Southwest corner of LAX has peculiar airplane parts, what is this area?

Question

In the Southwest corner of LAX (at the intersection of Imperial Highway and Pershing Dr.) there is a strange looking area that appears to have some abandoned airplane parts. Also, it looks like a road-striper had a good time one day doing donuts around one of the artifacts. Anyone familiar with this area and what it is used for?

See Google Maps

It looks like the lines are just practicing/testing for painting taxiway and runway markings. — fooot, Apr 15 '16 at 20:37
From the question title I thought you meant the corner where Southwest's terminal is located. Upon looking at the map I learned that Southwest's terminal is actually located in the north east corner of the airport. I don't know why but that made me laugh. — Cave Johnson, Apr 15 '16 at 23:34
Maybe to avoid disposing of unused paint they just dump it there. Or they were a little excited about the next NASCAR race and had their own. — Chris A, Apr 17 '16 at 03:36

score 39 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 15 '16 at 19:06

39

It is an aircraft fire simulator. They use it for training emergency response personnel and vehicles.

You can see them training on one in this YouTube video

Source: Leipzig Halle Airport

answered Apr 15 '16 at 19:06

Ron Beyer

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That confirms what I was going to post as a speculative comment. I got too busy playing around in the "3D" view and looking around the airport to come back to post... – FreeMan Apr 15 '16 at 19:09
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Any idea what the "donut stripes" are in the OP's picture, though? – yshavit Apr 16 '16 at 18:14
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@yshavit I'm assuming like the other commentor on the OP that they test the stripe painting equipment and/or paint in that area. – Ron Beyer Apr 17 '16 at 01:22