Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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The United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) Class #154 from Patuxent River, MD; The U.S. Air Force TPS Class #18 from Edwards AFB and the National Test Pilot School Classes 18A and 18B recently came to the Hansen Hangar at Mojave Air & Spaceport for a barbeque. Vietnam combat pilots, Dick Rutan and Ralph Wise, shared aviation stories with the pilots. The U.S. Navy students come to Edwards Air Force Base for a field trip to exchange flights, or what is called "qualification flights," in...
Do you know the feeling of meeting a person and instantly there seems to be a connection? That often happens to me when meeting folks from the aviation community. In 2005, at the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, we displayed our UH-1H helicopter and also attended the black tie banquet held that evening. Five test pilots are honored each year and the 2005 honorees included: Major General Wilbert D. Pearson, USAF; NASA Research Test Pilot Edward T. Schneider; F-5F Chief Project Test Pilot,...
I think the heat is getting to me as I find myself longing for a little cool! I am daydreaming and looking at all of our photos that we took when we visited Alaska. Ooooo, the image of a Beaver on floats just makes my heart beat a little faster! This photo shows a de Havilland Beaver taxiing out on Lake Hood in Anchorage, Alaska for takeoff near the Heritage Museum for a "flight-seeing" trip to Portage Glacier, Mt. McKinley or the Chugach Mountains. Beavers are also used to take fishermen into...
Steve Ericson gave a great presentation at Plane Crazy Saturday last month. He spoke about new aircraft he had designed and old aircraft he had restored. One of the historic aircraft he used to own was a World War II Fieseler Fi 156 "Storch." (Translated: Stork). I remember a beautiful clear November day back in 2003 when I had a wonderful opportunity to fly with Steve in his very rare German aircraft at Mojave Airport. At the time, there were only two flyable in the U.S. The Storch was one of...
Have you every wished you could go back in time? I have heard several people say they wished they could go back to the days when the air races were held at Mojave. Great sounds from magnificent warbirds, super nice pilots, no fences, no worries about terrorists, just easy going, exciting days that filled all of your senses with joy! I met some really great people at our last Plane Crazy Saturday who like reading this column and commented about the last article I did about the Mojave Air Races. I...
As I get older, I find myself remembering wonderful and crazy things I did in my younger days. Like the time I towed an F4U Corsair fuselage behind a pickup truck from Lancaster Fox Field to Mojave for Gene Akers. He had purchased one of the Corsairs from the Bob Bean Estate and had it stored at Barnes Aviation, sometime in the mid-1970s, I think. He had made arrangements with Richard Willie to keep it at a storage yard he had in Mojave. Keep in mind, this was way before cell phones. My...
Our good buddy at Bakersfield Council Navy League, Cal Emerson, passed away Wednesday morning, June 13, 2018. He was 91. His daughter Sandy believes it was a heart attack. Please keep her in your prayers. A military funeral is being planned at the Bakersfield National Cemetery in Arvin on June 28 at 10 a.m. Cal helped us out with the cooking chores at a Navy League Luncheon at the Hansen Hangar in September 2004 and was one of the outstanding volunteers for the O'Callahan Division Sea Cadets....
Isn't it funny how we can witness history in the making and not realize at the moment how significant it is? Mel Langford, Construction Manager at Mojave Air & SpacePort, and I were discussing this just a few days ago. As we talked about the Mojave Air Races and first flights at Mojave we have witnessed, both of us were surprised by the fact that we have had the unique opportunity to behold decades of history here at Mojave Airport. One of the test pilots from Edwards who kept his airplanes...
Living and working around Mojave Air & Spaceport is always exciting! We feel so fortunate to be surrounded by a community of aerospace design engineers and home-builders at our home field. There are two young engineers who work at Virgin Galactic's TSC (TheSpaceShipCompany) who were selected to participate in an extremely challenging air rally called The Vintage Air Rally Ushuaia2USA. Ushuaia is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province, Argentina. T...
Doug Clipperton, Mojave Chamber of Commerce President, has shared some exciting war stories about his father, Eldred N. Clipperton, U. S. Army Air Corps B-17 pilot. Recently, Doug's brother came across a hand-written list of 31 missions flown by their father, from February to March 1945. The missions were on an almost daily basis over targets in Germany. Lt. Clipperton served in the 100th Bomb Group, of the mighty Eighth Air Force, based at Thorpe Abbotts Air Base in England. Remarkably, Doug's...
Morale in America was low after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and something needed to be done to raise the spirits of the people who found themselves plunged into World War II. A U.S. Naval Submarine Officer was thinking way outside of the box when he proposed having land-based aircraft fly off of a Navy aircraft carrier and strike back at Japan. At the time, Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest J. King, had an unusual, but strategic vision that the Japanese were so focused and rig...
Retired U.S. Air Force veteran, Dan Yost gave a presentation about flying the DeHavilland Canada, DHC-4 or C-7 Caribou in Vietnam at Plane Crazy Saturday, held at Mojave Air & Spaceport on March 17. Yost graduated from the U.S. Air Force Flight School in November 1956 and was assigned to B-47s at Schilling AFB in Salina, KS from April 1957 to June 1965. He flew B-47s for eight years; two years as Co-Pilot and six years as an Aircraft Commander. (He gave a Plane Crazy Saturday presentation about...
For the past 21 years, in March and September, we have invited the graduating class of the Navy Test Pilot School from Patuxent River, MD, over to the hangar for a barbecue when they are in the area flying gliders in Tehachapi and exchanging rides with the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB. They visited our hangar just a few days ago! The Air Force TPS joined in the fun, too. Roy Martin kept these young pilots captivated recalling his experiences flying F-4 Phantoms over Southeast Asia...
Whenever my husband Al and I visit Anchorage, we head to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum next to Lake Hood and become lost in the vintage aircraft and wonderful old photographs of the pioneering pilots of the far north. What incredible spirit, these men had! It is totally unbelievable to imagine the suffering they endured in the bitter frozen arctic flying open cockpit airplanes, yet they opened a new frontier and furthered aviation in a place that cried out to their adventuresome spirits....
I'm sure that many readers remember seeing F-4s parked at Mojave Airport to be transformed into full-scale aerial target drones for the Department of Defense. This transformation process produced a most impressive air-to-air training machine for our fighter pilots in the U.S. Air Force. When finished, the drone was capable of taking-off, navigating to designated locations, flying programmed flight profiles with evasive maneuvers and, in many cases, surviving the dogfight to return to its origina...
The California 1000 Unlimited Air Race was held at Mojave Airport Nov. 13-15, 1970. The North American P-51 Mustang pictured actually belonged to Dave Zeuschel, but race pilot Dr. Cliff Cummins was in command during the California 1000 Air Race held at Mojave, finishing second. Notice the photo was taken in front of one of the original Marine Corps Air Station hangars. It was constructed in 1942. (A little air race history note: Dr. Cummins had his own P-51 which carried the name "Miss Candace"...
I have been thinking a lot about the Marines and the aircraft they flew, when they served here during World War II. I sense their presence every time I walk into the Administration Building or Building One at Mojave Air and Space Port. At least thirty-two United States Marine Corps squadrons are believed to have trained at Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station (MCAAS) Mojave, and a number of squadrons were actually formed here, including Marine Fighting Squadron 225 (VMF-225) commissioned January...
Have you ever heard a Hawker Hunter streak by on a low pass? Well, my husband Al and I always took great pleasure in that sight and sound! Sixteen years ago at Mojave Airport we saw not only a Hawker Hunter, but a Canadair T-33 and a rare and beautiful Hawker Sea Fury do several passes down the runway. A big round Bristol Centaurus engine on the Sea Fury, turning a five bladed propeller made a beautiful noise! Wonderful memories swirled in my head as the Sea Fury flew over. It brought back all...
The most widely used military transport during World War II was the Douglas Aircraft Company's DC-3. It is probably the most famous aircraft ever built. A. E. Raymond and E. F. Burton designed this immortal plane in 1935 and over 13,000 were built. Although first developed and built as a commercial airliner, the DC-3 soon went to war in World War II, with the U.S. Army Air Corps as the C-47 transport. It also saw service as the R4D for the U.S. Navy and United States Marine Corps and the Royal...
Aviation enthusiasts everywhere know there are two very important dates to remember in the month of December. At 10:35 a.m., on Dec. 17, 1903, Orville Wright made history by flying a powered machine into full flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This year marks the 114th anniversary of that famous flight. The first experience Orville and Wilbur Wright had with a flying machine was an object given to them by their father. It was made of paper, bamboo sticks and cork. He turned a stick that...
My husband Al and I review our old photos on a regular basis and are always happy to see the pictures that jar our memories into remembering the exciting projects we have worked on in years gone by. This photo (below) shows Al installing the General Electric J-79 engine into a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter that he was hoping to build into a flyer. Ever since he watched Darryl Greenamyer set the absolute speed record in October 1977 at Mud Lake, Tonopah, Nevada, with the "Red Baron," Al decided...
The Douglas A-1 was originally designed in 1944 to meet World War II requirements to replace the SBD dive bomber. It was to be a carrier-based, single place, long-range, high-performance, dive/torpedo/bomber. First flight was March 1945. Douglas Aircraft Company at El Segundo developed the XSB2D Destroyer, a single engine two place dive bomber, also with the capability of torpedo attack missions. It was designed with an inverted gull wing, similar to the F4U Corsair. The maximum bomb load of...
My husband, Al and I had the rare opportunity to attend a special gathering of World War II fighter pilots who were combat Aces in August 2009. We met William Hardy, U. S. Navy Ace; Clarence 'Bud' Anderson, USAF triple Ace; Fredrick 'Boots' Blessee, Korean War Ace; and The Flying Greek, Col. Steve Pisanos, who flew for the RAF and the U.S. Army Air Corps as a WWII flying ace with ten aerial victories. Pisanos was encouraged to write a book about his life by the late Col. Frances 'Gabby' Gabreski...
This photo was taken at Mojave Airport nearly twenty-two years ago. Alan Preston was taxiing a Republic P-47 into one of the original hangars built by the Marines in 1942. The Santa Monica Museum of Flying used to have a maintenance and restoration facility here at Mojave Air & Spaceport and Bruce Lockwood managed all aspects of the business and even flew the rare warbirds that temporarily lived here. There is something special about standing near an airplane with a big Pratt & Whitney R-2800...
We miss our family friend, Fitzhugh "Fitz" Fulton Jr., who passed away Feb. 4, 2015. He was born in Blakely, Ga. on June 6, 1925. I feel privileged to have a copy of his autobiography, "Father of the Mother Planes." The book covers his extraordinary aviation career that spanned more than four decades. While in the U.S. Air Force, he flew in the Berlin Airlift and Korean War, tested the Air Force's newest bombers, launched every 'X-Plane' from the X-1 to the X-15 and flew the Mach 2 B-58 Hustler...
