Mojave Skies

Introducing Vintage Air

2011-10-18T06:05:00.001-07:00

A few weeks back, I mentioned my non-aviation blog, but I've also started a new aviation-related one called Vintage Air, a place that tells the stories behind vintage aviation photographs, many of which have never been published. Today's post is the first one on the blog that involves photos taken at Mojave (they were shown here in 2008, but they bear showing again), hence the mention here. There will be more Mojave photos for the next couple of Tuesdays over at Vintage Air.

Plane Crazy, October 2011: Boomerang and Guest

2011-10-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

The featured aircraft for the October 2011 PCS was none other than the recently resurrected Rutan Model 202 Boomerang. Once Burt's personal airplane, it's now in the care of Scaled's Mike Melvill. Along with Catbird, Boomerang recently made the trek to Oshkosh for the Rutan tribute. Here's an up-close-and-personal look at this most amazing aircraft.

During PCS, this rather striking DeHavilland Dash 8, configured for an undisclosed flight test program, showed up and parked down the ramp.

Some Mojave Photos at "Light in our Lens"

2011-08-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

While my day-job employment has taken me from Mojave to Palmdale and Edwards - leaving this blog essentially dormant - I still occasionally get to shoot there (I'm usually around during the monthly Plane Crazy Saturday open house, shooting when not driving the flightline tour tram), and recently had the opportunity to write about PCS for AirShowStuff Magazine (you can read it online here).

I have also started writing a more generalized photography-related blog, Light in our Lens, and the most recent post there is about, you guessed it, Mojave and PCS...so y'all are invited over to take a look at a few photos that didn't make the magazine article, but are worthy of mention anyway. Cheers!

August Plane Crazy Saturday Honors Racers

2009-08-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

The August edition of the Mojave Transportation Museum's Plane Crazy Saturday highlighted our local race teams, Nemesis NXT and Wasabi Racing, both of which are getting ready to head for the competition at Reno next month. For the first time at one of these monthly events, museum supporter and world-record-holding pilot Dick Rutan offered to give rides in his Cessna 150, with all proceeds going to the museum...and there were plenty of takers! Dick has indicated that he'll do this again next month, so if you've ever wanted to fly with Dick, put September 19th on your calendar!

On any given Saturday, you never know what's going to show up for our fly-in. Pilots chasing the $100 hamburger sometimes will show up to eat at the Voyager not even realizing that an event is going on. Below is a Scottish Aviation Model 120/121 Bulldog, a trainer built for the Royal Air Force, and registered to an owner in South Carolina...in either case, Mojave being a long way from home!

A rarity indeed is this gorgeous Polish PZL M26-01 Iskierka, or Airwolf. Only 14 of these trainers were built, and of those, only four are in the U.S. This beauty, here being flown by local warbird restorer Dean Soast, sports some unique air-brushed nose art, as well.

Meet on of the most unusual canard homebuilts around: the Avery JA-5 Walrus. Powered by a turbocharged Rotax engine, this one certainly got everyone's attention.

One of the neat things about Plane Crazy Saturday is that, except for the F-16s parked nearby, the planes here are not roped off. It's old-school airporting - you can get up close and personal with the planes and their owners, whether it's Dick Rutan's Berkut being inspected by a pair of future pilots (below left) or the XCOR Rocket Racer (right).

If you are a Facebook user, please consider becoming a supporter and fan of the Mojave Transportation Museum's Facebook page.

WhiteKnightTwo Departs for Oshkosh

2009-07-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

WhiteKnightTwo lifted off for its first cross-continent flight this morning, departing Mojave at 7:16 am local for its public (re)debut at the EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

With plenty of gas onboard, pilot Pete Siebold and co-pilot Clint Nichols brought Eve around for a low pass down runway 26, in front of a small crowd of Scaled Composites employees before climbing up to 52,900 feet for the 4:36 flight.

Plane Crazy Saturday Celebrates Space

2009-07-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

With the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing just a couple of days away, the theme for the July Plane Crazy Saturday was rocketry, with lots of nice hardware on display. XCOR Aerospace pulled out, for the first time, their Rocket Racer and parked it nose-to-nose with the pioneering EZ-Rocket. The Racer was XCOR's early prototype for the Rocket Racing League, and debuted at last year's Oshkosh AirVenture air show, but this is the first time that it has been shown publically at Mojave. (Curiously, the RRL folks have been oddly silent, at least as far as media releases goes, since late last year...it makes one wonder if the recession hasn't affected them as well - we'll see if they show up at Reno this year, as was promised.)

XCOR's Aleta Jackson braved the 110 degree heat and patiently explained the rocketplane's workings to a steady stream of curious visitors (below).

Masten Space Systems had their Zombie rocket test vehicle on hand as well. It now has over a dozen flights to its credit, with the program continuing to move forward. The Mojave Desert Advanced Rocket Society (MDARS) had a number of large rockets on display in the AVGAS hangar (a tip of the hat to Rob for providing the space!) which intrigued the kids as well as the adults.

Matt Stinemetze was up in his Long-EZ, with a nice low pass down runway 8 - Matt's plane holds the distinction of being the oldest Long-EZ around, Burt himself having initiated construction.

Northrop Grumman Unveils New GlobalHawk

2009-06-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

Northrop Grumman unveiled their latest version of the RQ-4 GlobalHawk UAV last Thursday, June 25, at their Palmdale, California manufacturing facility. The Block 40 GlobalHawk is designed specifically around the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) system which has been in developmental flight test at the Mojave Air & Space Port for the past three years. The new system is expected to provide the next generation of Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) imagery to the soldiers on the ground.

George Guerra, Northrop Grumman VP of HALE systems and Site Manager (above, right) stated, “GMTI is in such a huge demand today, and this aircraft will provide it.” Northrop Grumman Strike and Surveillance Systems Division Vice President Gerard Dufresne said this system “will provide a game-changing situational awareness to our war fighters.”

Northrop Grumman has been testing three developmental MP-RTIP units on Scaled Composites’ unique Proteus high altitude research aircraft at Mojave since 2006. According to Guerra, Mojave-based Proteus was used as “it gives us an advantage because it flies to 50,000 feet, so it’s pretty close to simulating the GlobalHawk environment. So, from a risk mitigation [point of view], it was a good way to get an early peek at how the system would perform at altitude.”

The MP-RTIP system is designed to be modular and scalable, with additional modules being added for installation on larger aircraft. Guerra described it, “it’s like a window, the bigger the window, the more you can see.” Originally, a larger MP-RTIP was intended to be installed on the proposed Air Force E-10, a modified Boeing 767-400ER, however that program was cancelled in 2007, and Boeing sold the prototype airframe to a customer in Bahrain, who had it converted to VIP configuration. Discussions are underway within in the Air Force, according to Guerra, to determine what will be the next large GMTI aircraft, and a scaled-up MP-RTIP is one of the possibilities being considered. However, there are no hard plans at this time to use MP-RTIP on any other platform besides GlobalHawk.

The first Block 40 aircraft, designated AF-18, is the 27th RQ-4 to be built, and the first of 15 that have been ordered by the Air Force. AF-18 will be flown to Edwards AFB in late July, where it will initially under envelope-expansion flight testing, due to changes in the airframe. In February 2010, the one of the three “developmental unit” radar systems will be modified from its Proteus configuration and mounted to AF-18 for the initial sensor integration flights. For a while, according to Guerra, Proteus will continue to be used for “different mode development work,” but ultimately the test program will be transitioned exclusively to GlobalHawk.

Current Air Force plans call for a total GlobalHawk fleet size of 54 aircraft, fifteen of which will be the Block 40 configuration. However, the service has also begun discussing increasing their fleet to a total of 77 aircraft, and there is expected to be some additional Block 40s in that number, according to Guerra. In addition, NATO is expected to order eight AGS aircraft.

While the Block 40 configuration represents the latest in GlobalHawk technological development, it certainly isn’t the culmination of the program. The German-partnered EuroHawk , which is based on the Block 20 configuration, is slated for unveiling later this years, as is the NATO AGS version of the Block 40. In addition, Guerra said that there are talks underway within Northrop Grumman and the Air Force, as a part of a “Requirements Planning Working Group”, regarding additional sensors that would be installed on a “notional Block 50” aircraft. “I think you’ll see a Block 50 in the near future,” said Guerra.

To date, all versions of GlobalHawk combined have accounted for over 2,000 missions and 32,000 flight hours, 75% of which was in combat, while posting a 97% mission effectiveness.

Steve Amburgey, GlobalHawk Program Director for the 303rd Aeronautical Systems Group at Wright-Patterson AFB, thanked the “Palmdale production folks” for their work on the aircraft. “What you produce here is going to end up resulting in the saving of countless American lives,” he said. Northrop Grumman expects to keep production of the aircraft in the Antelope Valley.

Anniversary numbers

2009-06-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a whole year now since Google Analytics started tracking the visitor numbers for Mojave Skies, and in that time GA has logged 55,987 unique visits with a total of 126,946 page views, from countries all around the world (in the map below, if the country is green, it means that someone from there visited the site in the last year - not a lot of white countries showing!). Not bad, for an online niche aviation publication! Many, many thanks to everyone who has visited, commented, helped out and especially encouraged this project.

WhiteKnightTwo Steals Show at Plane Crazy Saturday

2009-06-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

For the June edition of Plane Crazy Saturday, the theme was "Wings and Wheels", and besides the usual warbirds and homebuilts that show off for the public, this time a couple of local car clubs came by to show off their gorgeous machines. Planes and cars...it was a great combination that drew lots of folks in to visit.

Steve Ericson showed up with his gorgeous Great Lakes 2T-1A-2.

I know there's got to be a story behind the F-22 "Raptor 17" sticker on this MiG-15...I've asked around, but no luck so far. If you know, please comment!

But, stealing the show, was Virgin Galactic WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve. It wasn't, of course, a planned event. WK2 was supposed to do a fly-by yesterday, Friday, at the groundbreaking ceremony of SpacePort America in New Mexico. A funny thing happened on the way to Truth or Consequences, NM, however. A problem with a spoiler caused WK2's crew to have to divert to Phoenix's Williams-Gateway airport, where it spent last night. That put the return, by way of a substitute fly-by of Las Cruces, NM, right in the middle of Plane Crazy. It was almost too good to be true, and the combined hopes of the crowd that had gathered along the edge of the taxiway was realized as Pete Siebold piloted WK2 through a fly-by down Runway 26, right in front of us. Another fly-by down Runway 30, and a taxi past us, and it was instantly a day to remember...WK2's first airshow appearance. Mojave trumps Oshkosh (where the debut had been planned to take place).

There's nothing like flying one of the coolest planes ever made around the southwestern U.S. then coming home to a joyful daughter! Behind all the gee-whiz technology are real families . . . the heart of small-town Mojave is what gives Plane Crazy Saturdays its joyfulness.

Kids, F-16s, and WhiteKnightTwo high overhead...what better way to sum up the Mojave experience?

May's Plane Crazy Saturday Salutes Local EMS Providers

2009-05-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

The May edition of Mojave's Plane Crazy Saturday celebrated the beginning of National EMS Week by saluting our local EMS air providers, the CHP and Mercy Air, as well as ground providers Hall Ambulance (Kern Co. Fire and Sheriff's departments were invited to bring their helicopters as well, but regrettably had to cancel).

Although the famous Chino airshow, also being held this weekend, seemed to reduce the number of aircraft attending this months event, the surprise attendee was TBM's 1957-model C-130A, ex-Tanker 64, which is now being used as a flight test aircraft (complete with 3-panel EFIS cockpit!).

Lastly, anyone wanna buy a slightly used Bellanca??

WK2 and the Media

2009-04-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

Although blogs are often a place of editorializing, I don’t generally do that here, because Mojave Skies is more suited to be a source of news and information about the unique activities that take place at Mojave. But, today I’m making an exception, because of the way recent events have garnered world-wide media attention.

I’m speaking, of course, about the tail strike that occurred at the end of the fourth test flight of Scaled Composites’ WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve. After an envelope-pushing four-hour flight (the takeoff is pictured here), the crew of WK2 executed a touch-and-go in crosswind conditions when the aircraft experienced an asymmetric thrust condition, resulting in the bottom of the left rudder scraping the ground and a few moments of pilots truly earning their pay (hat’s off to Pete for such a fine job of airmanship).

What also resulted was a confluence of media attention that surprised many. Traditionally, Scaled Composites refrains from commenting publicly after test flights, a combination of their near-legendary secrecy and a desire to let their customer direct the material that the media receives. In this case, their customer is Virgin Galactic, which as part of the Virgin Group, has a reputation for stage-managing as much as possible any and all media coverage. As they’re in the business of selling tickets, they naturally want to maximize their efforts, and control all the forces that affect them.

The end product has been, up to the release of Scaled's statement, a lot of official silence, punctuated with the release of a couple of in-flight photos, a fluffy promo video, and continual pronouncements from Virgin’s Will Whitehorn that the program is progressing “flawlessly”. And yet, as the schedule slips further and further (Sir Richard pronounced in the media, not that long ago, that he expected to take his family into space in his new chariot in 2009), and structural changes appear on Eve, industry watchers, who are not exactly dummies when it comes to aerodynamics, scratch their heads and wonder what in the “flawless” program could be motivating such expensive and time-consuming design changes. The consequent media discussion let to, remarkably, a rather frank and detailed press release from Scaled explaining exactly what was going on. Such openness, at last, has resulted in “Bravos!” all around.

The toll has been regrettable. Lost in the hubbub has been what really is going on, which is that Rutan’s hard-working crew is laboring to hand-build a man-rated space launch system, and breaking new aviation design ground every step of the way. In such a learn-as-you go endeavor, there’s bound to be things that are first tried, then changed, then tried again. There is nothing wrong with that…that’s the basic world of flight test. I know from my own experiences, having once worked in this segment of aviation, that in the flight test industry, everyone lives by the concept of “lessons learned”, in which the goal of each flight is to learn more about the vehicle, its peculiarities and then to hone the design. “Lessons learned” is the frank evaluation of the results, good, bad and ugly, from each flight. In the Virgin Galactic program, we have the unique collision of the world of flight test, with its habits, and the Virgin world of promotional PR, with its habits.

Maybe what could best come out of all of this, as Burt and Will sit clearly frustrated with the course of events outside of their control, is that the concept of “lessons learned” can be picked up by the PR folks over in the UK. And one of the most important lessons, it seems to me, is of the importance of openness in this new world of ours. If Virgin Galactic (and them specifically, since Scaled defers to the customer) had an on-site full-time media representative who was dually familiar with the world of flight test and the world of the media, who would hold periodic mini-press-teleconferences, who provided a frank review to the media of the results of each test flight, think of how much better this whole thing could have been handled.

Customers and potential ticket-buyers would have that much more confidence that they are getting the straight scoop about the vehicle that they’re entrusting their lives to, the media would have real, accurate information to present to its viewers, and people in general would have a much better understanding of what goes into developing tomorrow’s aircraft today. Had such a person been in place and doing his or her job last week, every little bit of frustration that was experienced by the folks on both sides of the Atlantic would never have occurred. Such a lesson-learned about open communications would be to the vast benefit of all concerned.

As a side note to the media events, and maybe to get everyone back on track to appreciating the uniqueness of these aircraft, the occasion of the 4th test flight was the first time that I'm aware of that WK1 and WK2 were on the ramp at the same time, above. Also out, while WK2 was up flying, was Proteus, below, making for a very unique morning when all of Burt's big double-boom designs graced the Mojave flightline.

Mojave Plane Crazy Saturday Photos

2009-04-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

This month's Plane Crazy Saturday was also tied in with the annual "Yuri's Night" festivities. This is a celebration of space achievement, typically held on April 12th, the day of Yuri Gagarin's launch as the first man into space, and also the date of the first Space Shuttle launch (for more info, visit http://yurisnight.net/). Representing Mojave's growing space development industry were XCOR Aerospace with several engines and their EZRocket, and Masten Space Systems displaying their rocket engine test stands. Right: XCOR's Aleta Jackson explains the concept of mach diamonds in a rocket's exhaust plume to a fascinated youngster.

Left:XCOR also makes really classy tables! Right: Masten's Ben Brockert explains some upcoming rocket engine testing that they will be doing for their X Prize Cup efforts.

Aleta Jackson kindly provided the two photos below. Left: "A young lad who wants to be a rocketship pilot poses by the EZ-Rocket." Right"A goodly representation of what happens at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Rockets, bi-planes, general aviation, a MiG, and the Nemisis NXT."

Left: Always a favorite is this stunning red Cessna 195 which lives at the nearby private Ancient Valley airport. Right: Hollywood aerial stunt coordinator Mike Patlin brought his latest student pilot and a gorgeous Siai-Marchetti SF-260C over.

Ronny and Paula Alldredge of Tehachapi brought down their gorgeously restored Beech T-34 Mentor for the first time. This plane was built in 1955 and served in the USAF before being transfered to the Indonesian Air Force in 1961. The Alldredges brought it back to the states in 1988 and did a wonderful job making it look new again.

An unexpected treat was the appearance of two Aero L-39s, which happened to arrive for lunch unaware that a public event was underway.

Making it's first Plan Crazy Saturday appearance this month was Bob "Stambo" Stambovsky's ex-RAF BAC Mk5A Jet Provost, which was once based at Mojave, but now lives down at Fox Field.

After the crowds had headed home, Mojave warbird collector and restorer Al Hansen took the opportunity to do a few high-speed taxi runs and short hops in his latest rebuild project, a T-28 Trojan (which had been on display earlier in the day). Congrats, Al, that radial engine sure sounded good!

Cal City Recon

2009-04-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

If you think the town of Mojave is out in the middle of nowhere, you've never been to the bustling metropolis of California City! Bypassed by both Hwys 14 and 58, Cal City is the home of a prison and not much more, so housing prices are some of the cheapest in all of southern California. The place does, however, have a pretty nifty airport, which is popular amongst the skydiving and gliding crowds. Here's a bit of an overview of the oddities to be found out there....

Below:Cal City is the base of operations for Baja Air, which operates a pair of DC-3s and a Cessna 414 in charter service down to Cabo.

Stuffed out behind some hangars on the east end of the airport are a bunch of what look like unfinished Curtis P-40 mockups, presumably from a movie set. If anyone has any information on the background of these, please leave a comment below!

Cal City seems to have attracted more than its fair share of Fouga Magisters. The one above is marked "221", while the flyable ones, below, are (from top): N315VB, N315MB and N355F. (These shots are posted specifically for my Fouga friends in Finland!)

Completing the collection of the odd and forlorn are a Convair HC-131 sitting in a trailer park (the FAA shows it being registered to the "California Museum of Air and Space") and a rather dusty Yak 52.

Lastly, while leaving Mojave, I grabbed a shot of the Fun Bird for my good friends at Aloha!

Only in Mojave: Anyone Seen the Garage Door Remote?

2009-04-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Only in Mojave . . . do you need a garage door remote to get into a 747!

This ex-Continental 747-200 is now gone, but for years it sat at Mojave complete with a rollup garage door on its nose, leading to many questions from puzzled passers-by. The 747, and an ex-Korean A-300 sitting next to it, were owned by Telair International, a German company that specializes in developing cargo loading systems for large aircraft. For any such system to become approved (the approval is called a "Supplementary Type Certificate", or STC) for use in commercial aircraft, it first has to be tested, and Telair used the two retired Mojave-bound airliners as testing and development setups for their systems.

Family Time at Mojave

2009-03-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

The incoming inclement weather held off just long enough yesterday for another successful - if a bit breezy - Plane Crazy Saturday at Mojave. Antelope Valley Press aerospace reporter Allison Gatlin wrote a fantastic piece in Friday's paper about the event, and the result was a lot more families with eager young children attended.

Most aviation enthusiasts can remember a time when they first discovered airplanes, often because someone simply took them to an airport. In this high-tech, high-security world we now live in, opportunities to do that are becoming rarer, which I suspect is why this monthly event has become such a big hit in the local community. A big thanks to all who brought their planes out to display (it was great to see XCOR trot out their world-record-holding EZRocket!), you'll never know if you somehow influenced a kid to grow up and seek a career as a pilot or aerospace engineer!

Does it look like fun? Put Saturday, April 18, on your calendar and bring your kids out to the airport!

Mojave Plane Crazy this Saturday!

2009-03-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

The handful of cool and unusual aircraft that graced Mojave's traffic pattern yesterday provide a great opportunity to remind everyone that this Saturday it is time once again for the Mojave Flightline to open up to the public for another Plane Crazy Saturday. Featured this month will be Ralph Wise's one-of-a-kind GT-400 (this brute is not to be mistaken for the ultralight of the same designation!).

As for yesterday, Mojave's own Mark Street had his gorgeous yellow Pitts S-1 up playing in the early hours of the morning. A little later, a competition aerobatic Zivko Edge 540 came screaming down Rwy 26. This beauty is either a visitor or a newly acquired resident (it was up flying again today), and is registered to a consulting company in Cornwall, UK. To keep the international flavor going, a venerable Canadian-registered de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver floated in for a nice wheel landing.

Victorville Report: Airbus Down, Part IV - The Movie

2009-03-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

For the last post in this series, here's a six-minute video of the "smashing" good time that was had in Victorville on Friday. (Watching this, I'm vividly reminded of what it must have looked like to watch a T-Rex feed on some dead prey....)

Victorville Report: Airbus Down, Part III

2009-03-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

Doug Scroggins sent in this composite of the continuing process of scrapping ex-American Airbus A300 N7055A.

On Friday, Doug and the ARC hosted me and aviation writer/photographer Nick Veronico to witness first hand how an Airbus get smashed. Excavator operator Ray here peels back the roof...what was once carefully maintained aircraft structure flops like foil.

I've seen many aircraft "crunched", but after watching for a while, I realized what was different about this aircraft...it was almost as shiny as the day it was new, and that lent an air of unbelievability to the whole scene.

Victorville Report: Airbus Down, Part II

2009-03-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

Photos by Doug Scroggins

The de-construction at Victorville of ex-American Airlines Airbus A300 N7055A by Aircraft Recycling Corp. continues in this series of images from Doug. The cockpit will be saved for display purposes, and will eventually be trailered to Mojave.

Calspan F-16s Arrive at Mojave

2009-03-12T20:48:00.000-07:00

Calspan's first three long-awaited F-16 flight test aircraft arrived at Mojave today, launching a new era for the Civilian Aerospace Test Center. The defense contractor plans to operate up to five Fighting Falcons, which are on loan from the Air Force, in flight test programs for various undisclosed customers.

Please welcome...Doug Scroggins

2009-03-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

Mojave Skies would like to welcome our new Victorville correspondent, Doug Scroggins. Doug has worn many aviation hats over the years, including writer, photographer, video producer, aircraft preserver and aircraft scrapper.

Doug is a regular contributor to Airliners Magazine, Airliner World, Airways and was the publisher of the now-out-of-print magazine Lost Birds, which featured older air crashes and recoveries. He also was the producer of the Discovery Channel documentary Scrapping Aircraft Giants.

Currently, he's the manager director / director of operations for Aircraft Recycling Corp, which is based at Southern California Logistics Airport (VCV), and specializes in dismantling and scrapping airliners in an environmentally-friendly manner. During his time there, Doug has supervised the dismantling of American's very first 767s, N301AA, 302, 303 and 304, as well as AA's 767 (N330AA) that caught fire at LAX. He also scrapped the Honeywell 720B, N720H at Phoenix, and the Northwest 747, N627US in Guam. (In the photo at right, Doug poses with the nose art from Gemini Air Cargo's DC-10 Deanie, which he scrapped at Mojave in 2007.)

As ARC scraps some of the more interesting airliners that come their way, Doug has agreed to share their work with us, beginning with the two posts below, photo essays of the jobs that ARC has been working on in the last couple of weeks, an ex-American A-300-600, N7055A and one of the last ex-TWA 767s, N610TW.

Welcome aboard, Doug!

Victorville Report: Airbus Down

2009-03-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

Photo essay by Doug Scroggins.

Victorville Report: Boeing's 767 Project

2009-03-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

Aircraft Recycling Corp. of Victorville worked to supply Boeing with parts of an old TWA 767 in this photo essay by ARC's Doug Scroggins.

February's Plane Crazy Saturday

2009-02-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

The February edition of the Mojave Transportation Museum's Plane Crazy Saturday attracted 53 aircraft of all shapes, sizes and speeds, and well over a hundred visitors who delighted in the opportunity to wander amongst the planes and chat with the owners and pilots.

The featured aircraft this month was Joann Painter's Myers Little Toot. The plane was once owned by NASA test pilot Fitz Fulton, and Joann's husband Wen, also a NASA flight test engineer, bought it from Fitz and gave it to her for Christmas! Once upon a time, the local airfield was a place where people could hang out - old timers could chat and reminisce, while youngsters can dream of learning to fly. Alas, changing times and stringent airport security has all but extinguished this element of Americana, but for one Saturday each month, the general public has the chance to get up-close-and-personal with all kinds of planes, a delightful flashback to a different era.

When he isn't flying SpaceShipOne, Proteus or his own LongEZ, astronaut Mike Melvill straps on his Pitts Special, which he brought out today, to the delight of at least one of the youngsters that came out to wander amongst the planes.

Chuck Coleman brought out his new Extra 300. Chuck's previous Extra was a regular chaseplane for SpaceShipOne, and he flew competition aerobatics in it, until it crashed. That Chuck survived and is back flying, given the severity of his injuries, is something of a miracle, and we are all thrilled to see him back in the air!

Below left:A very pretty Harmon Rocket. Below right:Elliot Seguin's Cassutt Race #68 low and fast down runway 26.

The extremes of aviation were clear, with the contrast between the wind-in-your-teeth Ison Air-Bike and the ex-Alaska MD-80 which sat in the middle of the fly-in aircraft, being used as a set for a National Geographic special on D.B. Cooper (I guess no one told the show's producers that DB jumped from a 727, not an MD-80!).

Although Joann Painter's Myers Little Toot was slated to be the featured aircraft for this Saturday, Dick Rutan's brand new Lycoming Thunderbolt 390-powered Berkut stole center-stage. As Dick's display placard attests, it is definitely a "one-of-a-kind" beast!

Dick holds court, showing off his nifty EFIS system.

Since this is the first time that a Lycoming Thunderbolt has been used in a Berkut, Dick even has the prop blades instrumented with strain gauges for the flight test program.

Dick Rutan First-Flights New Berkut

2009-02-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

Veteran test pilot and world aviation record holder Dick Rutan has a new ride, with yesterday's first flight of his new Berkut homebuilt. The Berkut is a descendant of the Rutan (as in Brother Burt) Long-EZ, with the prototype being designed in 1989 by Dave Ronneberg and Kerry Beresford of the company Experimental Aviation. The type subsequently suffered through several failed companies, replete with numerous bankruptcies and lawsuits, leading to the current Berkut Engineering Inc.

The corporate background notwithstanding, though, the Berkut has some loyal followers. The Berkut uses retractable landing gear originally designed by Shirl Dickey of the E-Racer fame, and utilizes the Roncz 1145MS canard airfoil, which is more forgiving of dirt and bugs. When equipped with a Lycoming 540, the plane is easily capable of over 300 kts.

For Friday's maiden flight, Dick was chased by long-time friend Mike Melvill (see the June 27, 2008 Mojave Skies entry "The Planes of Mojave: Special EZes, Part I - World Traveler" for the pair's exploits) in his long-range Long-EZ. The successful flight ended just before rain and snow once again blessed the desert.

Delta 757 Drives to Mojave

2009-02-09T16:44:00.000-08:00

In the midst of all the other activities last week, Mojave became the home of yet another retired airliner, this time ex-Delta 757 N606DL. What made things interesting, however, is ''how'' it got here. The plane was originally retired to Victorville airport, where it was due to be scrapped, but the fuselage "tube" was purchased for use as a training device, to be staged at Mojave. Aircraft Recycling Corp., which runs the Victorville scrapyard, cut the wings, tail and cockpit off, and then Aviation Warehouse manufactured a set of special wheels. Because of the height of this oversized load, the overpasses along U.S. Highway 58 couldn't be negotiated, and the plane had to be trucked north to Inyokern and then down to Mojave, sending it through Red Rock Canyon, where numerous TV shows and car commercials have been filmed.

WhiteKnightTwo Second Flight Photos

2009-02-08T20:29:00.000-08:00

Here's a selection of photos from last Thursday's flight of WhiteKnightTwo, the second in the much-anticipated flight test program for Virgin Galactic's pioneering VMS Eve. According to Virgin's Will Whitehorn, the plane climbed as high as 18,000 on this flight.

After spending well over an hour to the north of the field, WK2 and Robert Shearer's Beech Starship chase plane (the same one that chased SpaceShipOne) came in for a low pass down runway 26, a touch-and-go down runway 12 before landing on 12 (a noticable cross-wind had come up during the flight).

This has become somewhat of a classic shot...heading back to the barn after a successful test flight, Mojave wind turbines in the distance.

NTPS TurboDak Damage

2009-02-06T16:55:00.001-08:00

NTPS's TurboDak was moved over to the boneyard, where the damage inflicted is more apparent. The fact that they put it there rather than in the school's hangar is a hint that the plane is probably a write-off.

NTPS' Turbine DC-3 Crashes on Take Off

2009-02-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

The National Test Pilot School's Douglas DC-3PT TurboDak crashed on take-off at the Mojave Air & Spaceport yesterday, February 4, although both crewmembers on board walked away without injury. The instructor pilot for the flight was veteran test pilot and head of NTPS, Sean Roberts. Witnesses said that the aircraft climbed to about 100 feet before descending and then veering off to the right of the runway into the soft desert dirt.

Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo had been scheduled to make its second test flight shortly afterwards, and the Mojave Airport fire/crash crews were staging to support WK2 when the crash occurred. Additionally, Kern County Fire Engine 14 was arriving at the Voyager Restaurant for breakfast and so was also able to quickly respond (with all the rescue equipment occupying the runway, WK2's test flight was cancelled for the day).

The DC-3 had been formerly operated by the South African Air Force, who had modified the aircraft for maritime patrol with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67 turbo-prop engines, sophisticated multi-mode radar, a forward-looking infrared system, GPS, Doppler navigation and a host of other electronic systems. Most of the systems were retained, and NTPS used it as a flying classroom in which flight test engineers learned how to acquire and analyze systems test data.

In 2003, a crew of three ferried the venerable aircraft from South Africa to Mojave, headed by Terry Donovan, a flight test instructor at NTPS, on a flight that lasted over 68 hours. . Joining him were Dave Stock, a 1992 NTPS graduate and currently a Captain with South African Airlines, and Clive Turner, a retired South African Air Force Colonel.

In order to make the long hops required for the ferry flight, the cabin of the aircraft was stuffed with 18 45-gallon drums and three 90-gallon ferry tanks. This arrangement allowed for about a 16-hour range. While two of the crew members flew, the third was in charge of monitoring the fuel transfer from the cabin ferry tanks to the wing tanks.

The aircraft left Cape Town, South Africa on January 28th, flew to Namibia where the tanks were topped off, then on to Accra, Ghana, and 11-hour flight, where they spent the night. Early the next morning, after refueling, the flew another 11 hours to Sal, Cape Verde Islands for a two day rest layover. Leaving Africa behind, the next hop of 13 ½ hours took the Douglas over the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados, where they spent another night. From there it was a 12-hour flight on to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where they cleared customs and spent the night. Hoping across the US from Ft. Lauderdale to Austin TX, Tucson AZ and Bullhead City, the plane and a very tired crew finally arrived at Mojave on February 6th.

Donovan commented that the turbo-prop powered aircraft handles about the same as the “traditional” DC-3/C-47, but has a bit more power. The decades-old aircraft held a true airspeed of 170 knots, and due to the headwinds, a ground speed of 140 – 160 knots.

Only in Mojave: "But Officer...

2009-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

...was I really going that fast?" Every few years, the Classic Jet Aircraft Association holds one of their Jetblast gatherings of jet warbirds at Mojave. A few years back, this L-29 attracted the attentions of California's finest, a few of whom themselves are warbird fans.

SpaceShipTwo Assembly Video

2009-01-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is about a year old, but I hadn't seen it before, so I'm guessing that there are some of you that haven't seen this either.

Click for link to video

The Planes of Mojave: Symmetry

2009-01-18T15:47:00.001-08:00

If you were to poll both regulars and visitors to Mojave about the most beautiful plane on the field, you’d likely find that a little canary-yellow experimental named Symmetry would be the hands-down winner. One almost can't help but stop and stare, and the more one looks, the more amazing this plane appears.

The sense of detail and workmanship is stunning. Engine cowlings fit together almost seamlessly, without a fastener in sight. The propeller has the translucent look of polished carbon fiber weave. Even sitting still, the plane looks like it’s moving. Is it any wonder that Symmetry was the featured aircraft for the Mojave Transportation Museum’s inaugural “Plane Crazy” fly-in and open house? As such, I caught up with designer/builder/owner Cory Bird and chatted about his work of art (that's him standing next to the plane in the photo above).

I should say a word, first, about where Cory works: he’s one of the team at Scaled Composites, and I think it really says something about the people who work for Burt Rutan to consider how many of them have designed and/or built their own unique aircraft on the side. To look at Symmetry is to come to understand the character of the man behind it: a plane like this simply doesn’t happen without the builder having a deep sense of beauty, painstaking detail, and patience.

It took Bird 14 years to design and build Symmetry. I asked him if it was an every-day project, and Cory explained “I started in 1989, it first flew in April 2003. Any airplane project, with a family with kids – I had three kids – you’re balancing between going to volleyball games and football games and working at Scaled for that long…it was, as much as I could, but there was a period in 1995 when I didn’t work on it for three years. It sounds like a long time from the time you start to the time you finish, but really there’s probably 15,000 man-hours in it, spread out over that time.” Fifteen thousand? Add to that character list “commitment” and “endurance”!

A thing of beauty generally doesn’t just happen out of random happenstance, there’s typically intent behind it. I asked Cory about his inspiration. “As you research aerodynamics, you pick up little tidbits about what you think the lowest drag airplane would be. The mid-wing obviously is the best place you can put the wing, and it becomes, then, a packaging issue of getting the pilot in there. They say a T-tail is supposed to give you a smaller vertical tail with some endplate effect, plus since it was a tail-dragger, I wanted it up out of the weeds. But really, the airplane was just carving out a model until you like it and you say, ‘Ok, well if it looks good it’s probably good.’ I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to estimate the performance of the airplane, other than doing everything I could…to make it as low drag as possible.”

Ultra-low drag, very obviously, was one of Bird’s primary goals. “The other one was to try to do it as cheaply as possible. It’s a fixed-pitch prop, stock IO-360 200-horse angle valve [engine]. It has fixed landing gear, and that saves an awful lot of money and time.” The tail wheel, though, does retract.

Originally, Bird intended the aircraft to be a single-seater, with the retractable landing gear that folded aft, the wheel wells sitting just behind the pilot’s seat. “But Patti, my wife”, he explained, “helped on every bit of this airplane, and I said ‘You know what? I think I can fit you in here.’ We sat in the garage trying to do different seating arrangements, different inclinations, things like that, until we got one that works. I said ‘I’ve got this one that works, and I’m gonna put the gear down so that you can go.’” The aft seat, Cory jokes, was molded around Patti’s posterior. He took a block of foam, carved into it, had her sit on it for a while until it hurt here or there, and then he’d carve a little more. In the end, the seat fits Patti’s form so well that she doesn’t even need a cushion to be comfortable. (Add “devotion” to the character list.)

Cory said, “I really, really enjoy the German sailplane technology and the craftsmanship that comes out of Germany. I spent a lot of time a Cal City and Tehachapi [both glider centers] just looking at every detail on a glider, thinking, ‘Well, you know, I can even do better than that.’ And then to put a big ol’ engine on there, too. That’s really what inspired me. I just wanted it as clean as possible.”

When the plane was finally ready to fly, there was still a bit more work to do. Bird initially used a wooden propeller from a 200 hp Vans RV-6, and on the first flight he could do about 180 knots before the engine would start to overspeed. That wasn’t fast enough, though. “I flew that for maybe twenty flights, and said ‘I’ve got to do something.’ I took the propeller off and carved into it by hand with mini-grinders and sandpaper and blocks and stuff like that, and got 13 more inchs of pitch and added three more inches to each side, so six inches to the diameter, and with that one fix I was able to get 60 extra knots out of it.” Symmetry will now do 240 kts at about 3,000 rpm. But the propeller that I was looking at, with the gorgeous carbon-fiber weave, Cory said was the same one! “There’s wood buried down in there.” Over the wood is “a lot of fiberglass, the carbon [weave] is there primarily for aesthetics, but there’s a bunch of carbon uni for bending and a bunch of plus/minus 45 glass; I was trying to match the stiffness of the wood that’s underneath.”

I wanted to know if Bird was planning on a follow-on project to Symmetry. He said, “This airplane was meant for learning. I came to Scaled back in 1985 as a shop guy, and didn’t know much about aerodynamics, didn’t know much about structure, about machining, and this allowed me to learn all of those disciplines. I don’t plan on going any more with this airplane, but I do have another project in the works. “It’s a much bigger airplane, that will do everything that this one won’t. It’s not going to be a show plane, it’s going to be a truck.” Cory explained that Symmetry has a few limitations, mostly relating to its fixed-pitch cruise prop and super-clean aerodynamics. The prop has so much pitch that on take-off, the engine power has to be limited, otherwise the prop blades will actually stall. As a result, it takes about 3,000 feet to “comfortably” get airborne. And on the other end of the flight, the aircraft has so little drag that it’s hard to slow down, and thus the approaches have to be fast and very shallow. This all results in the need for long runways, eliminating some of the small-town locations Cory would like to go exploring. “I like getting out in the middle of nowhere, landing at little airports, and in this airplane, I like to have at least 5,000 feet.” He said he’d next like to have a plane that, while it takes a long time to get there, “but you can take all kinds of crap with you.”

Besides the take-off and landing limitations, though, Bird clearly likes how his workmanship flies. “Once you’re airborne, it climbs like a bad boy. It just takes a little bit to get up to that.” Once in cruise, the speed, Cory said, really depends on how much fuel you want to burn. At 185 knots, Symmetry burns about four and a half gallons of gas an hour (do the math, folks, that’s a whopping 41 nautical miles per gallon while doing NASCAR speeds!). Opened up, she’ll do 246 knots while burning 12 gallons an hour (still better than your typical SUV’s gas mileage). At 185 knots, Symmetry has about 700 nautical miles’ range. Handling wise, Bird says that it has light controls somewhat like a Longeze. “I can fly feet flat on the floor in the worst of turbulence and it will just sit there and track perfectly straight. It really is a nice airplane to fly.”

I asked Cory why he named the plane Symmetry, and got an answer very different than what I expected. “I knew I wanted an airplane that started with ‘S’ – I don’t know why. Patti and I were driving back from the Reno Air Races one time, and we had a dictionary with us, and she started going through the dictionary. She stumbled across ‘symmetry’, and I thought, huh, symmetry, that’s kind of fitting because Burt, my boss, he builds everything asymmetric, that’s perfect.”

Clearly, I’m not the only one that feels that Symmetry is a work of art. Cory said, “I remember a guy came up to me once and said ‘I’ve got some friends down at art museum on the Mall in Washington. This airplane doesn’t belong across in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, it belongs on the art side.’ Burt told me, when he first looked at it back in 2003, he said ‘You can’t fly this airplane, you’ve got to just look at it, you can’t fly it.’” I think I can speak for all those who saw Symmetry at Saturday’s Plane Crazy, and at this past year’s Veteran’s Day display (the photos here were taken at both events), and say that we really like to look at it, too.

Weird, wacky and FAST: MTM's First Monthly Fly-in

2009-01-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

The Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation today hosted the first of what is expected to become a monthly fly-in and open house at Mojave. The event allows aircraft owners to display their unique and/or historical aircraft to the public, and harkens back to the days when the local airport was a friendly, exciting place to visit. The weather was warm and spring-like (January in Mojave - eat your heart out, rest of the world!), which resulted in 30 aircraft ranging from warbirds to some of the fastest glass in the air, on display and a surprisingly large crowd wandering the flightline, getting up-close-and-personal. Cory Bird's stunning Symmetry, above, was this fly-in's featured aircraft (look for it to be featured in an article here in the next few days).

Award for the wackiest aircraft there went to John Avery's JA-5 Walrus, below, which is powered by a four-cylinder Rotax engine...and turbocharged, to boot.

The line-up above says a lot about the kind of place Mojave is: from the right is Airport Boardmember Joann Painter's Meyers Little Toot biplane, then Matt Steinmetz's Rutan Longeze, which holds the distinction of being the very first Longeze, Burt having started it himself in 1979. Next is Ralph Wise's fast GT-400 and last, peeking its pink nose out, is Jon Sharp's Nemesis NXT (also below), fresh off of setting all kinds of records and bringing home the trophy from this year's Reno Air Races.

Above is Al Hansen's gorgeously restored 1947 Republic RC-3 Seabee (Al had a number of his other planes on display, including his ever-popular F-86 Sabre, and the almost-completed T-28 Trojan). Below is another of Joann Painter's little treasures, a Pietenpol Air Camper, complete with a very early type of TCAS!

Off to the side sat Robert Shearer's pristine Beech Starship, famous from its SpaceShipOne chase duties. Discovery Channel was filming it and interviewing Shearer for a special on canard aircraft...that'll be a show to see!

A big round of applause to all the MTM folks who worked hard to pull this off! I can't wait until the February event...so folks, start setting aside the third Saturday of the month to come visit Mojave!

Seawind in the Desert

2009-01-13T21:07:00.001-08:00

There's something about Mojave that just attracts the strangest-looking aircraft. And it's not enough that we create our own here, even the transient aircraft that stop by have that futuristic, spacey look, like this Canadian-registered Seawind 3000 amphibian that took off this morning.

The Seawind 3000 was originally a kit-plane, although sales of kits have ceased as the company, Seawind LLC of Kimberton PA, attempted to get a production version, the 300C, certified and into production. Unfortunately, the fatal crash of the flight test aircraft in August 2007, as well as funding issues, threatened to cancel the project. In late 2008, the company announced that additional funding had been secured, so we'll see if this unusual seaplane makes it into production. In the meantime, it was certainly a delight to see this one here in the desert.

Mojave 2008 in Review

2008-12-31T16:31:00.001-08:00

A look back at the past, rather eventful year at Mojave:

January

A pair of brand new Sikorsky S-76++s spent New Years 2008 stuck at Mojave due to weather, having taken the southern route on their way from Connecticut to British Columbia.

February

A Continental 747 N14024 bites the big one, while three of Learjet's latest aircraft gather at the Test Pilot School, waiting for the arrival of a camera ship for some publicity photo flights.

March

A Marine Corps AV-8 Harrier hovers over the numbers on Runway 8, while Al Hansen's recently-sold TV-star Antonov AN-2 made a few more patterns before leaving Mojave for a new home.

April

After years of storage, Scaled Composites innovative and somewhat asymmetric ARES reappeared as a testbed, with a very modified belly.

May

Death and birth: The last Continental 747 at Mojave is reduced to scrap, while Eclipse brought their newest Conceptjet to Mojave for flight testing.

June

It was birthday time for the Brothers Rutan, as a whole lot of "fast glass" descended on the sweltering Mojave ramp to celebrate. Meanwhile, a piece of the most exotic glass of all, the XCOR Rocket Racer began blasting its way through the sky in dramatic fashion.

July

In the most anticipated event of the year, Virgin Galactic rolled out their new WhiteKnightTwo prototype, named VMS (for VirginMotherShip) Eve.

Below left: Sir Richard's parents...his mum, Eve, was the inspiration for the plane's name and its nose art. Right: After posing for the press, Branson and Rutan try to squeeze themselves back into WK2.

August

The hottest month of the summer also hosted several active flight test programs, including the Seven-Q-Seven 707RE STC program to certify the Pratt JT8D-219 for the venerable 707s. Meanwhile, Project CHLOE flew an anti-anti-aircraft missile pod under WhiteKnightOne, in tests aimed at developing a system to protect airliners. In the end, the pods were shown to be impractical.

September

BAE Systems' QF-4 program continues to produce target drones as planners have begun discussing the next generation of targets, which could include F-16As.

October

BAE Systems performed the initial flight testing of the Airborne Tomography using Active Electromagnetics (ATAEM) pod, a DARPA-funded project that will use electromagnetic energy to penetrate the ground in order to detect and map hidden bunkers and tunnels, adapting technologies developed by the geophysical exploration industry.

November

Mojave's annual Veterans' Day celebration was a time of rememberance for all the efforts so many have given to make our country one where the innovation which takes place at Mojave is possible.

December

Some of the heaviest autumn snow to hit Mojave in years delayed for a couple of days the much-anticipated first flight of WhiteKnightTwo Eve, which finally took place on the first day of winter.

May this next year bring success and prosperity to all who call Mojave home!

The Arrivals Board: Miss Melissa

2008-12-27T10:31:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday it was "girls' morning" at Mojave. Right smack in the middle of Eve's maiden flight (she'd just done a low pass and was on downwind for her first landing), Miss Melissa arrived for storage. This old DC-9-34, N927L has a bit of history to her. Back when she flew for Ozark Airlines, she carried the Saint Louis Cardinals team logo and served as their team charter aircraft. After making the transition to TWA, she was the first DC-9 to carry the airline's new colors. After her time with Teenie Weenie Airlines, she was painted in the colors of Argentinean carrier Dinar Lineas Aereas, but that company went belly-up in 2002 before Miss Melissa could be delivered. Instead, she spent time in storage at Tucson and Detroit before arriving here in the desert.

WhiteKnightTwo first flight!

2008-12-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a big one for Virgin Galactic's space tourism program, as the VirginMotherShip Eve, otherwise known as a Scaled Composites Model 348 WhiteKnightTwo, completed its taxi tests on Saturday and took to the air for the first time on Sunday.

Saturday, December 20

After a week of winter blasts, the 20th dawned cold but calm, promising good flight testing weather. By 6:45 am Eve was out on the Scaled ramp and the sky was turning a brilliant orange above it. Somewhat unusually for a Saturday, the Mojave ramp was a buzz of activity. As the WK2 crews got their aircraft ready, crews from Scaled and Northrop Grumman readied Proteus for another flight in its Air Force MP-RTIP radar test program, the folks over at FTA prepped a former Constellation Airlines Boeing 757 for delivery to its new operator, and over at ASB Avionics, a Northcap/Tepper Lockheed L382 Hercules fired up to leave after some avionics mods.

Finally, it was time for the main event, as WK2 taxied. Word spread through the small crowd of airport folks that the plan for the day was for four high-speed taxi tests, with the KingAir 200 chase plane orbiting above, and if the engineers liked what they saw, then later a flight attempt would be made.

On the last two of the four taxi tests, the WK2 pilots went so far as to lift the nose gear off the runway, a tantalizing view of what the first take off would later look like. But in the end, instead of making the maiden flight, Eve taxied back to Scaled where she was ensconced in her cavernous hangar.

Sunday, December 21

The first day of winter dawned quite a bit warmer than the last day of autumn had. Once again, Eve was taxiing by about 7:30, to the delight of the crowd of Scaled employees who had gathered at the base of the control tower.

When Mojave Tower was heard to clear "Scat 21", WhiteKnightTwo's call sign, for takeoff with airborne pickup, it was clear that there were no more taxi tests, the maiden flight was at hand. As the airborne KingAir chase plane turned final for the pickup, Eve started rolling, the nose wheels came up, the mains lifted, and the crowd cheered.

During the 59 minute maiden flight, WhiteKnightTwo was taken up to 16,000 feet, which according to a statement that Virgin's President Will Whitehorn made to Flight International (link), was 4,000 feet above the intended ceiling for the day's flight. "That is how confident we are about the aircraft," FI quotes Whitehorn as saying.

At the end of the flight, Eve made one low pass down Runway 30 before circling for a flawless touchdown. It was another historic first for the folks at Scaled, another first for the Mojave Air & Space Port, and most significantly, a major step towards Virgin Galactic's goal of commercial space flight.

Only in Mojave: Snow day

2008-12-18T21:23:00.001-08:00

For all you readers to whom snow is "ho-hum", feel free to skip today's post. When you live in a desert long enough, precipitation becomes, well, a little special. And when the white stuff falling from the sky keeps falling, and accumulates more than has been seen in 16 years, it's kinda cool. This part of the world doesn't have many snowplows, so the ability of employees to get to work was somewhat hampered, leaving most of the flightline businesses shut down, and since all the area schools were also closed, it basically amounted to an early Christmas present for a lot of local families who had an extra day to spend together. And, as can be seen above, it left one medevac crew with a bit of extra time on their hands....

More WhiteKnightTwo taxi tests

2008-12-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

The folks at Scaled Composites took full advantage of yesterday's break between winter storms to bring out WhiteKnightTwo for two sets of taxi tests on Runway 12/30. The emphasis of these appeared to be braking and spoiler operations. Since WK2 will be used as a training platform for SpaceShipTwo, the ability to descend rapidly (essentially duplicating SS2's low lift/drag ratio) is important, so designer Burt Rutan included a spoiler/air brake system that could easily double as barn doors. For the majority of yesterday's tests, the runway runs would start out with the inboard air brakes deployed, and the outboard ones would then be actuated near the end of the run. Since the ability to stop grants the privilege to go, mastering these systems is a major step toward the upcoming first flight of the VirginMotherShip.

Fire and ice

2008-12-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

Our first big winter storm, which hung over the airport most of Monday, was cleared off by early this morning, leaving crystal clear skies and a gorgeous dusting of snow on the nearby Tehachapi mountains. With another storm on its way, everyone decided to take advantage of the beautiful flying weather, starting with the National Test Pilot School and one of their Saab SK-35 Drakens. Given that these particular Drakens are ex-Royal Danish Air Force, this was almost like a homecoming for them.

Next up, still in keeping with the "fire and ice" theme, was the U.S. Navy's somewhat mysterious DC-9 Firebird II (which, quite possibly, would have been better named Fireporcupine II). Maintained by BAE Flight Systems here at Mojave, this one is a great example of the doctrine of hiding in plain sight - if you want to keep an electronic warfare systems aircraft quite, go paint it a bold striking color and give it a civilian registration, and maybe no one will notice....

Lastly, the main event for the day, yet more taxi tests for VMS Eve. Here's a sample, with more to follow in a post tomorrow....

WhiteKnightTwo takes a stroll

2008-12-14T14:23:00.001-08:00

Late Friday afternoon, the Virgin Galactic Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo, named VMS Eve, was out and about doing low-speed taxi tests, as technicians tweaked the #2 and #3 engines (note the removed pylon access covers). According to media reports, the WhiteKnightTwo will be capable of carrying up to 34,700 pounds to an altitude of 50,000 feet, which would be the launch altitude for SpaceShipTwo. Although initially designed as the "mothership" for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, further uses of the aircraft include the possibility of launching unmanned satellites into earth orbit. VG president Will Whitehorn told FlightGlobal.com (here) that such a launcher is being dubbed "LauncherOne". A solid rocket booster with a parachute stabilization system (such as used by AirLaunch LLC) could be launched from WhiteKnightTwo as high as 70,000, according to Whitehorn, speaking to Flight International at the 4th Appleton space conference at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory this past September.

In comments made to Forbes.com in October, Virgin's Sir Richard Branson said that he expected first flight of WK2 to take place in November, comments from Virgin Galactic sources indicate that the first flight could happen as soon as this coming week.

Much has been made by some non-aviation media sources regarding the apparent delays in the flight test program, leading to an almost defensive tone in some of Virgin Galactic's responses. When the mothership was first rolled out in September, first flight estimates of September were given to the media. The delays have thus raised questions. This is an unfortunate consequence of a clash of cultures: in the flight test world, schedules are dictated by technical and safety considerations. In the commercial business development world, customers and managers like to see aggressive schedules which are kept or beat. This is a new aircraft with a new model engine, and when testing such a combination, even the smallest issue that is discovered during the incremental test sequence can lead to delays. Those who are used to working in - and reporting about - flight test understand that patience is the watchword. Too bad the rest of the media doesn't get this.

Godspeed, Endeavour!

2008-12-10T19:41:00.001-08:00

This morning, at 7:16 Pacific time, NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) 911, a highly modified Boeing 747-200, lifted off from Edwards' Runway 04 with the Space Shuttle Endeavour bolted securely to her back, on the first leg of the journey to Florida. This part of the trip would end up in El Paso, TX. NASA's Public Affairs Office once again came through, providing a fantastic opportunity for media photographers to record the moment. Before leaving, the pair posed for the classic Mojave "airplane and wind turbine" pose.

Prior to the SCA/Endeavour pair leaving, an Air Force C-17 from Travis AFB left, serving as the "pathfinder" aircraft, scouting out the route for weather issues that would be detrimental to the orbiter's health.

With the almost-winter sun breaching the hills to the east just as the pair taxied, it was one of those serendipitous moments of "me and my shadow".

An Edwards-based NASA F/A-18 served as chase, with a videographer riding shotgun...one of those "ultimate" jobs.

(Again, many thanks to PAO Alan Brown for all his tireless organizational work, and a special thanks to our NASA van driver, Beth! Ya'll set the standard for how all governmental agencies should work!)

Endeavour up close and personal

2008-12-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

The East Kern had an unexpected visitor on November 30th as the Space Shuttle Endeavour was forced to land at Edwards Air Force Base due to bad weather at its Kennedy Space Center primary landing site. The landing was the culmination of STS-126, a servicing mission to the International Space Station, being needed supplies. Because this is generally a rare event, and especially with so few missions left on the schedule, the Dryden Flight Research Center's Public Affairs Office went out of their way to accommodate the media's desire to document the shuttle turn-around process.

Endeavour’s arrival in the East Kern was the 52nd shuttle landing at Edwards. The decision to land a space shuttle at Edwards is typically made only when the weather at Kennedy Space Center in Florida precludes a landing there, and the weather is not expected to improve within the time frame that accommodates the spacecraft’s orbits. In the five years from 1995 to 2000, 31 shuttle missions were able to land at Kennedy without the back-up Edwards site being needed, so with only nine shuttle flights remaining until the fleet is scheduled to be retired, it is quite possible that this is the last operable shuttle that the East Kern will see.

Because Edwards' main runway is undergoing a major upgrade program, Endeavour became the first and only shuttle to use the base's temporary Runway 04. This runway is 3,000 feet shorter than the regular one, and so the braking forces were more intense, and the shuttle program engineers had the main wheels removed for analysis; in their place, for weight and balance purposes, the crews installed yellow-painted ground handling wheels.

After landing at Edwards, a complicated process is required to prepare the orbiter for a ferry flight back to Florida on the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a specially modified Boeing 747. All of the hazardous fluids and fuels onboard the shuttle are purged in the process, the aerodynamic tailcone is mounted over the engine nozzles and the spacecraft is hoisted up and mated to the back of the 747. Because of the tight time schedule, crews work around the clock.

While the media was being allowed access to the processing area, other VIP tours were underway as well, including astronaut (STS-3 and STS-51) Gordon Fullerton and his family. "Gordo" as the NASA regulars refer to him, is also one of the shuttle carrier 747 pilots.

When a shuttle has to land at Edwards, the diversion costs the program upwards of $1.8 million, about $1.4 million of which is expended bringing the United Space Alliance spacecraft servicing personnel out from Florida, paying for their overtime and local lodging and meals, so while such an event is a burden to the shuttle program, it is a boon for the local East Kern and Antelope Valley economies.

The ferry flight back to Florida itself costs about $350,000, and is accomplished typically over a period of two days. A “pathfinder” aircraft will always fly a couple of miles ahead of the SCA to scout the route for weather. The shuttle is not supposed to be flown through any precipitation, and even flight through clouds is avoided, because of the damage it can cause to the orbiter. The flight is flown at only 15,000 feet altitude, and at about 275 knots, much lower and slower than a 747 typically flies. Due to this flight profile, along with the limited fuel weight capacity of the SCA, at least one refueling/overnight stop is planned, and there are 21 Air Force bases that can be selected from. According to NASA’s Alan Brown, typically the fuel stop location is not selected until right before the departure from Edwards, both for security purposes and for weather planning.

One of the many tasks required to be accomplished is to do a detailed inspection of the heat shield tiles for damage.

To reduce drag while the shuttle is carried on the 747, the main rocket engine nozzles are covered with a large aerodynamic tailcone (NASA has two of these). The cone is trucked from Florida to Dryden disassembled in 14 pieces, and then reassembled.

(A very big thanks goes out to NASA PAO Alan Brown and his staff for their wonderful hospitality!)

More Phantom Phun

2008-12-06T16:40:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, BAE had QF-4 Phantom 73-167 up for a post-conversion FCF, and on one of the low passes, the pilot showed just how much of a "chore" it is to do his job, as he cranked the old girl almost inverted in a tight turn to downwind!

The Arrivals Board: A Racy German

2008-12-02T22:10:00.001-08:00

The skies over Europe are just a bit quieter now, with the arrival yesterday in Mojave of European Aircharter 737-229 G-CEAE. With the ever-rising fuel costs and the ever-tightening noise restrictions at European airports, the sun has pretty much set on 737 Classics. This old gal spent most of her life in Sabena colors before getting the checkered flag treatment.

Mojave's 2008 Vets' Day Salute

2008-11-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Today was Mojave's annual salute to the veterans of America's armed services, who have given so much so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do. For the first time, the ceremony was held in the new Legacy Park, with the Rotary Rocket Roton and the SpaceShipOne replica watching over the happenings. Keynote speaker was Lt. Col. David Smith, USAF, Deputy Director, Test Management Group, 412 Test Wing, and an Experimental Test Flight Radar Navigator attached to the 419 Flight Test Squadron, Edwards Air Force Base, and after his inspiring presentation, Taps was played by local trumpeter Jeremy Frye.

In the air overhead, "Skyraider Bob" Grondzik made several passes in his gorgeous AD-6 Skyraider...even in this age of turbo fans and rocket engines at Mojave, there's nothing quite like the growl of a really big radial engine!

The public was invited out onto the flight line to mingle with a number of aircraft on static display, including Al and Cathy Hansen's UH-1, S2F and F-86, the National Test Pilot School's unique TurboDak PT-6A-powered DC-3, XCOR's world-record-setting EzRocket and Cory Bird's incomparable one-of-a-kind Symmetry (just looking at this plane, one has to wonder if it's a machine or a work of art...or if the answer is "yes").

And while it wasn't part of the official display, not far down the ramp WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve sat doing engine runs. The day can only be summed up with "only at Mojave...."

Cracking the Dawn with Stargazer

2008-10-25T18:44:00.000-07:00

Orbital Sciences satellite launch aircraft Stargazer, one of the few Lockheed L-1011s still flying, returned to Mojave Thursday evening, and parked for then night in the helicopter transient parking area. When dawn broke Friday morning, under a quartering moon, I was reminded of why I like the desert so much....

On October 19, Stargazer launched the 26th successful Pegasus mission, which carried NASA's newest astronomical observatory into space. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, satellite will study the boundary region between the solar system and interstellar space, known as the heliopause. The launch took place high over the Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific's Marshall Islands, where many Pegasus rockets are sent into space. When not soaring over the tropics, however, Stargazer calls the Mojave Spaceport home.

FTA Completes Citation Re-engining Flight Tests

2008-10-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

On October 16, Mojave's Flight Test Associates (FTA) completed a Cessna Citation re-engining flight test program for Clifford Development Group. Clifford is acquiring FAA Supplemental Type Certificates to re-engine Cessna Citation II and SII business jets with Williams FJ44-3A engines, replacing the aircraft’s original Pratt & Whitney JT-15 turbofans. The flight test program contract was originally awarded to FTA in March, 2007.

According to Bruce Wilcox, Chief Operations Officer for Clifford, installation of the FJ44s results in a thrust increase of 300 pounds and up to a 27% fuel burn reduction. The re-engining package rebuilds and strengthens the engine pylon structure and replaces Cessna’s original engine control cables with a FADEC system. The new engines allow the aircraft to be certified to Stage 4 noise criteria.

Flight Test Associates was selected by Clifford to perform the flight test data collection and analysis required by the FAA for STC approval. The testing involved two aircraft, a Model 550 Citation II and a Model S550 Citation II/S, which together flew about 80 flight hours, according to FTA's John Ligon. FTA developed and installed the digital data acquisition systems, which interfaced with the engines' FADEC system, and fed flight performance data to a laptop computer on board.

Great Lakes Aviation of Kalamazoo, Michigan, will perform the conversions, and with the awarding of the FAA STC imminent, work has already begun on the first customer’s aircraft. Dan Buzz of Great Lakes stated that there is a potential market for over 800 conversions.

FTA's website

Clifford Development Group's website

Great Lakes Aviation website

A Spartan in the Desert

2008-10-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

The Army and Air Force's newest cargo aircraft, the GMAS C-27J Spartan, paid a visit to Mojave, where it will be based for the next few days during a short flight test program. The Spartan is an updated version of the Italian Alenia G.222, which won the competition for the services' new Joint Cargo Aircraft, or JCA.

The G.222 dates back to 1970, when it made its maiden flight. The type was designed to meet a NATO specification, although initially only Italy operated them. In 1990, the USAF bought ten G.222s, designating them the C-27A, for their "Rapid-Response Intra-Theater Airlifter" program, but they were withdrawn from service nine years later due to high maintenance costs. In 1997, Alenia teamed with Lockheed Martin to propose an updated version of the aircraft, powered with two of the Rolls Royce AE2100 engines used on the C-130J Hercules, for the Army/Air Force JCA program. The deal fell through, though, when LM pulled out and offered the C-130J as a competing contender (for comparison, besides having half the engines of the C-130J, the C-27J carries about 3/5 the cargo).

Alenia then teamed with L3 Communications and Boeing, with the alliance going under the name Global Military Aircraft Systems, Inc. The plane visiting Mojave is registered to GMAS and is flown by a joint L3 and Alenia crew (in an interesting comparison of cultures, the L3 guys were standard green flight suits, while the Alenia folks were a stylish red/black suit that you'd more expect to find being worn by a Formula One racing team!).

The Army took delivery of their first flight test aircraft on September 25. The aircraft visiting Mojave is a civilian-registered ship that serves as the programs testbed aircraft. As such, there are a number of differences between it and the actual JCA aircraft, which will begin delivery after the first five test birds are received. The Georgia Air Guard is slated to receive the first production aircraft in 2010, and will likely deploy fairly quickly to Iraq or Afghanistan. All in all, it's quite an impressive little aircraft - and even smells like a new car inside!

Victorville Visit and Herd Count

2008-10-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity last week to fly over to Victorville, and spend some time there in the pattern. Victorville, the former George Air Force Base, is also in the Mojave Desert (a desert that's a lot bigger than some people realize), and so when unknowing news media refer to airliners parked in the Mojave Desert, they can be refering to Mojave or Victorville.

Because of some agressive marketing on the part of VCV's management, who have styled the place as the "Southern California Logistics Airport" (and has embraced airliner storage, whereas Mojave has somewhat discouraged it), VCV has superceded Mojave in numbers of planes stored, so it's always interesting to see what's currently "in captivity". Two companies perform airliner services, Victorville Aerospace and Southern California Aviation.

Like Mojave, Victorville is also a place where old airliners are cut up, and there they're done by Aircraft Recycling Corp on an innovative concrete pad (right) built by the airport so that the process doesn't contaminate the underlying soils.

Victorville is also the home of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, the company responsible for developing Tanker 910, the first DC-10 fire fighting airtanker. It has been so successful that the State of California granted 10 Tanker an exclusive use contract for the plane. One air drop of retardant from the DC-10 is equivalent to twelve drops from an S2T tracker. 10 Tanker has been working on a second aircraft, Tanker 911, which was also present at Victorville the day I was there. On one pattern, we had to extend downwind because Tanker 910 was departing to make a run on the fire burning over in the Porter Ranch/Simi Valley area.

A Salute as XCOR Completes Flight Testing, Sets Records

2008-10-10T18:49:00.001-07:00

The flight test program at XCOR Aerospace for their version of the Rocket Racer has drawn to a close with a flurry of flights that set several informal records at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

On October 1, the XCOR team flew the Rocket Racer seven times, setting the unofficial record for most flights of a rocket-powered aircraft in a single day. According to XCOR's research, the previous record was three flights in a day by a German ME-163 Komet rocket-powered fighter aircraft during World War II. (In an interesting rocket-world twist, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who was the money behind Rutan's SpaceShipOne, purchased one of the surviving ME-163s back in May, 2005...I guess the guy really likes rockets!)

The seven Rocket Racer flights put Mojave on the map as the site of more manned rocket-powered flights this century than any other locale in the world; in fact, with 51.3%, it's more than all the other places combined. (And for the record, Kennedy Space Center is second with 19.5% and Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is third with 13.5%.) In her enthusiasm, one XCOR teammember summed it up nicely: "Seven rocket flights in one day: unofficial record. Mojave Spaceport rocks!"

The XCOR team has the turn-around process down to an art, and can refuel the Racer with kerosene, LOX and helium in under 8 1/2 minutes.

On the very last flight, pilot Rick Searfoss pushed the Racer higher and longer than on any previous flight, reaching 10,000 feet and lasting 20 minutes, with two mid-flight relights. At that distance, the plane itself disappeared from view, with only the tiny bright star-like rocket plume to marks its place in the sky.

For the XCOR team, completion of the Rocket Racer program means that they can now focus their attention on what XCOR CEO Jeff Greason calls their "third generation rocket-propelled vehicle", the Lynx, a two-seat sub-orbital rocket plane, with which they hope to break into the commercial space tourism market. And to talk to the team, they seem quite excited about moving on to this. Searfoss summed up the customer's experience in the Lynx nicely when he said, "...the best part of it all is that you’ll ride right up front, like a co-pilot, instead of in back, like cargo."

The future of the Rocket Racer is in the hands of the Rocket Racing League, which has carefully stage-managed all media access to their program. Original indications were that both the XCOR and the Armadillo engines would be available to the race teams. Oddly, when RRL announced that the Armadillo test aircraft had finally gotten airborne, the media release read (which you can read in full here) "The Rocket Racing League today announced the successful results of the first seven test flights of the Bridenstine DKNY Rocket Racer® conducted at the Oklahoma Spaceport (OKSP), a leading facility specializing in horizontal takeoff and landing of Reusable Launch Vehicles, in Burns Flat, Oklahoma."

The release made no mention whatsoever of the XCOR program, which has been flying for a lot longer than Armadillo's, and it sound like the Bridenstine DKNY Rocket Racer itself had been taken to Oklahoma and re-engined. The release went on to quote Bill Khourie, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority (OSIDA) saying, “We are thrilled to have been selected as the facility of choice by the Rocket Racing League for its initial flight test program.” Initial? No, that's been under way right here in Mojave for months, folks. Quite clearly, Oklahoma is trying to posture itself as giving Mojave some competition, although with the records just set, Mojave doesn't have to look over its shoulder just yet....

(Note: the photo of the Racer climbing inverted was from a July test flight, and the two photos of the XCOR engine were taken during XCOR's open house during the Rutan Birthday Bash.)

XCOR Press Release

Crane Visit

2008-10-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

While the 2008 fire season has been pretty mild in this part of the state, we nonetheless got an up-close-and-personal visit with one of the frontline wildland firefighting tools, an Erickson Air Crane S-64E. Heading home from Washington State to Hemet, the crew of Tanker 744, nicknamed ''Jerry'', stopped by Mojave for some gas today.

Considered a "Type 1" helitanker, the Aircrane can carry up to 2,650 gallons of water. The helicopter's flexible snorkel uses a high pressure impeller, and can draw water from a source as shallow as 18 inches, and can fill the tank in 45 seconds

The Aircrane / Sky Crane has a long history. Sikorsky started work on the type in 1958, and the first prototype, which Sikorsky called the S-64, flew May 9, 1962 (three days after I was born, for the record). In all, six pre-production aircraft were built, which the Army designated as YCH-54. Meeting with approval, the CH-54 Tarhe went into production, with the Army buying 105 of them. (The helicopter's namesake, Tarhe, was a Chief of the Wyandot Tribe in the Ohio area, and lived from 1742 to 1818. His nickname was "The Crane".) In addition to the military aircraft, Sikorsky also built a small number of civilian certified S-64s Skycranes, but did not seem terribly interested in aggressively marketing the model.

The CH-54 was phased out of Army service, being supplanted by the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, but found a unique niche in the civilian world, where it was quickly recognized as a useful tool as a helitanker for aerial firefighting. In 1992, Erickson Air Crane purchased the FAA Type Certificate from Sikorsky, thus becoming the Crane's manufacturer, as well as the largest operator of the type. Erickson has "remanufactured" old military-surplus airframes, as well as built brand new ones.

Jerry started life during the Vietnam era as a CH-54A, serial 68-18450, but was then rebuilt by Erickson as a civilian certificated S-64E, serial 64052.

Only in Mojave: Ford vs Chevy, NASA vs XCOR

2008-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Only in Mojave . . . do Ford and Chevy trucks go head-to-head in their towing duties, as big dollar NASA/Boeing/DARPA meets innovative XCOR Aerospace.

The Boeing X-37 is being prepped for a flight under White Knight as XCOR's EZRocket is towed to the runway for it's record-setting cross country flight to California City in December, 2005.

Flying to Space from Mojave

2008-09-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

Editor's note: This article first appeared in the August 28 edition of the Mojave Desert News, and is reprinted here with kind permission from Bill Deaver. I've added some left-over photos of WK2 that I took back in July at the rollout ceremony (with the exception being the photo of Brian Binnie, below, in the simulator, which is a Virgin Galactic media release image).

by Bill Deaver

I flew to space from Mojave last Thursday. It was my second time sitting in the pilot's seat of a Scaled Composites spaceship and aiming it at the stars.

The first time was back in 2003 in a realistic simulator built by Peter Siebold and crew for SpaceShipOne and White Knight. Like the first time, it was an exciting and realistic experience. But it was nothing compared to my ride last week in the simulator Siebold and Terry Agold have created for SpaceShipTwo!

The view from the SpaceShipOne simulator was displayed on several computer monitors Siebold bought from Jim Balentine's Radio Shack in Mojave. It was realistic, but no match for the newest version.

The view outside in the new simulator is projected onto a surface similar to the inside of a very big ball. Imagery from satellites is projected from projectors mounted on the ceiling. As the simulation began, I was in the left seat of SpaceShipTwo with the two fuselages of WhiteKnight2 visible on eather side of me. As soon as we were dropped from WhiteKnight2, the fuselages slid away realistically as we headed to space.

Powered by three electric motors connected, like the imagery, to a cabinet full of computers, the control stick and pedals have the pressures a pilot will feel flying the real thing. Sound is realistic, rumbling when the rocket engine is fired and shutting-off with the silence of space as the spaceship's momentum carries it to apogee as the sky changes from the deep blue of the desert to the dark skies of space.

In atmosphere-free space, the spaceship is controlled by several rocket motors, whose firing was heard when I pushed the stick. As we headed back to Mojave Airport/Spaceport, Agold pulled a handle on the control panel to raise the shuttlecock-like tail booms into the "feather" position to slow our rentry. Lights on the panel confirmed it was up and locked, and later, when it was back in its normal position after reentry.

As we dropped into the atmosphere the control wheel and rudder pedals began to regain feeling, and Siebold and Agold helped guide me to the airport by lining up lines on a box-type display similar to that of SpaceShipOne. That display, Agold noted, will be refined as the real SpaceShipTwo is developed.

My landing could have been better, as I was reminded by a "stick shaker" that vibrated on rollout.

"That's activatyed when you make a rough landing," Siebold said. Not being a pilot, I didn't feel too bad after the same thing happened to a veteran pilot who was flying the simulator when I arrived.

I'm not a video game enthusiast, but this is pretty close to the ultimate video game. as I drove home in my mundane Ford Fusion, I began to wonder how long it would take to master this latest version of Scaled simulators - and then there's the real thing....

"We took a lot of experience from SpaceShipOne into this," Siebold said. the much-improved graphics help make the landing experience much more realistic. "It's a better training tool," he said.

The body of the simulator is a mock-up of the spaceship's cockpit Scaled's talented technicians developed as the design evolved. "It has minor differences from the final version but not enough to bother," Siebold said.

Following Scaled's first spaceship experience, the cockpits of the spaceship and White Knight are similar. A section of the instrument panel can be installed in the simulator to simulate WhiteKnight2, and is connected with only one USB connection.

Agold said the simulator was developed ahead of the spaceship. "Because of that we have been able to help drive the design" of the cockpit, especially in human factors issues, including the controls and instruments. "This has dovetailed nicely with designing the spaceship," Agold said. "Having the simulator really helped."

The simulator is controlled from a control room upstairs from the former paint booth the land-based cockpit occupies. A console behind the simulator is used by an instructor who listens to the cockpit conversations and can creat "challenges" to the mission, such as technical glitches and other events that pilots may encounter on their passenger-carrying flights into space from Mojave.

One minor problem the team encountered is that the scenery projectors are mounted on the ceiling. "When the Mojave winds are really blowing, the scenery jiggles," Siebold said with a smile.

My landing of SpaceShipTwo was perfect until about half-way down the runway when I began to veer to the right off the runway. Not being a pilot I forgot to use the rudder pedals to control my rollout. My patient mentors stopped me before I could run into one of the Boeing 747s parked realistically in the airport boneyard, another of the many realistic touches (including the Mojave Public Utility District sewer ponds) that replicate the electronically-generated scenery that makes the simulation so much like the real thing. I could almost smell the fumes from the ponds!

When SpaceShipTwo begins to carry real passengers into the dark skies of space, their flights will be possible because of the genius and ingenuity of two guys named Agold and Siebold....

Phantom Phun

2008-09-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

In a world of computerized multi-billion dollar fighters, it's good to know there's a bit of old-style muscle still flying around. When BAE Systems sends up the latest QF-4s for an FCF, in a full-burner takeoff, you can feel what a fighter is supposed to sound like....

Gotta just love those Mojave winds....

2008-09-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Results of some gusty zephyrs over the weekend....

WhiteKnightOne Tests Project CHLOE Pod at Mojave

2008-09-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

Northrop Grumman has begun flight testing an anti-MANPADS infrared countermeasures pod onboard its Scaled Composites WhiteKnightOne aircraft at Mojave, California. NG has been contracted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to perform the tests as a part of Project CHLOE.

NG has modified one of the countermeasures pods that had been flight tested by FedEx as a part of the commercial "Guardian" program for use at high altitudes. According to Jack Pledger, Director of Infrared Countermeasures Program at NG's Business Development unit, the flight tests are part of a concept demonstration to use a high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles to loiter above commercial airports and protect aircraft from man-launched heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles. WhiteKnight is acting as a "surrogate UAV" for the tests, said Pledger.

The current tests are being flown to verify the pod's altitude capabilities in advance of demonstrations to take place next month against threats, in which NG hopes to show that the pod can detect a missile launch and "put energy on the target from high altitude", stated Pledger.

The primary concept being explored under Project CHLOE is to use a UAV circling for up to 24 hours at 65,000 feet above a major airport which is equipped for the dual role of detecting and defeating a heat-seeking missile launched against an airliner. Other systems, such as the Northrop Grumman Guardian, CAMPS and Flight Guard have been developed which would be mounted on individual commercial aircraft, but such systems can cost upwards of US$1 million per plane, and airlines would prefer a more workable and affordable solution over using equipment that they have to both pay for and then maintain. The program is the result of a congressional directive to the DHS to explore technology options parallel with the development of aircraft-mounted systems.

The proposed UAVs would have a long loiter time, up to 24 hours per flight, so that there would be a "perpetual orbit", of an aircraft above an airport. The system would have all-weather capabilities to scan a threat envelope of a three mile radius around the airport, and air traffic up to an altitude of 18,000 feet, plus standard approach and departure corridors up to 65 miles from airports. The system would be required to respond to a threat within three to ten seconds. It would also have to be unaffected by ground clutter which could mimic the signature of a missile launch. Admiral Jay M. Cohen, DHS' technology chief was quoted by Fox News as saying, "One of these devices flying above 60,000 feet would cover all of the commercial airports in the L.A. County area."

According to DHS literature, there are three objectives to Project CHLOE development. The first is to "investigate and demonstrate the feasibility of persistent stand-off Counter-MANPADS protection". This includes using one or more UAVs stationed over airports which are equipped with both warning systems and countermeasures systems, or using UAVs networked with ground-based countermeasures. The UAVs would be autonomous in their flight and detection operations.

The second objective is to "investigate and demonstrate DHS missions and payloads that are compatible with CHLOE technology platform and operating environment." These secondary roles for the UAVs would include emergency and disaster relief support, support of the Customs and Border Patrol and Coast Guard for border and maritime surveillance and interdiction, and critical infrastructure monitoring.

The third objective is integrate such technologies into the air traffic control system and other law enforcement agencies for overall situational awareness.

Civilian pilot groups have expressed concern about impact of drone operations in civilian airspace, especially during takeoff and landing. During the actual loitering, the drones will not be a factor to civilian air traffic, since they will be above the national airspace. DHS is also addressing concerns about the danger to people on the ground from lasers being directed downward, as well as concerns over a falling defeated missile.

The project's name refers to the character "Chloe O'Brian" from the television show 24, which is Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's favorite show.

Only in Mojave: Handicap Parking for a C-130

2008-09-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Only in Mojave . . . can a C-130 get a handicap parking sticker!

Actually, what happened was this: Because of a series of fatal crashes involving older C-130A being used as fire fighting airtankers, the U.S. Forest Service grounded the entire civilian C-130 tanker fleet, a highly politicized decision, including TBM's Tanker 64. The plane has now found a job as a flight test aircraft for Mojave's ASB Avionics, and while this might be nothing more than a prank, I suspect that this is actually a savvy commentary on the crippling of the U.S. aerial firefighting fleet, most of which (including this plane), are perfectly good, safe aircraft.

Pratt JT8D-219 Flight Test Program Gets Underway

2008-08-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

The Pratt & Whitney 707RE FAA supplemental type certification flight test program for latest version of the popluar JT8D turbofan engine has finally gotten underway at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The JT8D-219 engine, a variant of the powerplant used on the MD-80 airliner, has been developed by Pratt in conjunction with Omega Air and Seven-Q-Seven as a re-engining candidate for Boeing 707s and the type's military derivatives. Seven-Q-Seven is a partnership between Dublin-based Omega Aviation and Ed Swearingen and Douglas Jaffe of San Antonio.

Civilian certification of the engine to the 707-series airframe is being accomplished by Mojave's Flight Test Associates (FTA) prior to military certification, which will be conducted by Northrop, according to a Northrop Grumman spokesman. The engine is initially being certificated at a derated thrust of 19,000 pounds, with follow-on certification at 21,000 pounds thrust expected. The FAA has required that the re-engined 707 - dubbed the 707RE - accrue 350 flight hours during this test program.

The testbed aircraft arrived in Mojave in November 2007, to first undergo an extensive inspection, known as a C-check, at FTA prior to initiation of the test program. The current program will eventually result in the issuance of an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate for civilian 707s. While the program was originally conceived by Omega as a cost effective method for updating the remaining civilian-operated 707s (with an original estimate of $16 million for the complete upgrade), it quickly found another application: providing modern, quiet and fuel efficient engines for the USAF E-8C JointSTARS aircraft. Other military 707 variants, such as the KC-135 fleet, have been re-engined with CFM-56 engines, but the 707RE conversion program is being marketed to the military in partnership with Northrop Grumman as a significantly cheaper alternative to the CFM-56-2, by some estimates as much as 50% less.

The initial phase of the flight test program began on August 9, 2001, operating from Seven-Q-Seven's San Antonio Texas operation. After the initial flight tests with a single -219 engine installed on the 707-300 testbed aircraft were completed, three more were installed and the predicted fuel savings were confirmed. In an unusual move, in 2001 Pratt sponsored a series of flights that were part of the flight test program but also took the 707RE on a world tour of airports and air bases to show off the program's advantages. While the -219 idea caught the eye of Northrop Grumman, who held the contract to upgrade the E-8 JointSTARS, a dirth of funding for the engine upgrades put the certification flight test program on hold.

The -219 will result in a 40dB reduction in noise over the existing TF33/JT3D engines, allowing the aircraft to meet current strict European noise standards. Additionally, flight tests have confirmed that the new engines will reduce fuel consumption by up to 22%. Besides direct savings in fuel costs, this feature translates into longer loiter times and improved operational utility for the aircraft. In 2001, Mike Lombard, then a Program Manager at Pratt, said, "We have now flown the JT8D-powered 707 on both the AWACS and JointSTARS mission profiles. We compared it not only to legacy engine data, but also our own performance models created for a JT8D-219 powered 707. The actual engines in flight have met or exceeded the projections of our models [and] provides a significant increase in power and range for the 707 while cutting fuel burn, noise, emissions, operating and maintenance costs. It fits neatly into any space where an existing TF33 resides, so there is virtually no aircraft modification required with re-engining. "

The engine modernization is being offered as an integrated "propulsion pod system" or PPS, in which the engines will be provided on a operational lease basis by Pratt, inlet and thrust reversers are being provided by Goodrich, and cowling is manufactured by Nordam.

For the JointSTARS, Northrop Grumman and the Air Force selected the -219 over competing engines as a "best-value source selection" after an open competition in 2002. It was hoped that the program could be initiated in 2003, but funding for the testing and upgrade program was not forthcoming. Finally, in the FY2006 budget, $12.5 million was allocated, starting the program rolling, and in June, 2008, it was announced that the USAF had awarded the team a $210 million contract to proceed with the E-8C project, with re-engining to begin in 2010.

In 2001, Europe's EADS partnered with Northrop Grumman, Pratt and Seven Q Seven to propose re-engining NATO's 17 E-3 AWACS and three Trainer Cargo Aircraft with the -219s. However, a Pratt spokesperson said that they currently have no plans to certify the engine for the AWACS aircraft.

The Coasties Stop In for Lunch

2008-08-23T18:12:00.000-07:00

In the leisure and sport aviation world, a "$100 hamburger" refers to the practice of flying to a different airport than your home for lunch. . .in other words, a justification to hop into your single engine toy and go fly. So when this U.S. Coast Guard HC-130H from Sacramento stopped in at lunchtime on Thursday and parked at Mojave's Voyager Restaurant (a long way from any coast), it got me wondering: with four engines, was this a $400 hamburger?

How to Tow a WhiteKnightTwo

2008-08-17T16:50:00.000-07:00

When unveiling WhiteKnightTwo, both Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson hailed its "open architecture" - the big empty space in the middle - which makes it multiple-mission role possible. But it also makes the plane, well, ungainly. The chore of ground handling such an unusually shaped plane is a challenge. WK2's designers elected to use a rather large aluminum A-frame towbar hooked to the main landing gear, with steering provided by two nose walkers (would their job titles be "guidance counselors"?). Virgin Galactic has released several media images, taken the evening before the big rollout, which show just how this is done. Also included by VG is a great photo (left) of Burt and Sir Richard taking a walk around the finished product.

Source: VG Press Page

(Fine print note: These are media release images, and VG presumably retains copyright, so the Creative Commons provisions don't apply to these.)

PDE Long-EZ on Display at USAF Musem

2008-08-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has passed along a couple of photos of the PDE Long-EZ, named Borealis, which is now on display at the Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB. Nice to see yet another product of Mojave honored at a major museum!

Rocket Racer Returns to Mojave

2008-08-12T17:26:00.001-07:00

The Bridenstine DKNY Rocket Racer, as it is known for now, has returned to Mojave from a very successful public debut at AirVenture 2008 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. While the rocket plane moves quite quickly through the air, going across country is a much slower affair, on the back of a flatbed trailer.

For the Oshkosh debut, the Rocket Racer displayed the logos of Bridenstine Racing, including their primary team sponsor DKNY Men. Bridenstine was the first of six teams to have signed on with the Rocket Racing League, according to League CEO Granger Whitelaw, and this was the first Racer, so it was natural that the logos and the plane were matched up for the debut. Both Whitelaw and team owner Jim Bridenstine, however, indicated that this does not indicate that this will be the teams actual aircraft. However, Bridenstine praised the XCOR Aerospace team, saying that they did "a tremendous job" in preparing the aircraft and engine for the demonstration flights. Three flawless flights were flown before hundreds of thousands gathered at the Oshkosh show, with pilot Rick Searfoss putting the plane through its aerobatic paces.

The XCOR team will now continue flight testing the engine, seeking to improve its performance for the next exhibition venue, the Reno National Air Races during the second week of September. Meanwhile the competing engine builder, Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas, has been cleared by the FAA to begin flight testing their engine and airframe combination, according to an FAA official. It is hoped that this plane will be ready for Reno as well; if so, RRL has said that they would like to hold exhibition races between the two aircraft, with the Armadillo aircraft wearing the logos of the Santa Fe Racing team. A sponsor for that team has not been announced yet.

The RRL teams will be able to choose from two airframe/engine combinations, each of which has certain advantages and disadvantages, according to Bridenstine. The XCOR kerosene/LOX engine is matched with a Velocity SE, which is a smaller, lighter aircraft, but also which has fixed landing gear. Because the engine incorporates XCOR's proprietary pump system, the kerosene fuel does not have to be pressurized, eliminating the need for an extra tank. The XCOR engine is also either on or it is off, there is no throttling or modulating the thrust, so in a race format, the engine would be fired for a short time and then the plane would glide

The Armadillo engine, which burns ethanol and LOX, is matched with the Velocity XL, which is a somewhat larger and heavier aircraft, but which also has retractable landing gear. The Armadillo system requires that the fuel be pressurized, resulting in the need for a belly tank to be mounted under the fuselage, according to one account (photos of the test aircraft don't show this, however). The Armadillo engine has a range of thrust settings, so the approach during the race will be different.

Once both the XCOR and Armadillo systems have completed the flight test phase, the teams will be able to choose which one they want, and will then "buy" the aircraft and engines from the League, which has taken the unusual step of buying Velocity Aircraft Company, the builder of the airframes, in order to ensure the supply

RRL is modeling their formats on NASCAR and other auto racing leagues, where the differences in engine and car brands is almost as important to the fans as the drivers' abilities. However, according to Bridenstine, "it's the pilots who win and lose races." He said that because the planes have different thrust, different weights, different drag, the pilots' strategies will also be different, with the key being how the pilot "manages energy states". The result, he said, will be a dramatic race with a lot of passing. "You won't really know who's going to win until the very end."

The viewing audience will watch the race from aircraft-mounted cameras, and an RRL-patented technology will project computer animated "gates" on the screen through which the planes must fly. Whitelaw said that the technology, which he likened to the artificial yellow first-down line seen in NFL broadcasts, is seen by the league as a "branding differentiator". Because of it, the viewer will have an entertainment medium which combines the look of a video game with a live experience, or as Whitelaw described it, "a living, breathing video game." Bridenstine echoed the sentiment: "People will be surprised at how fun it is to watch."

All images except the plane on the flatbed are courtesy of Bridenstine Racing. From top to bottom: 1) The Rocket Racer arrives back at Mojave. 2) Dazzling the fans at Oshkosh. 3) Bridenstine DKNY logos. 4) RRL CEO Granger Whitelaw and Jim Bridenstine at Oshkosh. 5) Jim Bridenstine meets the fans.

Final F-117A Leaves Palmdale

2008-08-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

Just after 10:00 am today, the last F-117A, aircraft #831, took off from Palmdale's Runway 25 three days ahead of schedule. After a couple of low passes over Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, 831 left the Antelope Valley for the last time, enroute to Tonopah, Nevada, and its place in history as the last Nighthawk to fly. May she rest in peace.

Last F-117s Cruise Mojave Desert Skies

2008-08-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

What was possibly the last ever formation flight of Lockheed Martin F-117 Nighthawks took place this afternoon from Palmdale's Air Force Plant 42. After the Air Force formally retired the F-117 in ceremonies at Palmdale and Holloman AFB on April 22, 2008, four of the stealth fighters were kept flying as testbeds by the Air Force's 410th Flight Test Squadron, and by August, only two of the planes remained. According to a Lockheed Martin spokesperson, one is to be flown to storage at Tonopah tomorrow, and the final aircraft will leave on the type's last flight on Thursday, August 14.

With the closing of this chapter in aviation and flight test history, the 410th FLTS has also been inactivated, with closing ceremonies held at Plant 42 on August 1st. While LM built and maintained the flight test aircraft assigned to Palmdale, the 410th performed the actual flight test activities, over a period of 27 years and more than 8,000 of flight hours. Lt. Col. Dwayne Opella, commander of the 410th, said at the ceremony, "I wish we would have stayed open longer, but it is time to go." There are no farewell celebrations planned for the last flight.

For more information on the 410th, see the USAF news story "410th FLTS 'Baja Scorpions' closes historic chapter".

The Planes of Mojave: Catbird

2008-08-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

While most of the gathered media at the White Knight Two rollout ceremony were focused on Eve and the space ship hidden under the black drape, quietly hanging high overhead and mostly unnoticed by the crowd was a small plane that, in its time, set new standards for efficiency and set two world records which stand to this day.

The Scaled Composites Model 81 Catbird is a high-efficiency five-seat single-engine all-composite general aviation aircraft designed by Burt Rutan while Scaled was owned by Beechcraft. The idea was to develop a new 5-seat aircraft which could replace the venerable Bonanza. Its design is unusual in that it incorporates both a canard and a traditional tail-mounted horizontal stabilizer. When Beechcraft sold the company back to Rutan in partnership with the Wyman-Gordon Company, Rutan also acquired a number of the designs, including the Model 81.

The aircraft, flown by Mike Melvill, won the 1988 California CAFE 400 race in which aircraft compete for performance efficiency, as measured by fuel consumption, speed and payload. Piloted by Dick Rutan, it subsequently won the 1993 CAFE Challenge with a record score and a speed of 210.73 mph, fuel consumption of 20.15 mpg and a payload of 976.63 pounds.

Catbird also set two world records, still stand. The first was in Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) class C-1b (land planes with takeoff weight of between 500 and 1000 kg) over a 2,000 km closed course. For this record, set at Mojave and piloted by Dick Rutan, a speed of 401.46 km/hr was achieved (the FAI recorded the record in km/hr...for us old-school, non-metric types, that's 249.45 mph or 216.61 kts). The second record was set in FAI class C-1c, for aircraft between 1000 and 1750 kg takeoff weight, over the same course but piloted by Melvill, at a speed of 413.78 km/hr (257.11 mph, 223.26 kts). The plane also served as Burt's personal plane until he dreamed up an even better one, the Boomerang. (And yes, I inverted the image on the left so that you could actually read it....)

Only in Mojave: Parallel Parking a MiG

2008-08-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

Mojave is known for its strange-and-unusual, so once a month we'll be featuring a less serious photo which you'd expect to find no where else but here.

Only in Mojave . . . can you be driving down one of the main streets in town (in this case, K Street), and find an ex-East German MiG-21 parallel parked in a residential neighborhood!

Actually, here's what happened: every year, the town holds its "Gold Rush Days" celebration, complete with parade (this was a big gold and silver mining center in the early 1900s). In 2005, the honorary Grand Marshal for the parade was Mojave Airport legend Dan Sabovich, who rode on the tug pulling the MiG, which at the time belonged to Mojave warbird collector Al Hansen.