Free Republic

LANCASTER [California] - In "The Wizard of Oz," the Tin Man sought a heart from the wizard. Lancaster High School's Tin Man already has dozens, however. The 43 members of the Eagle Robotics team, together with many more advisers, mentors and parents, demonstrate that it takes more than brains and courage to build a successful program shaping the leaders of tomorrow. It takes a lot of heart, too. The Tin Man, the team's most recent robotic creation that was unveiled to the public Thursday, is only one physical manifestation of the team's prodigious efforts. The wider effects are seen throughout...

MOJAVE - The Mojave Air and Space Port is positioning itself to receive any construction funds from a proposed federal economic stimulus package. "If they're going to throw money around, maybe we can get some," General Manager Stu Witt told the East Kern Airport District directors during their Feb. 3 meeting. The airport regularly prepares "shovel-ready" construction projects in order to take advantage of additional federal grant funds sometimes available at the end of each fiscal year. This preparation may pay off should stimulus funding come available. One project the airport has requested for several years is to construct a...

MOJAVE - The Mojave Air and Space Port's singular development planning process will be the subject of a new promotional video intended to aid prospective tenants. A $10,000 contract to produce the video was approved by the East Kern Airport District directors Tuesday on a 4-1 vote, with director Dick Rutan dissenting. The district has a precise development plan, approved by Kern County, which governs future development at the airport. By applying this plan, developers can bypass the often lengthy process of applying through the Kern County Planning Department. In effect, the airport district is its own planning department, providing...

EDWARDS AFB - Within a darkened chamber, a small, cylindrical contraption suddenly shoots aloft on a pulsing plume of flame, hovering in the air while smaller flames shoot from the cylinder's sides and send it sideways. In seconds, the flames burn out and the device falls to a bouncy landing on the netting below. The video clip looks as though it could be a rough cut of a science fiction film, but in reality it is a recent test of the Multiple Kill Vehicle-L, one of the latest weapons intended to defend against ballistic missile attack under development for the...

supersonic aircraft is nearing completion at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The project uses the center's unique, modified F-15B to gauge the effects of changing the lift surfaces and engine nozzles on the shock waves created in supersonic flight. It is these shock waves that create the signature sonic booms heard on the ground when a supersonic airplane flies overhead. Supersonic jets are prevented by law from flying over land, except in specially designated corridors, due to the discomfort and noise of the resultant sonic booms. Quieting these sonic booms could lead to supersonic aircraft that may fly cross-country and...

PALMDALE - They may not be rose-covered, but they will certainly be attractions during Thursday's Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl. Twin B-2 stealth bombers arrived Tuesday in Palmdale from their home at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri in preparation for their featured roles in the New Year's Day festivities. One bomber will fly over Colorado Boulevard to open the morning's parade, while the second will punctuate the National Anthem before the start of the football game that afternoon. The batwing bombers are enjoying a homecoming of sorts, making Northrop Grumman Corp.'s facility at Air Force Plant...

From the nation's first jet aircraft to the first to break the sound barrier; from the first spacecraft to make a runway landing to the first privately funded spacecraft to rocket out of the atmosphere, the region's aerospace legacy tells the story of the Jet Age and the Space Age. The Valley's long tradition of striving to extend the cutting edge of aerospace continues today, from the defense industry giants at Air Force Plant 42 to the heirs of the "Right Stuff" pilots at Edwards Air Force Base to the paradigm-busting space entrepreneurs at Mojave Air and Space Port. With...

PALMDALE - Heralded as the future of naval aviation, the X-47B unmanned combat aircraft for the Navy was unveiled Tuesday before an enthusiastic crowd at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Palmdale facility. With the Stars and Stripes as a backdrop and the strains of "Anchors Away" echoing through the hangar, the men and women who have contributed to its development greeted the cutting-edge aircraft during the afternoon ceremony. "It stands out as being a very good-looking aircraft," said Scott Winship, Navy Unmanned Combat Air System program manager for Northrop Grumman. A first for the Navy, the X-47B is intended to demonstrate the...

When the California Space Authority annually honors those within the state who have contributed to space enterprise during the past year, the Antelope Valley is sure to make an appearance. This year was no different, as awards were presented to two area entities during the ceremonies on Nov. 19 in Los Angeles. The Antelope Valley Board of Trade was honored for its efforts in the Business Development and Retention category, while Mojave-based The Spaceship Co. won the award for Commercial Space endeavors. "The greater Antelope Valley is integral to the California space enterprise community," said Eric Daniels, CSA's director of...

EDWARDS AFB - The students at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base have a new tool in their educational efforts, one that can benefit the Air Force and research institutions as well. The Reconfigurable Airborne Sensor, Communication and Laser - or RASCAL - pod provides a means of easily installing new instruments and technologies on board aircraft for flight testing. The pod, with the test instrumentation installed inside, attaches beneath the wing of an F-16 or other aircraft using the same connections for exterior weapons such as missiles. This standard connection provides versatility and ease...

EDWARDS AFB - Forty years ago NASA pilot Bill Dana made the final flight of the X-15, marking the end of the line for what many consider to be the most successful research airplane in history. How the program team responded to this adversity provides lessons for today's research and space exploration efforts, author Dennis Jenkins said Friday. Jenkins, author of "X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight," NASA's definitive history of the program, discussed the trials and triumphs of the X-15 at Dryden Flight Research Center before an appreciative crowd that included many of the program's original participants. The event...

EDWARDS AFB - The brief yet productive visit here by the nation's newest fighter is but a taste of things to come as the Air Force Flight Test Center prepares to host the F-35 Lightning II flight test program. The first F-35 test aircraft, dubbed AA-1, arrived at Edwards on Oct. 1 following the model's first cross-country flight from the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics production facility in Fort Worth. After three weeks of successful flight tests, it is scheduled to return to Texas today . The F-35 will be a major program for the Antelope Valley, employing hundreds of people in...

MOJAVE - Following multiple flights by XCOR Aerospace's rocket-powered airplane last week, the Mojave Air and Space Port now holds the unofficial record of more than half the manned rocket-powered vehicle flights in the 21st century. Following the XCOR flights, the facility has accounted for some 59 manned, rocket-powered vehicle flights, suborbital and orbital, or 51.3% of such flights worldwide since Jan. 1, 2001. The worldwide total includes 22 space shuttle flights from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and 15 launches from Russia's Kazakhstan-located facilities, Baikonur, according to company officials. Mojave's total includes SpaceShipOne's three suborbital flights in 2004...

PALMDALE - NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory captured a unique light show recently, as scientists used the aerial platform to study the disintegration of a spacecraft as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere from orbit. The European Space Agency's "Jules Verne" automated transfer vehicle, the first of a planned series of autonomous spacecraft designed to resupply and re-boost the international space station, returned early Sept. 29 at the conclusion of its six-month maiden mission. The European agency teamed up with NASA to take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by the planned re-entry to study how objects disintegrate and burn up when encountering...

LANCASTER [California] - During the Vietnam War, Soviet-made surface-to-air-missiles used by the North Vietnamese forces inflicted heavy casualties on U.S. aircraft. To counter this threat, the Air Force and the defense industry came together to quickly develop a means of identifying and disabling the SAM sites. Industry was able to develop electronic means of detecting the radar signals coming from the missile sites. In operation this meant sending in two-seat fighter aircraft, with an electronic warfare officer in the rear seat, to entice the missile sites to light up their radars, thus giving away their position for the strike aircraft...

LANCASTER [CALIFORNIA]- For the men and women flown in to the Antelope Valley to accept a little marble-and-brass immortality on the Lancaster Aerospace Walk of Honor, flying is all it was ever about. Each of those attending Saturday's ceremonies expressed love for the bright sunshine and clear blue skies over Edwards Air Force Base. Each knew the joy of the high-flying exploits best described in Tom Wolfe's classic of narrative journalism, "The Right Stuff," which celebrated the calculated cool, courage and humor of test pilots and astronauts. Ask retired Col. Joe Schiele. He piloted the C-141 Starlifter jet transport on...

PALMDALE - NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory recently returned from patrolling the Arctic Circle as part of a study about the formation of polar ice. The DC-8...was dispatched to Kiruna in northern Sweden for a three-week mission as part of the Arctic Mechanisms of Interaction Between the Surface and Atmosphere mission. The mission was a NASA Earth Sciences program in support of the International Polar Year science project. In a series of flights over arctic ice between Sweden and Greenland, the aircraft's instruments were used to collect data regarding climate meteorology, part of a study of how weather patterns may affect...

Already at the cutting edge of aerospace technology development, the Mojave Air and Space Port is investigating using the latest means of spreading its message through a high-definition, interactive video-based Web site. The project was proposed to the directors of the East Kern Airport District, which governs the airport, at their Tuesday meeting. The air and space port is the frequent subject of news articles worldwide, owing to its position at the forefront of the emerging personal spaceflight industry. Officials are also regularly contacted by businesses interested in locating to the site. General Manager Stu Witt remarked that the airport...

Passengers will have twice as many flights to choose from at L.A./Palmdale Regional Airport starting Wednesday, as United Airlines moves to a more frequent flight schedule using smaller, 30-passenger airplanes. The expanded schedule, with four flights daily between Palmdale and San Francisco, will allow passengers nearly double the number of connecting flights from San Francisco International Airport. The change is an effort to meet passenger's requests for increased schedule flexibility and should better meet the needs of government, military and business travelers, officials said. Airport Manager Robert Gluck said the change was "driven by the business community." Businesspeople were finding...

Employment at Air Force Plant 42 and its adjacent defense contractor facilities appears to have decreased slightly in the first six months of 2008, but two of the major contractors are hiring. For the first time in several years, the figures released by Plant 42 officials included the employment numbers for the Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Center. The center employs approximately 500 people, including controllers, technicians and the like, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. Including the FAA center, employment over the first six months of the year was 6,858 people, compared to 6,412 people during the last six...