LAPD Hooper Heliport

LAPD Hooper Heliport

is a city-owned private-use heliport located one nautical mile (2 km) southwest of the central business district of Los Angeles, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

Located at the Piper Technical Center just outside downtown Los Angeles, it is home to the Los Angeles Police Department's Air Support Division which is the largest Police aviation unit in America with well over 20 helicopters including Bell Jet Rangers and Eurocopter A-Stars.

Hooper Heliport which is located on the roof of Piper Tech is the world's largest rooftop airport. The LAPD Air Support can deploy helicopters on a moments notice but not too often is in a position to scramble air units. This is mainly because the LAPD at most times of the day has as many as 3 airborne units already up to handle calls of service ranging from, roof checks, bank perimeters, suspects searches, and vehicle or foot pursuits. According to wikipedia.org the LAPD maintains up to 26 helicopters. LAPD deploys air units that are typically referred to as AIRSHIPS from both Hooper as the main base heliport and also Van Nuys regional airport located in the San Fernando Valley.

The Piper Technical Center is actually used as a storage parking lot for a lot of LAPD's motor pool with vehicles ranging from fully marked cruiser, un-marked units, vans, buses, motorcycles,and even V-100 SWAT armoured cars. Hooper Heliport which is on the roof of Piper Tech is located just a couple blocks from LA's Union station, Chinatown, Downtown and is next to the famous stretch of the Los Angeles River. From the LAPD Hooper control tower room the LA river gives air support staff a great view of a stretch of cement often seen in TV shows and movies. The LAPD control tower is a busy one, it handles not only police radio traffic but dictates flight routes to any small aircraft in the area and also maintains radio connections with Los Angeles International airport(LAX).

In 1956 the Air Support Division was established with 1 Miller two seat helicopter. (A.S.D.) has flown high above many incidents even famous ones such as the Black Panther, S.L.A., and North Hollywood shootouts, the Jewish community center shooting, the Televised Live car chase of O.J. Simpson, consecutive L.A. Lakers basketball championship wins resulting in rioting and both the 1965 Watts and 1992 Rodney King riots. Annually ASD flies over the scene of more than 7,000 felonies each year. Currently LAPD ASD staffs 40 Pilots and 40 Tactical Flight Officers/Observers and commands a fleet of 26 helicopters, the world's largest police aviation unit. Based out of a location within 5 blocks of Downtown L.A., City Hall,and Union Station, Piper Tech Center is home to Hooper heliport which an addition to being the world's largest/busiest heliport is also the world's largest/busiest roof-top airport. At all times regardless of time of day/year or police shift but of course limited by FAA weather regulations, not that 60 degrees year-round is much of a factor, LAPD ASD at all times has 3 airborne units along with 2 additional stand-bye units waiting at the heliport.The LAPD ASD has used conventional AIRSHIPS from the Bell 206 JetRangers,Bell 407/427 LongRangers to the new generation of Eurocopter's AS350B2 A-Stars. In the late 1980's while in contracting with the U.S. Army for better tactical SWAT weapons and the California Nat'l Guard for the use of V-100 tanks, the LAPD made the decision to buy 2 US military Bell Kiowa's and 2 UH-1D Army Vietnam era Huey's. An addition to having 26 helicopters, LAPD ASD also has 1 Gulfstream and 2 Cessna planes. In 2006 in co-operation with the U.S. Marine Corps at 29 Palms, CA, the LAPD was introduced to new age-war based-aerial combat technology. They were given the controls of a Predator type UAV unmanned/unarmed military spy drone to be used as a test in the gathering of aerial intelligence in an urban environment. Not much was ever made public about it's mission or purpose, however the results gathered from it are to be used for future planning in the event of deploying US troops as peacekeepers or municpal police agents in another country. 52 years later ASD is the one key resource needed to pro-actively and aggressively combat the 3rd world violence of the "City of Angels". In Los Angeles for 20 years LAPD ASD has maintained an average of 30seconds to 1min 30seconds air unit response time.

References

External links

*
*


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Heliport — A heliport is a small airport suitable only for use by helicopters. Heliports typically contain one or more helipads and may have limited facilities such as fuel, lighting, a windsock, or even hangars. In larger towns and cities, customs… …   Wikipedia

  • Los Angeles Police Department — (LAPD) Création 1869 Type Police municipale Siège Los Angeles (Californie) Budget …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Los Angeles Police Department — ] *COMPSTAT *Investigative Analysis Section *Tactical Technology Unit *Robbery Homicide Division *Commercial Crimes Division *Detective Support and Vice Division *Juvenile Division *Narcotics Division *Gang and Operations Support Division *Real… …   Wikipedia

  • Los Angeles Police Air Support Division — The Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division boasts the second largest fleet of police aircraft in the United StatesFact|date=June 2008. People often mistake the Los Angeles Police Air Support Division for having the largest fleet of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”