Floatplanes: Kurtzer Flying Service/Lake Union Air/Kenmore Air

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950 Westlake Avenue N

The buzz of floatplanes taking off and landing has been one of Lake Union's theme songs since the earliest days of aviation. One of Lake Union's most enduring floatplane operations was the Kurtzer Flying Service, founded by legendary Seattle pilot Lana Kurtzer in 1928 at Boeing Field and moved to Lake Union in 1931. Kurtzer's flying school was once among the largest in the country, training thousands of aviators who went on to military and commercial careers.

After Kurtzer's death in 1988, Lake Union Air, another mainstay of the Lake Union floatplane community, which had been founded in 1946 and which competed fiercely with Kurtzer's for many years, purchased the Kurtzer property.

Kenmore Air, now the largest seaplane airline in the United States, was founded in 1946 at the north end of Lake Washington. In 1993 Kenmore, which already had a small facility on Lake Union, acquired Lake Union Air and with it the historic Kurtzer property.

By Paula Becker, September 25, 2012

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Kurtzer Seaplane Terminal on Lake Union, Seattle, August 12, 1938
Photo by Charles Laidlaw, Courtesy MOHAI (Image No. 1983.10.17840)