Free Republic

MOJAVE - Calling it "the shortest long-distance flight in history," aviator Dick Rutan entered the record books again Saturday, this time for a rocket plane flight from Mojave to California City. Rutan - who already holds numerous distance and speed records, including the non-stop, round-the world Voyager flight 19 years ago - piloted XCOR Aerospace's EZ-Rocket. Rutan also was the first to test the aircraft when the rocket engine demonstrator debuted in 2001. The world's first privately built, rocket-powered aircraft, the EZ-Rocket is a Long-EZ kit plane modified with twin 400-pound thrust rocket engines instead of the usual engine and...

Lola Tipton of Lancaster remembers meeting a very handsome Ronald Reagan in 1937, a man who introduced himself as "Dutch." GOP politico Frank Visco, an invited guest at Reagan's White House, is mourning the man he calls "a father figure." And Jeremy Giampietro, a 24-year-old Highland High School graduate, will help carry his casket at today's burial in Simi Valley. Antelope Valley residents are dwelling on memories this week of Ronald Wilson Reagan, especially those who met the 40th president on one of his several trips to the Valley. Reagan visited the Valley in the 1960s, for a tour of...