During the Cold War in the 1950s, squadrons of North American F-86 Sabres and, later, F-100 Super Sabres stood guard over the West Coast secreted in hangars at what is now Camarillo Airport (CMA), Calif. Alex Fisher, v-p of operations for Sun Air Jets at the airport, said, “There’s a lot of history here. The pilots would sleep in their flight suits and had to be ready to take off in four minutes. The fear was that a Russian bomber would shoot down an eastbound airliner over the Pacific, intercept its transponder code and bomb California.”
Today, four of the old alert hangars are still standing, and they are the place where Sun Air Jets got its start. Fisher said, “In 1994 the operation was founded [with a different name] as a helicopter and fixed-wing flight school working out of those hangars. It got its first Part 135 certificate in 1998 and began operating helicopters to offshore oil rigs and doing some firefighting. In 1998 the owner, who is involved in the radio and broadcasting business, acquired the rights to develop the property where Sun Air Jets is now located.”
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