Busy days at Mojave Air & Space Port

Evan Hawley.

XB-1 Boom Supersonic aircraft.

Busy days at Mojave Air & Space Port! On Friday, Dec. 13, two firms at Mojave Air & Space Port at Rutan Field did flight test work. Boom Aerospace, canceled their test flight on Thursday, but resumed on Friday. Takeoff and test flight was successful.

Evan Hawley, a young photographer from Lancaster came to watch XB-1 Boom and was thrilled when he saw Stratolaunch taxi out for takeoff later in the morning. He captured some fantastic photos of both aircraft.

When XB-1 Boom flew on Oct. 7, Chief Test Pilot Tristan "Geppetto" Brandenburg flew to a sub-sonic speed of Mach 0.69 or 428 knots at an altitude of 17,800-feet. "Geppetto" is also a former U.S. Naval aviator and graduated from the United States Naval Test Pilot School.

There was no press release from Boom for the flight on Dec. 13, so it is unknown what speed and altitude was achieved.

There was a T-38 chase plane following Boom and the takeoff was impressive with both aircraft on the runway.

Evan Hawley.

Stratolaunch airborne.

Later in the morning, Evan captured great photos of Stratolaunch carrying reusable hypersonic Talon-A2 for a test flight. It was later learned that the launch of Talon-A2 was canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Talon-A2 is designed to be fully recoverable and reusable, as it is able to land on a runway and fly again.

A memorable tie was had by all who attended the 3rd Annual CHiPs for Kids Toy Give Away held a Mojave Air & Space Port on Saturday, Dec. 14.

Lynn Johansen and Alma del Rio of Mojave Air & Space Port headed up the team of volunteers for a wonderfully orchestrated event that included Santa and Mrs. Claus, Mr. Grinch and of course, the Mojave area California Highway Patrol.

Beautiful holiday decorations filled the immense building, which took days to fulfill with many helping hands of volunteers.

Aerospace companies at the spaceport were invited to decorate Christmas trees and they came through with lots of unique ideas, including 3D printed ornaments!

Over 40 decorated Christmas trees were given away, along with hundreds of toys to kids. Twenty bicycles were donated and given away, as well.

Lots of happy smiles and yummy treats were everywhere. Donuts, cookies, hot chocolate, hot coffee, hot cider and candy canes fulfilled every sweet tooth in the building!

Every detail was covered and photos with Santa were a big hit and whole families surrounded Santa for a special image.

There was a long list of sponsors, including, CHP Mojave; Mojave Air & Space Port at Rutan Field; Stratolaunch; Virgin Galactic; Scaled Composites, LLC; Safety Service Security; Cal Trans District 9; Kern County Fire Dept .; The Loop newspaper; Kern County Sheriffs Office; Starbuck's Mojave; Todd Porter Contractor; Castro Towing; Terra-Gen Wind & Power, LLC; KGET TV Bakersfield; 23 ABC Bakersfield; KUZZ News; BakersfieldNow; Mojave Desert News; Mortenson; Hall Ambulance Service, Inc.

If you or your company would like to participate next year, just contact Lynn Johansen at Mojave Air & Space Port. People from California City, Mojave, Tehachapi, Lancaster, Rosamond and surrounding communities have all come together to make this event successful and exciting.

Hope to see you next year!

Cathy Hansen.

CHP Officer with toy shopper.