Plant 42 OK with more flights at Palmdale airport

But the nation's air arm is not thrilled about full-scale development of 17,500 acres of airport land directly east of Plant 42's east-west runways.

As drawn, such an airport would send planes directly over the Air Force facility.

"We're not opposed to bringing passenger service to Palmdale," said Lt. Col. Bob Catlin, commander of Air Force Plant 42. "It's been part of our agreement with Los Angeles World Airports for 10 years."

Catlin said the agreed-upon 50 operations per day won't impact operations of military contractors at the airfield.

Supporters of a Palmdale Regional Airport hope to someday see passenger service as comprehensive as the offerings at Burbank or Ontario International Airports.

A Burbank-like airport in Palmdale may not be as far-out as it sounds. Burbank had 58,418 takeoffs and landings in 1998, which figures to about 160 operations a day.

An Ontario-style airport is likely far in the future. It had 144,949 takeoffs and landings in 1998, or about 397 operations a day.

"Something like Burbank. That's what I envision," said Howard Brooks, who leads the Palmdale Regional Airport Advisory Council.

Brooks, who also leads the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, said he's heard some detractors say Palmdale can't host a passenger airport because of all the top-secret aerospace programs housed in Plant 42's hangars.

"Where was the SR-71 built?" Brooks asked. "And the F-117? In beautiful downtown Burbank. It's been done before. That's not a realistic concern."

Brooks said still other detractors say a high number of passenger flights from Palmdale could affect flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base.

But Edwards is testing fewer and fewer high-performance aircraft, Brooks said, and tower operators and air traffic controllers could direct traffic away from Edwards airspace.

The agreement between the Air Force and Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) also allows up to 400 operations per day if additional environmental review is done and approved.

Even that many operations - similar in scope to Ontario International Airport - wouldn't necessarily be a problem at Air Force Plant 42, Catlin said.

"If needed, we could build a third runway and extend it into world airports land," Catlin said. "Then we could dedicate two runways to the airport, and one to Air Force Plant 42."

Plant 42 is a sprawling Air Force assembly and flight test center, three miles wide and five miles long on the northeast end of Palmdale. The Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. all have major installations at the airfield.

On the south side of the installation, just north of Avenue P on 20th Street East, stands the abandoned Palmdale Regional Airport terminal building.

Up to 50 scheduled takeoffs and landings, or operations, from the terminal, are now permitted under the agreement between the Air Force and LAWA, the branch of L.A. City Hall which operates the Palmdale airport.

Fifty operations translates to about to 25 daily flights. But because no airlines currently serve Palmdale, the operations number remains at zero.

Even when air service from Palmdale was at its peak in the early 1990s, airlines only ran six flights a day to LAX.

Carriers serving Palmdale at that time included SkyWest, which connected to Delta Airlines flights, and United Express, which connected to United Airlines flights.

SkyWest abandoned Palmdale in February 1994, saying profits from the route were too slim. United Express left in April 1998, saying the route wasn't profitable at all.