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Museum Movies
September 17, 2010
Through the wonders of YouTube, visitors to this Web site may click on the links below to see three short videos about the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum. One features an eclipse of the moon as it traverses above the Museum's SR-71 Blackbird. Another video is a quick primer on who-what-where-when-why the museum needs to relocate just outside the gate to Edwards Air Force Base to maximize its usefulness to the public. And the third video shows what it took to squeeze the amazing YF-22 jet prototype into the museum. Tight fit!
SR-71 Eclipse
Museum needs to move
YF-22 placed in museum
Newly Accessioned Items
AFFTC Museum specialist Tony Moore has identified and catalogued several remarkable items in the museum collection recently. The work table where he marshals these pieces has been a fantastic summary of this place: a rudder pedal from the crashed XB-70 Mach 3 bomber shares space with an original X-15 tech order and the special stopwatch with which engineer Johnny Armstrong timed X-15 missions, ensuring he could direct the X-15 to a safe emergency landing on its long, fast flight path if problems arose. A doll, key evidence in an episode of the whodunnit TV show Monk that was filmed at Edwards Air Force Base, reclines near an oxygen bottle that Tony is researching to determine if it came from the X-2 the day Mel Apt lost his life in that sweptwing research rocket. The historical spread also includes remnants from the dummy scramjet shape that was ventrally mounted to Pete Knight's X-15 the day he attained 6.7 times the speed of sound.
Tony has assigned collection numbers to each item, tagged the pieces, and is placing them in archival storage boxes. (Except for a sampling we will put on immediate display - this is too neat to not share at least some of the excitement right away!) There's an old rule of thumb that a museum typically has only 10-20 percent of its collection on display at any given time. Reasons for having the bulk in storage range from physical display limitations to the need to preserve and protect assets for future centuries. We take great pride in having such an iconic flight test collection, and we continue to seek ways to protect and showcase portions of it even as we look toward a future still over the horizon.
Chalk Numbers
Our unstoppably effective volunteers John and Lois Snyder recently unearthed a quantity of chalk - the old school blackboard type - amongst museum supplies. The airlifter in me immediately called to mind the term "chalk number", used to this day to identify a specific airlift aircraft so it may be properly loaded for its mission. Early in World War II, when troops unfamiliar with the ways of the Army Air Forces needed to ensure they boarded the right C-47 for their role in mass airdrops, unique numerals would be scribbled in chalk on the fuselages of each C-47. The paratroops were told to look for "Chalk Number 34" or "Chalk 16", and the name "chalk" lingers long after the use of powdery sticks of chalk has faded like dim residue on the blackboard on the last day of school.
As we grow the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum, stories like this will bring exhibits to life as we tip our collective museum hat to airlift testers as well as fighter and bomber testers, NASA researchers, others - it's all good.
Thanks for the Beautiful YF-22!
August 7, 2010
We had a party in the museum June 11 to thank the maintainers who delivered our beautiful YF-22 prototype for display. The only thing that can top the satisfaction of placing this remarkable prototype on display in this museum will be placing it on display in Phase One of the museum outside the gate once the financial contributions are on hand to permit this, so many more visitors can appreciate it! Our supporting non-profit Flight Test Historical Foundation is working on the capital campaign that will make it possible.
The immaculate YF-22 has two specially-marked engine inlet plugs that carry the names of the F-22 specialists who restored it for display. From the 31st Test and Evaluation Squadron (31 TES), we thank MSgt Stacy Dent, MSgt Gary Palazotto, MSgt David Holzer, TSgt Christopher White, TSgt Steven Zirkelback, TSgt Charles Russell, TSgt Jusberto Bosque, SSgt Thomas Watts, SSgt Omar Duarte, and SSgt Adam Hancock. And from the 412th Aircraft Maintenance Support Squadron (412 AMXS), thanks go to MSgt Eric West, SMSgt Greg Bobzin, MSgt Gunnar Graham, TSgt Chad Calahan, TSgt Ethan Souder, SSgt Jimmy Cole, SSgt Robert Coddington, SSgt Joseph Cabrero, SSgt Anthony Farruggia, SSgt Donovan Williams, SSgt Derek Coldiron, and SrA Jacob Parkes. Thanks, to these maintainers and to all who helped get the YF-22 and the museum ready.
Museum specialist Leonard "Tony" Moore couriered the YF-22 from Wright-Patterson to Edwards in the belly of a C-5, the F-22 Combined Test Force provided space for the aircraft, and we know other shops on base helped get the bird pristine for display. Thank you all 每 this is a first-class job.
There＊s another distinctive touch on the YF-22: during the party for the restorers, this aircraft＊s first pilot, Dave Ferguson, and its last pilot, Tom Morgenfeld, each added their names to one of the inlet covers. The YF-22 makes a profound bridge between the flight test history of Edwards AFB (this aircraft is 20 years old already!) and the future, as F-22As are bound to be in service for a long time to come.
The magic of less
As visitors glimpse our magnificent YF-22 on display, it is human nature for some to say "You need to have the competing YF-23 on display now" or "you should get the X-35 prototype." As small museum management guru Ellis W. Burcaw teaches in his seminal text, the difference between a private collector and a museum is often the private collector＊s evident need to have "one of everything". The cash-strapped and facility-limited museum director is more likely to say: "I＊m okay not having everything. I＊ll use representative pieces to flesh out the story; don＊t need, can＊t afford, to have it all." Less clutter, less hassle, but still telling a viable story, the museum rationale is to represent its story with some three-dimensional objects, while not overwhelming visitors. It＊s a matter of scale, and of museum charter. We are reminded that the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is the record museum of the service. Its facilities, and its charter, accommodate more of everything than we will have at Edwards. Our success, here and when we move outside the west gate, depends in part on restraint, to keep the collection from overwhelming the ability to tell the story.
Having said that, our collection is nonetheless awe-inspiring. On display and in our storage areas, the AFFTC Museum boasts about 80 aircraft at any given time, ranging from the first of two Northrop X-4s, to a YF-117, the first F-15B, the only two-seat YA-10B, a Piper Enforcer Mustang-like propjet, a vintage A3D Skywarrior from the 1950s, YC-15 transport, B-1B Lancer, a B-52 mother ship, a Calspan testbed A-26 bomber, Gloster Meteor, P-59 Airacomet, and now our fabulous YF-22. There are some real jewels in the treasure, that deserve indoor display conditions to preserve them for generations. Keep an eye on the development of the museum, and see how we use a finite number of aircraft and artifacts to tell a grand and exciting story.
Ten Friends
As we continue detailing the west gate museum plans, we have a working figure of $900,000 to get us outside the gate with Phase One. That should buy a 12,000 square foot building that maximizes public space while minimizing administrative volume. With that modest phase, we are off and running in the community, serving the public with programs and events outside the gate. Growth will ensue from that initial successful debut. What does it take to get $900,000? How about just 10 friends with $90,000 each? To paraphrase the Marines, the Flight Test Historical Foundation is looking for a few good friends. That＊s how it works with a field museum in the Air Force program. Federal dollars are not available for capital construction, so the non-profit foundation raises funds and donates the building to the Air Force.
Visualize a protected space in which iconic aircraft like the YF-22 and YF-117 can be safely displayed, while allowing space to be created on short notice for evening events, school programs, special film screenings, and so much more to help satisfy the public＊s unquenchable thirst for flight test experiences.
While that Phase One building is a mega-useful start, the project culminates with erection of a vintage classic 40,000-sq.ft. steel hangar on the west gate site. Getting there will take some more friends of the Foundation 每 maybe $6 million worth of friends!
Wasn't That a Party!
May 13, 2010
The night of Saturday, May 8, 2010 saw 200-plus friends of the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum come together to honor four aviation legends, and to help launch the museum＊s west gate development effort. The Flight Test Historical Foundation＊s first Excellence in Aviation Awards banquet was at the Proud Bird aviation-themed restaurant next to Los Angeles International Airport. Honorees were Brig. Gen. Robert Cardenas, USAF (Retired); Bob Hoover; Clay Lacy; and David Tallichet.
General Cardenas, a long-time supporter of the AFFTC Museum, was operations officer in charge of the Bell X-1 project at Muroc Air Base (now Edwards Air Force Base) and piloted the B-29 that released the X-1 flown by Chuck Yeager on the world＊s first supersonic flight in 1947. General Cardenas also served as chief test pilot for the YB-49 Flying Wing. His varied accomplishments range from combat in B-24s and later F-105s to senior Air Force planning positions.
Bob Hoover excelled as a fighter pilot, test pilot, and demonstration pilot. His legendary precision air show performances in a P-51 Mustang, Shrike Commander, T-28, and Sabreliner have burnished his reputation as a pilot＊s pilot. Bob received a spontaneous standing ovation, a tribute to his widely recognized abilities and his exemplary graciousness.
Clay Lacy established a flight service at Van Nuys, Calif., that is an entrepreneur＊s dream. His fleet of business jets gave Lacy viable platforms to mount specialized motion picture camera systems that have captured dramatic flight footage for blockbuster movies for decades. His out-of-the-box creative thinking manifested itself when he parked his P-51 Mustang racer to fly a huge long-range DC-7 airliner in a 1,000-mile air race where endurance could beat short-legged speed. Lacy＊s DC-7 bested many of the fighters in that race.
The late David Tallichet, whose Specialty Restaurant Corp. owns the Proud Bird and many other themed restaurants, amassed a collection of well over 100 warbirds. His business acumen and his pioneering efforts to recover historic aircraft from remote locations were celebrated at the event.
And Out the Gate
Maj. Gen. David Eichhorn, Air Force Flight Test Center commander, told the audience about the museum＊s plans to move outside the west gate for vastly increased public access and service. The general also shared his vision about seeking the space shuttle Enterprise for display in the AFFTC Museum at Edwards Air Force Base after the orbital shuttles are retired in 2011.
The west gate museum development plan has three phases, designed to put the museum outside the gate as quickly as first-phase funds can be raised. Although this museum is an official Air Force field museum, as such it is barred from using federal dollars for construction of buildings. The west gate move must be borne by private donations. A video outlining the plan showed an initial donation of $900,000 could launch Phase One, a 12,000-sq. ft. museum facility outside the gate adjacent to the museum＊s Century Circle display. Subsequent phases will increase the protected indoor display space, working up to a huge 40,000-sq. ft. insulated hangar. Current cost estimates for west gate museum development put total costs at $6.8 million.
This is a must-do to enable us to educate, entertain, and satisfy the thirst for knowledge about the fantastic world of flight test. And it will take place beneath the same historic skies that reverberate with sonic booms almost daily.
YF-22＊s in the Museum
Thanks to relentless efforts by F-22 maintainers, the YF-22 prototype jet is now on display inside the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum. We love to share it with visitors now, and will get to do so with much larger crowds once we move outside the gate.
YF-22 Comes Home
October 2009
The prototype YF-22 jet fighter trundled down the ramp of a huge C-5 at Edwards Air Force Base on September 3 to begin its reassembly and refurbishment before going on display in the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum. That's a giant step forward in the long road to bring the YF-22 back to the site of its first flight and its test program, here at Edwards. Much work remains to be done before the aircraft and the museum are ready to meet. We'll let you know when the YF-22 is in place. Meanwhile the jet is not viewable during restoration. When we do unveil it in the future, the thank-you list will be a long one＃
All Roads Lead to Museum
In the first six months of 2009, the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum hosted visitors from 44 states. And that's just based on those who chose to sign our guest register. This museum has drawing power that extends beyond our own local, and loyal, friends. Forty-seven visitors representing 14 foreign countries also signed our guest book in that same period. It's not easy 每 but it's not impossible 每 to visit our museum behind the gate to Edwards Air Force Base. If you lack access to the base, you may still contact Dennis Shoffner at public affairs by calling 661-277-3517 and asking to be part of a base tour. Tours typically take place on the first and third Fridays of each month. They include the museum, plus the fantastic Edwards Air Force Base flightline and the tenant NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. People ask to visit the museum all the time. We appreciate how much more fully we will be able to serve the public once we relocate outside the west gate to Edwards Air Force Base. We're exploring a couple of trails toward that outcome right now; one will manifest itself as the best plan of action, and then the hard work really begins! I'm reminded of one of my early role models, the late Harl V. Brackin, Jr., Boeing's company historian in the 1960s and 1970s. Harl was utterly tireless in his promotion of the need for an air museum in the Pacific Northwest. He worked up a new museum plan every time it looked like an appropriate piece of land might become available. When that didn't pan out, Harl cheerfully sought the next potential site, and developed plans of what an air museum could look like on that real estate, sometimes executing multiple new plans in a single year. Harl's unstoppable enthusiasm and his clear conceptual grasp of what a museum could mean to the Northwest are the reasons the fabulous Museum of Flight exists in Seattle today. Though he did not live to see it bloom, Harl Brackin made it happen nonetheless.
By comparison, the task facing the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum is easier. We already have the land outside the gate, and we have most of the collection in hand to showcase the dazzling history of flight test. Thanks to Edwards Air Force base for the land, and thanks to founding museum director Doug Nelson for the collection. The only thing we lack is sufficient money, and I choose to listen to the successful optimists who say it is still available in any economic climate.
Blackbird Beauty
The corps of aircraft painters on Edwards Air Force Base who keep flight test jets looking sharp in their distinctive orange-and-white high visibility color schemes have taken on the museum's SR-71 Blackbird, preparing and painting it for the benefit of museum visitors for years to come. Museums agonize over the care and feeding of outdoor aircraft displays, and our SR-71 was showing the ravages of time worse than a career beach volleyball player without sunscreen. By the time you read this, the Blackbird may have emerged from the paint barn in its new coat. We followed the lead of other museums and opted for a lower-luster (not dead flat) polyurethane black, all the better to shed water, dust, sand, bird deposits and everything that makes the desert a torture chamber for paint jobs. Our outdoor aircraft are becoming something of a paint laboratory as we merge technologies to best protect the artifacts and the environment. Some will be painted with water-based coats, an increasingly popular and often necessary option for aircraft that cannot be relocated to an environmentally controlled paint hangar. So whenever you see an AFFTC Museum outdoor aircraft wearing a new coat of paint, know that it is the result of thoughtful effort throughout the air museum community to protect these assets for many lifetimes. When we obtain a large enough building beyond the west gate, we gain the ability to use the most authentic finishes possible for our aircraft because the indoor environment coddles paint jobs. In fact, that is a legitimate cost-avoidance statistic for building a bigger museum 每 the indoor aircraft no longer require periodic washings and repaintings. That can amount to many thousands of dollars saved. And if you've ever noticed the unsightly wire mesh in orifices and the anti-bird spikes attached to the vertical fins of our outdoor aircraft, those necessary evils go away once an aircraft can be displayed inside.
Lassie Came Home... to Pancho's
May 2009
A descendant of movie dog and TV star Lassie visited the historic Pancho Barnes ruins on Edwards AFB April 10, 2009, along with animal trainer Bob Weatherwax, son of Lassie's original trainer, Rudd Weatherwax. Laddie, a descendant of Lassie who maintains the original collie's particular markings and coloration, padded silently over the grounds where Lassie once came for relaxation between movie shoots, as well as to participate in Pancho Barnes' popular rodeo shows.
Pancho's place, and Edwards AFB, have long been a crossroads for movies and movie personalities. Years before helicopters were commonplace vehicles, Howard Hughes flew his out to Pancho's once to tinker with a balky generator on the property, visitors to the site related. Pancho, a motion picture pilot and animal trainer in her own right, was friend to a number of leaders at the junction of aviation and films.
During the April visit by Laddie and Weatherwax, the trainer recalled childhood experiences at the Pancho Barnes Rancho Oro Verde compound. Weatherwax and Laddie, along with 95th Air Base Wing commander Col. Jerry Gandy, were videotaped and Weatherwax was interviewed to preserve his recollections of that era for use as we develop a significant new exhibit on the long-standing relationship between Hollywood and Edwards Air Force Base.
Lou D'Elia, who is cataloging the Pancho Barnes estate, has discovered copies of early television programs filmed at the Barnes ranch. At least 36 motion pictures and television programs have filmed at Edwards over the decades, and they're still coming, as fans of "Monk", "Iron Man" and "Transformers" can attest.
DEFY Group Helps Museum
A youth group on base, united under the auspices of the Edwards Drug Education For Youth (DEFY) program, helped beautify the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum on Saturday, April 18, by weeding and picking up any debris around aircraft in the museum airpark. That's a never-ending task around here as things grow, and blow, in the desert. Thanks to DEFY program coordinator John Fishman for arranging the event.
Half Century of Northrop Twins
As this is written in May 2009, we are approaching the 50th anniversary of the rollout of the original Northrop N-156F Freedom Fighter prototype, on May 31, 1959. The N-156F was destined to sire the F-5 series of twin-engine jet fighters. It followed the similar T-38 Talon trainer which first flew April 10, 1959. The entire series of these lightweight Northrops was flight tested at Edwards AFB. Sleek T-38s continue to serve here as chase aircraft. We have a T-38 Talon in the museum's storage collection, awaiting proper facilities at the West gate site for future display.
Frame It
We're getting ready to build three free-standing exhibit modules for the museum. We could use the help of a carpenter (or two) to frame these modules. This will be a major revamping of an exhibit area. It will enable us to display exciting artifacts ranging from icons of the 1950s, memorabilia belonging to Capt. Glen Edwards, uniforms and flight gear from the edge of space, plus a tip of the old 50-mission-crush hat to the 95th Bomb Group, the World War II predecessor to our current 95th Air Base Wing. Want to help? Give me a call at 661-277-8050. Thanks!
In the Works
March 2009
Five new displays are just sketches and notes on a pad at the moment, but they will bloom in the east side of the museum later this year as we make room for the YF-22 prototype jet we are receiving from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. This year promises to be one of productive, proactive changes in the museum. More to follow, but for now, we are looking for authentic movie memorabilia from motion pictures and television shows filmed at Edwards AFB since the days of silent movies. Also need genuine 95th Bomb Group memorabilia from the unit's storied days in England, flying B-17s during World War II. (Edwards Air Force Base's 95th Air Base Wing traces its lineage to the wartime 95th Bomb Group.) And we have some Golden Age flight test artifacts to highlight, but more about that in another column＃
Gathering of Eagle Scouts
The museum airpark shines a bit more after a community service project led by Eagle Scout candidate Andrew Fletcher. Over the December holidays, Andrew enlisted the help of his friends and adult mentors who masked and painted faded colors on three airpark displays, and set permanent posts in concrete around the YA-10B. Andrew showed great initiative and leadership, and we appreciate his efforts to help the Air Force Flight test Center Museum. Opportunities remain for other Eagle Scout candidates to perform their public service at the museum, too.
Volunteer Bob Cohn finished installing chain around the A-10 as we continue upgrading the appearance of the museum airpark.
Inspection Time
A result of the top-to-bottom inspection of Edwards AFB in January is the inescapable knowledge that the AFFTC Museum needs to devote time to organizing its holdings that are not on display. That's a big player in 2009 for us. Along with continued improvements at the current museum site, this kind of work is vital if we are to be the caliber of museum that warrants a community fundraising campaign to relocate outside the West gate to Edwards AFB.
Edwards Family Donations
On November 25, 2008, the family of Capt. Glen Edwards, for whom Edwards Air Force Base is named, donated his original handwritten diaries to the museum. In a brief ceremony during which Maj. Gen David J. Eichhorn, AFFTC Commander, received the diaries on behalf of the base and the museum, more than 20 nieces, nephews, and other descendants from the Edwards family gathered to honor their famous relative.
Glen Edwards was a skilled A-20 attack bomber pilot in World War II who brought his considerable talent to the world of flight test. His contemporaries, and his own writings, tend to portray him as gregarious and full of life. His death in the 1948 crash of the YB-49 Flying Wing near here cut short a promising career.
The diary collection expands the museum's ability to keep Glen Edwards' story prominent. We're looking into proper ways to conserve the volumes, while possibly displaying some in a protected environment 每 that's part of one of our five new planned displays.
Spring Clean-up
Now that it's April, we will take advantage of the weather to touch-up some of the paint and markings on aircraft in the museum airpark. Want to help? Give us a call at 661-277-8050.
XB-70 Brought to Life
October 30, 2008
The audience of nearly 280 at the October 24, 2008, Gathering of Eagles banquet in Lancaster, Calif., was excited, attentive, amused, enthusiastic, and respectful. And who wouldn＊t be, when a panel of pilots and engineers who gave the giant Mach 3 XB-70 life in the 1960s did so again with their first-person recollections at the banquet.
XB-70 program engineers Paul Reukauf, Lyle Schofield, and Bill Schweikhard were inducted as the 2008 Eagles by the Flight Test Historical Foundation (FTHF). They were joined by XB-70 pilots Joe Cotton, Fitz Fulton, and Don Mallick in a retrospective of the life and times of the XB-70 moderated by David Hartman.
The Gathering of Eagles is a tradition with the FTHF. It＊s a celebration of high-tech hardware, and the human spirit that animates it. So many aviation firsts have been etched in the skies over Edwards AFB, the achievements linger long after the contrails dissipate. This banquet recognizes historic aerospace accomplishments; brings the community of fliers, engineers, and enthusiasts together; and raises funds for the continued development of the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum.
Thanks to all the Flight Test Historical Foundation volunteers who made the Gathering of Eagles so successful on all counts. Gathering of Eagles a big slice of being a full-service museum that＊s a part of the community.
Goodbye, Old Paint
We＊re putting the finishing touches on an aircraft painting plan for the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum that will set a cadence for the perpetual maintenance of the museum＊s outdoor aircraft displays. Aircraft that must be painted in place 每 outdoors where they reside 每 are candidates for new, improved water-based paints that are increasingly durable and environmentally friendly. The bag of tricks we can use ranges from spraying in calm air to using foam paint rollers that leave little evidence of their passing. We plan to test some different paints and methods as we engage this never-ending effort.
Mannequins, Anyone?
As we plan some interim displays and dioramas, full-length clothing mannequins with hands, feet and heads would be helpful. Current department store displays are veering away from full heads-and-hands mannequins; if you know the availability of some older full-up mannequins, please let me know.
What＊s the Buzz?
Have you noticed some older USAF aircraft in the AFFTC Museum collection have a sequence of two letters and three numbers typically painted on the aft fuselage? These are so-called buzz numbers, instituted around the end of World War II so low-flight violators could presumably be reported by those who were buzzed. The museum＊s TF-102 in Century Circle at the West gate carries the alphanumeric TC-353. The ※T§ signifies a trainer (in this case a two-place TF-102). ※C§ is the buzz letter assigned to the F-102 series, and ※353§ is the last three numerals of the aircraft＊s unique serial number. Into the 1960s, buzz numbers could still be found on a number of USAF aircraft, especially trainers and fighters.
Westward Ho
October 10, 2008
We have some tantalizing evidence that spurs our efforts to plan the relocation of the AFFTC Museum outside the West gate to Edwards Air Force Base, where the public can enjoy greater access. Our counterparts at the Hill Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah, provide direct access to their museum for the public. They logged 165,000 visits in 2007, many times over what we average in a year in our current location. Can we presume 165,000 visitors when we are outside the gate? Still researching that. Can we presume a healthy increase in visitation? Yes.
Cavalry is Here; More Would be Welcomed
If you＊ve seen the airpark at the museum lately, the shine of new chain surrounding some of the display aircraft is evident. Student summer hire Matt Fox is replacing old and sometimes deteriorated rope courtesy barriers around the aircraft with permanent chain. This complements a single-strand chain backdrop around the museum＊s perimeter that is an environmental management initiative to keep vehicles from driving into a designated burrowing owl habitat area surrounding much of the museum site.
Our goal is to perform necessary maintenance on the airpark site and its aircraft. Volunteer docent Bob Cohn continues to apply his mechanical savvy to the sometimes-daunting task of keeping the museum＊s YA-10B control surfaces from flapping and deploying in the desert wind. I know Bob to be a meticulous craftsman who can＊t stand to be idle. He＊s got his work cut out for him＃
Please give us a call at 277-8050 if you＊d like to join the important volunteer effort to maintain the airpark aircraft.
The AFFTC Museum＊s Blackbird Airpark in Palmdale has its own secret weapon 每 a group of docents who take shifts on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays to open that site to the public. The regular roster of docents currently includes Thomas E. Ashton, Peter Merlin, Ernest Mesa, Harvey Noel, Gordon Rogers, Frank Roncelli, and Bill Flanagan. (And Blackbird Airpark scheduler Tony Moore takes a turn there as well.) Tony could use a few more volunteers, especially for Friday shifts. If you want to sign up for a shift at Palmdale, please call Tony Moore at 277-8050.
Tip of the Hat
When AFFTC Museum technician Tony Moore was orchestrating the move of the museum＊s vintage P-80 Shooting Star from Plant 42 in Palmdale to Edwards AFB, it came to his attention that a set of heavy-duty wing stands resided at the City of Palmdale＊s Joe Davies Heritage Airpark. We were able to borrow the stands, which proved immensely helpful when we needed to lower the fuselage back onto the wing here at Edwards.
Thanks, Palmdale Airpark workers!
Removing the fuselage and tip tanks from the P-80＊s wing revealed long-hidden pencil marks and notations made by Lockheed craftspeople more than 60 years ago when they assembled this P-80A, number 44-85123. It was a concise reminder that no matter how automated a 1940s-era production line might look in a photograph, each airplane still absorbed a lot of individual hand labor.
Welcome!
October 10, 2008
Welcome to exciting times for the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum! This year, we have successfully moved and displayed one of only five F-117 stealth fighters to go on display. It＊s at the Blackbird Airpark location on Avenue P in Palmdale. We are the proud exhibitors of the first of only two YC-15 short-takeoff jet transports ever built. And we just finished moving our vintage P-80A Shooting Star jet to Edwards from Plant 42 in Palmdale.
And when I say ※we§, that means incredible and indispensible help from a lot of people: the 410th Flight Test Squadron, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Worldwide Aircraft Recovery (Ben Nattrass and team), Mike Anderson, Michelle Huck, Neil Woodcock, Scott Patterson, and others in civil engineering, Stephanie Vaughn and many in environmental management, Security Forces, 95th Air Base Wing Plans and Programming office, volunteers from enlisted, officer, and civilian ranks at Edwards AFB, and＃ and＃ and＃ my sincere apologies for anyone inadvertently omitted.
If you＊ve seen the placement of the YC-15 adjacent to Century Circle just outside the West gate to Edwards AFB, you have a hint about what can follow for this museum. We are doing the preliminary work to enable the Flight Test Historical Foundation to mount a capital campaign to underwrite the cost of expanding the airpark outside the gate, and even building a new museum facility there. That concept is the idea and the legacy of Col. Bryan Gallagher, the late commander of the 95th Air Base Wing, and the Wing vice commander, Col. Nancy Wharton.
This museum lives to answer the insatiable public quest for stories about the exciting world of flight test. If the public needs us, we need the public 每 moving outside the gate is mutually beneficial. More on that in future blogs.
Several museums inform our thinking on what the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum can be. Example One is the National Museum of the United States Air Force (NMUSAF) at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Among other things, NMUSAF is a sterling example of how to build large structures that economically protect valuable aircraft while providing reasonable surroundings for meaningful displays. We can learn from that. Example Two is the new National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va. Their full-size dioramas put visitors square in the action of storming a Pacific beach or supporting Korean War marines with helicopters. The impact is powerful 每 much more than just objects on display. Example Three is the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles＊ Griffith Park. The way the Autry executes exhibits is like a short course in sound museum management and conservation. And in addition to their professional standards of exhibitry, the folks at the Autry are engaged in the community. The topic is the American West, and the museum sponsors film festivals, art exhibits, western jewelry shows, music programs and a host of events that bring their story to life and engage people beyond the realm of the museum＊s regular exhibits.
Economical protection of assets, evocative dioramas, and engaging community activities 每 a recipe we can season with the unbeatable story of testing the greatest aircraft by the greatest pilots and engineers in the world.
Want to help? Any time you turn a wrench, wash an airplane, host a tour, or support the Flight Test Historical Foundation, you are helping.
The Air Force Flight Test Center Museum has survived and grown due to nurturing by its founding director, Doug Nelson. Doug retired in August 2007. The tools we have at our disposal 每 the aircraft collection of about 80 pieces, the current museum building, the artifacts and research materials, and the strength that comes from persevering more than two decades in this business 每 are monuments to Doug＊s labors. When you visit the lobby of the museum, notice the engraved portrait of Doug Nelson, and you＊ll see a key secret to his success 每 his wife Ilah by his side.
We＊re all able to do what we do today because of what Doug and Ilah Nelson did before. Thank you, Doug and Ilah.
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