Concealing an entire military base seems like an almost impossible task, but in 1942 that was a step of national security that had to be taken. Burbank, California’s Bob Hope Airport wasn’t always a commercial air strip. In World War II it was known as Lockhead Air Terminal, an important military base on the Pacific Coast — one that could not become known to enemy Japanese forces.
After a Japanese submarine was spotted in San Francisco Bay and another in Santa Barbara, the U.S. Military decided the best way to protect Lockhead from possible Japanese spy planes would be with a protective camouflage cover. From the sky, Lockhead would appear to be just another suburban California neighborhood, something of little interest to the enemy.
The photo at the top shows Lockhead before its camo cover and the photo below shows its suburban disguise after the camouflage cover went into effect.
Developing a cover that would conceal an entire airbase and give the illusion of a civilian neighborhood was something easier said than done. And Colonel John F Ohmer, an expert in camouflage and misdirection techniques was put in charge of the project. Having all the resources of Hollywood nearby, Ohmer called upon dozens of scenic designers, painters, art directors, landscape artists, carpenters, and lighting experts to help build the camouflage netting that would lay over trees and buildings.
The heavy-duty netting was strong enough to support faux structures, and in order to maintain the illusion of civilian life people road bicycles and walked on top of the netting. Both military and commercial aircraft continued to be made at the terminal well into the 1960s before it was named Hollywood-Burbank Airport in 1967 and later Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport in 1978. The airport didn’t receive its current Bob Hope title until 2003.
The camouflage netting goes into place, being laid over trees and buildings.
Underneath the cover military forces were able to work without detection from possible spies.
