The Loop Newspaper - Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

Last year, Terra-Gen Power asked the Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation (MTM) if there was any project that they might want help with financially. Mojave Air & Space Port has visitors from around the world and the board members of the museum thought it would be great to be able to show them some of the exciting history in videos, including a video of when the U.S. Marines that were here in 1942.

After Jason Buck, director of technology, researched the cost of equipment and materials needed, an amount was decided and Terra-Gen sent a check to MTM. Board members Christie Aguilar, secretary; Steve Rushford, treasurer; and Cathy Hansen, president, gathered at Legacy Park and presented a check to Mojave Air & Space Port. Jason Buck and Nicole Altman, administrative assistant, accepted the check.

History is alive at Mojave Air & Space Port. At "Rutan Field" there is a model of the Voyager aircraft hanging above a SpaceShipOne replica in an enclosure in Legacy Park. Next to that is the Rotary Rocket "Roton."

Voyager aircraft flew around the world, non-stop and un-refueled in December 1986 with Command Pilot, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. SpaceShipOne made history in 2003 and 2004 with the first Commercial Astronauts, Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie winning the Ansari X-Prize of 10 million dollars!

Gary Hudson formed the start-up Rotary Rocket Inc. A full-scale test vehicle made three hover flights in 1999, with pilot, Marti Sarigul-Klijn and Brian Binnie as co-pilot. The proposed design was to be a single-stage-to-orbit, reusable launch vehicle, merging a helicopter with a rocket. The spinning blades were powered with peroxide tip rockets. The plan was to use the helicopter blades for landing the spacecraft as well, like an auto-rotation maneuver.

The full scale, 63-feet-tall ATV was built under contract by Scaled Composites for hover flight tests. The rotor head was salvaged from a crashed Sikorsky S-58 helicopter. The Roton ATV was rolled out of the hangar during a dramatic ceremony on March 1, 1999. It was an event attended by approximately 1,000 people, including officials from NASA, the FAA and investor Tom Clancy.

Not only can we offer videos of SpaceShipOne, Voyager, Rotary Rocket, but also the exciting flights that are making history today, including: Stratolaunch, Virgin Orbit, National Test Pilot School, Virgin Galactic and our newest tenant Boom Supersonic.

Terra-Gen will have a video clip of their projects in East Kern County, as well, including many wind generators and solar projects.

We are proud of the history at Mojave Air & Space Port and are excited about the future aerospace projects that are being tested and the new ones that are being developed.

There is a great video on YouTube about VMF-451, a USMC Squadron formed at Marine Corps Air Station Mojave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBvYfNi51wE .

Kane Wickham.

Statolaunch.

Expecting island duty, the men of Marine Squadron VMF 451 were surprised to discover they would be flying off an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. In January, 1945, the Blue Devils, boarded USS Bunker Hill in San Francisco and headed into battle. During their short four-and-a-half month tour of duty, they flew combat missions over Tokyo, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Blue Devils traces the lives of the Blue Devils from the time they began training in the states until they returned home from combat in May, 1945. Told by pilots themselves, this film shares the amazing and miraculous stories of their fight for freedom.

There is also a YouTube video of a radio show broadcast of the Jack Benny Show Nov. 7, 1943: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8YTHJboZb0 .

The Bob Hope Show was at MCAS Mojave on Sept. 11, 1944, as well.

We are looking forward to letting you know when our ribbon cutting will happen in the near future.

See you on our next flight!