FBO Profile: Kaiser Air Is Long on Experience
Not every FBO can claim one of aviation’s most iconic aircraft as part of its heritage, but then not every FBO can trace its lineage back 65 years.
Kaiser Air considers its OAK facility a ­‘boutique FBO,’ but few clients get to see it, as the passengers can bypass the terminal and move directly from their car to their aircraft.
Kaiser Air considers its OAK facility a ­‘boutique FBO,’ but few clients get to see it, as the passengers can bypass the terminal and move directly from their car to their aircraft.

Not every FBO can claim one of aviation’s most iconic aircraft as part of its heritage, but then not every FBO can trace its lineage back 65 years. The roots of Kaiser Air’s Oakland Jet Center, based at Metropolitan Oakland International Airport (OAK), go back to 1946 and the flight department for Kaiser Industries, a conglomerate of shipbuilding, construction, car manufacturing, steel and aluminum refining companies run by magnate Henry J. Kaiser.

That company also established the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system, initially for its employees, which still exists today. One of Kaiser’s grander but ultimately unsuccessful projects was the HK-1 Hercules (commonly called the Spruce Goose), the giant World War II-era eight-engine flying boat, which he designed with Howard Hughes and that still exists today.