Airport renamed after Bob Hope

A US airport has been named after entertainer Bob Hope.

Members of the Hope family gathered with celebrities and politicians to officially change the name of California’s Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport to Bob Hope Airport.

The British-born comedian had parked his private plane at the airfield since 1985 and embarked from there on many trips to entertain US troops. Dolores Hope, making a rare public appearance since her husband’s death on July 27, told the crowd about waiting for him to return from the South Pacific in 1943.

“Our son Zachary, who was five, kept saying, ‘Goodbye, Daddy.’ He didn’t know whether his father was coming or going,” she said.

The unveiling was scheduled for yesterday to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight. Hope was born that same year on May 29.

The airport first opened on Memorial Day weekend in 1930 and attracted fledgling airlines as well as pioneer pilots like Howard Hughes, Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh.

In 1940, Lockheed bought the building to accommodate its expanding defence work. The airport was sold to the cities of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena in 1978, which now operate it jointly. The airport handles five million passengers a year.