largest rooftop airport. It is centrally located next to
Los Angeles Union Station. It is home to the
Los Angeles Police Department
The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...
's
Air Support Division which is the largest metropolitan police aviation unit in the U.S. with 16
helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...
.
The Piper Technical Center is also used as a parking lot for the LAPD motor pool including marked and unmarked units, vans, buses, motorcycles, and the
V-100 SWAT
A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations.
SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...
armored cars.
Hooper Heliport served as home base for the fictional police helicopter ''
Blue Thunder'' in the 1983 motion picture
of the same name, while construction of the heliport was still being completed.
['' Blue Thunder'' DVD notes commentaries and featurettes]
See also
*
LAPD Air Support Division
*
List of airports in the Los Angeles area
*
Police aviation
References
External links
*
*
Airports in Los Angeles County, California
Heliports in the United States
Los Angeles Police Department
Police aviation
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