August Plane Crazy Saturday Honors Racers

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).

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Plane Crazy Saturday Celebrates Space

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.

Mojave 2008 in Review

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!