Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
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In 1963, at the age of 20, Burt Rutan was inspired to design a homebuilt aircraft after seeing the North American XB-70 Valkyrie and the Saab 37 Viggen. He called his creation a VariViggen and was at work with the initial plan while attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1964-1965. He earned his BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1965. Later while living in Lancaster, Calif., Burt built a model of the VariViggen and conducted some 'wind-tunnel' testing on roads on the east side of...
Tehachapi High School hosted Tehachapi's FIRST Robotics Team 585 grand robot unveiling and chili cookoff fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 23 to an enthusiastic crowd in the school cafeteria. The event featured a silent auction of items donated as fundraisers, a special guest speaker and much more. This year's theme is titled "Destination: Deep Space," and involves a specific challenge the students will meet in a nation-wide series of competitions. Keynote speaker Abby Dobbins is the F135 jet engine...
Former NASA Test Pilot and Director of Flight Operations, John A. Manke, Sr., age 87, passed away Jan. 31, 2019. He was a long-time resident of the Antelope Valley and was born Nov. 13, 1931, in Selby, South Dakota. Manke attended the University of South Dakota before joining the U.S. Navy in 1951, during the Korean War. He was selected for the NROTC program and graduated from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and a...
Exciting dreams come true at Mojave Air & Spaceport! Dec. 13 produced a calm, crisp morning and there was excitement and an edgy sense of accomplishment hanging in the air around the Virgin Galactic team who have worked so diligently to reach this day; seeing SpaceShipTwo "Unity" climb into space. The attempt to soar 264,000-feet, or 50-miles, above the surface of Earth, beyond the boundary of what the U.S. government deems as space, was a milestone for the team and TheSpaceShipCompany at...
The 412 Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base donated 370 books from the base library to the Tehachapi Unified School District on Dec. 17. The donation is the second delivery of surplus material to the district under an Educational Partnership Agreement between the Air Force and the schools that supports educational institutions. Past and future donations consist of hundreds of computers. Program originator Douglas Hoffelt, technical transfer and research manager for four AF test sites, turned...
As the Bear Valley Springs veterans groups will be celebrating Veterans Day on Nov. 11, the Tehachapi Veterans groups along with Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District will be holding their annual Veterans Day celebration in Philip Marx Central Park on Monday, Nov. 12. American Legion Post 221, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 221 and American Legion Riders Chapter 221 will host ceremonies beginning at 10 a.m. with guest speakers and a performance by the Jacobsen Middle School Chorus. A par...
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...
Michael and Michelle Wedekind arrived from Okinawa, Japan in August just in time for Michael to begin his job as a procurement specialist at Edwards Air Force Base. They had lived in Okinawa for about five years while he was working for the Department of Defense. By the end of August, their furniture still had not arrived and they were sleeping on a huge air mattress in the middle of the living room floor with no idea when to expect their belongings. Michelle said that they really hated to...
Sally and Ricky Barker moved to their mountain top home in Bear Valley at the end of May to basically, "get out of Bakersfield." Over the years, the valley pollution had taken a toll on Ricky's health and they felt there was too much violence there as well. They wanted to raise their four boys in the beauty and clean air of the mountains. After having spent 16 years in the oil fields of the Central Valley, Ricky has started a new business washing and detailing cars in Bear Valley. "He loves it,"...
The Tehachapi build a plane project, in which local high school students have been building a working airplane with the oversight of adult mentors from the aerospace industry, have been getting a big dose of attention in the past few months. California State Assemblyman Vince Fong paid the hangar a visit on June 15, and the students were able to greet him and give him some hands-on experience with some of the tools they've become experts at using. Back in February, television channels 29 and 23...
Jenny and Jeremy Jones moved to California from South Dakota. They came from Brookings which is about 45 minutes north of Sioux Falls. Jeremy was hired as a test pilot at Edward Air Force Base so they temporarily settled in Rosamond at the Air Park where they had the use of a neighbor's plane. However, they are not desert people and found the beauty of the mountains in Tehachapi and the weather closer to their native South Dakota. They found a home in Bear Valley and made the move in May. Both...
I was born in 1950. Now you can all figure out my age! I declare this to emphasize that I grew up during the Cold War after World War II. Because I lived in Mojave with a Marine Base next to me, until 1958, and our close proximity to Edwards Air Force Base (a major flight test facility), children my age in elementary school lived in constant fear that we would all be wiped out by an atomic bomb dropped near us. As children we had no real understanding of how real that threat could be. We had reg...
We must be an example for our children. This was the message Jim Pendleton shared with the Kiwanis Club at their recent meeting. He became a single parent when his daughter was seven years old. That was a life changing experience for him, and he determined to become the kind of man he would want her to eventually marry. Pendleton had a successful career and worked for 39 years at Edwards Air Force Base. However, it was in raising a daughter that he found real fulfillment. She is now 17 years old...
The 2019 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) budget "reflects confidence that America will lead the way back to the moon," Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said Feb. 12. In announcing the 2019 NASA budget from the Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Ala., Lightfoot said the budget of $19.9 billion was a $400 million increase over last year and supports a renewed focus on space flight activities. "We're once again on a path toward the moon with an eye toward Mars....
It's not a scaled down model or a toy – Tina Cunningham holds a 32-inch "winglet" that engineers at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base hope will be the first aircraft to fly on Mars. According to engineer/pilot Robert "Red" Jensen (seen in the background of the Armstrong model shop), the instrument-carrying flying wings will be folded to fit in 4x4x12-inch spaces and used as ballast on a Mars rover heat shield before being deployed at 12,000 feet over the s...
On Friday Evening, March 2, from 5 to 8 p.m. Tehachapi Treasure Trove will again celebrate First Friday. The featured artist for March will be Jan Brottlund. Jan has been dabbling in all kinds of arts and crafts her whole life. At the Treasure Trove she is currently displaying steampunk, folded book art, iris paper folding, and an assortment of sewn, painted and string art pieces. She enjoys learning different crafts and experimenting with new ideas. Jan started crafting as a child in northern...
Brian and Rosa Scott arrived in Tehachapi in September. Rosa came from Colorado Springs which had been their home for many years and Scott came from his previous assignment in Turkey. Brian is a government contractor and had been stationed near Tarsus until receiving his new assignment at Edwards Air Force Base. His areas of expertise range from mathematics to military arts, business administration and international relations. Brian was born in Boston but since his dad was in the Navy, Brian...
Seeing a total solar eclipse never was on my Bucket List. Yet, when I was twelve years old, I remember visiting a travel agent to discuss the possibility of attending such an event in Nova Scotia. The brochures I came away with fired my imagination for a very long time. I was therefore happy to add an eclipse to the bottom of the List when I discovered that the Great American Solar Eclipse was to pass directly over my mother's house in Chillicothe, Missouri. And so it came to pass last Monday....
I met Mike and Shell Christian and their family enjoying food, music and fun in Central Park on the 4th of July. They had just moved to Tehachapi in June from Corona which is a part of Southern California's vast Inland Empire. They said that they had lived there off and on since 1985, wandering off to live in places like Hawaii and the Chico area of Northern California. The Christians were looking for a less hectic environment in which to raise their three children, 14 year old Sierra, 12 year o...
The California Wing Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Aerospace Education Summer Camp (CAP – AESC), took place during the week of 30 July to 5 August 2017 at Edwards Air Force Base. Participants in this 2nd annual CAP-AESC event comprised cadets and adult staff from all over California between the ages of 12 and 87. While the week was packed with activities such as flying military simulators, visiting several exhibits and meeting test pilots, many of the attending cadets experienced their first flight i...
Tehachapi Museum and Errea House 'Art on the Porch' featuring Jon Hammond "Art on the Porch" continues in August with a First Friday display of cowboy, ranching, farming, and outdoor items on the porch at the Errea House from 5 to 8 p.m. Jon Hammond will be the featured guest and will bring some items from his collection of cowboy and farming related items he has collected from the Tehachapi area. He will also be telling stories and answering questions about Tehachapi's ranching and agrarian...
Civil Air Patrol California Wing (CAWG) announces their Aerospace Education Summer Camp at Edwards Air Force Base July 30 to Aug. 5. Cadets age 12-18 will take part in a variety of aerospace activities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), which include model rocketry, robotics, drones, flight simulators, and STEM related career seminars. A few of the other special activities are Tours of the Test Pilot School (TPS), F-22, F-35, Global Hawk, rocket facility, TRACON, and the new control tower. Also on the AESC schedule is a...
The Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance held its quarterly meeting in Mojave recently so its members could get a current look at what is happening in East Kern County. In addition to reports given concerning the Golden Queen mine just south of Mojave, the Test Pilots School located on the Mojave Spaceport, and The Spaceship Company, Bill Deaver Vice President of the Mojave Spaceport Board of Directors, delivered an update on what is current at that facility. I chose to feature Deaver’s rep...
An after school program provided by the Salvation Army was explained to Kiwanis members by Kyle Yates, Community Center Coordinator and Luke Thompson, Youth worker The pair described a place where students from grades 6th through 12th may gather after school between noon and 5:30 p.m. It is located at the corner of Tehachapi Blvd. and Snyder Ave. There are 25-30 students who come each day to do homework, take a class in sewing, learn to play the guitar, or play games. The staff makes each...
The Tehachapi high school and middle school mountain bike team captured top Division 1 honors at the Southern California (SoCal) High School Cycling League final race of the year, April 29-30 at Lehigh Trails in Tehachapi. The Tehachapi team placed third overall for the SoCal 2017 series. The top two SoCal teams for the season were Newbury Park High School, 1st, and Redlands High School, 2nd. Darrin Mason, head coach of the Tehachapi Mountain Bike Team, described Tehachapi's results as...
