Page 13 - Aerotech News and Review, February 5, 2021

An airport conceived with ‘The Right Stuff’

Heron also worked on the Voyager Aircraft and stated for a local an F model and N405FS, a D model.”
newspaper, “The airport is a magnet for people whose life is wrapped “Both of these aircraft were government leased. The company had
up in the dream of making new airplanes.” several more F-100F aircraft that were purchased from Denmark, they
Sabovich encouraged Hollywood film companies to come to the operated in Europe towing targets until they were returned to Mojave
airport to make movies, commercials and TV episodes. and sold off,” Childress said.
Famous for being the first man to break the sound barrier, Chuck If interested, there is a YouTube video of the Flight Systems F-
Yeager made a commercial for Delco batteries in a hangar at Mojave 100F towing a target in Sardinia, Italy - https://www.youtube.com/
Airport. watch?v=gMvenZe4VM4&fbclid=IwAR2nD8ZgMo-THN_UTh7-
Also, Cal Worthington, a well-known local car salesman and World 3Ebfu0HzQNzuPpLVDkxbukI9UroSIdukIhIIN6A
War II veteran, stood on his head while riding on top of a biplane in the
skies above Mojave Airport. “That was him doing it,” said Sabovich.
“He said if he didn’t do it, people wouldn’t believe him.”
Early companies at Mojave Airport
General Electric Engine Test facilities and Flight Systems occupied
buildings at Mojave Airport when Sabovich first arrived. GE came over
from Edwards in 1967 with their Boeing 707 testbed aircraft. Flight
Systems, Inc. was founded in 1968.
GE Flight Test at Mojave
In the summer of 1986, GE was conducting flight test work on their
GE36 Unducted Fan (UDF) engine. The testbed aircraft was a Boeing
727. It was an experimental aircraft engine, a hybrid between a turbofan
and a turboprop.
The engine had a pair of six-stage contra-rotating free turbines, each
with large diameters running at slow speeds, and they were connected
directly to a couple of eight-blade, 12-foot diameter unducted fans, Courtesy photograph
which made for a very unusual sound as it flew past. The Voyager sits on the ramp at the Mojave Airport in 1986.
Later the testbed aircraft for the UDF was a McDonnell-Douglas
MD-81.
Rutan Brothers Legacy at Mojave Airport
Rutan Aircraft Factory began business at Mojave Airport in 1974,
Photograph courtesy of the Sabovitch collection developing the VariEze aircraft. Subsequent Burt Rutan designs made
Dan Sabovitch leans on an aircraft at the Mojave Airport. first flights at Mojave Airport, including: the Quickie, Defiant and
Long-EZ prototypes and the one and only Voyager aircraft, piloted by
by Cathy Hansen Rutan's brother, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, which made the epic
special to Aerotech News flight around the world in 9 days, 3 minutes, 44 seconds, beginning on
Dec. 14, 1986 and ending on Dec. 23, 1986.
Mojave Airport had a year filled with new beginnings and aviation The ‘round the world, non-stop, unrefueled Voyager flight put the
firsts in 1986, Aerotech News' anniversary year. eyes of the world on the Rutan Brothers and Mojave Airport.
Fourteen years earlier in 1972, the East Kern Airport District was Burt Rutan established Scaled Composites in 1982 and is now best
formed with Dan Sabovich, a flying rancher from Arvin, as the first known for the first privately-funded manned space flight, with Mike
general manager. Melvill and Brian Binnie, winning the Ansari $10-million X-Prize on
“Friends call Dan Sabovich a ‘can-do guy’ because he transformed Oct. 4, 2004 with Paul G. Allen’s SpaceShipOne.
a deserted airstrip into a place that adventurous fliers can call home,”
says a quote from a Los Angeles Herald Examiner article. National
Sabovich had a vision for the abandoned Marine Corps Air Station. Test Pilot
He said, “What I wanted to do was to have a civilian flight test cen- School
ter that was just like Edwards.” It was described as an airport where The N a -
‘dreams took flight.’ Photograph courtesy of the Gary Childress collection tional Test Pi-
He worked with well-known aviation personalities like Darryl Bob Laidlaw, founder of Flight Systems, with an F-100. lot School was
Greenamyer and Clay Lacy to bring air racing to Mojave beginning in established in
1969. Three long runways and lots of wide open spaces were appeal- 1981 by Sean
ing to the warbird crowd, who wanted to deliver Reno-style unlimited Roberts. In
class air racing to the public. Flight Systems, Inc. 1986, NTPS
Sabovich believed it to be a great way to show off the attributes William R. “Bob” Laidlaw formed Flight Systems Inc. in 1968 and Courtesy photograph constructed a
of this former military base and get people interested in his dream of based the business in Mojave, which has been a hub for experimental The National Test Pilot School. large hangar
turning it into a premier flight test center. aviation for many years. The first aircraft used by Flight Systems was and classroom
Air Races at Mojave lasted for 10 years, from 1969 to 1979. the Canadair F-86 Sabre. They were converted into unmanned drones complex at
Aviator’s World, an aviation memorabilia store, operated in the main to be used by the U.S. Army for targets. the east end of
administration building where the Voyager Restaurant is now. The U.S. Army QF-86E drone program finished in June 1986, and Mojave Airport. Today, NTPS trains military and civilian students from
In an interview in 1986, store owner Lee Heron said, “We’re like the drone requirement was then filled by the QF-100. The first F-100 over 30 different countries around the world. Dr. Allen Peterson is the
family out here.” arrived at Mojave in early 1985 for conversion. present president and CEO.
Gary Childress, F-100 Crew Chief at Flight Systems said, “There
were only two F-100 aircraft assigned full time in Mojave —N404FS, Aerotest Inc.
The company was founded by engineer and test pilot W.R. ‘Bob’
Laidlaw in 1986. He was the same person who started Flight Systems,
Inc. at Mojave in 1968.
The company maintained and repaired commercial aircraft, includ-
ing jumbo jets. Aerotest personnel maintained many of the airliners in
storage at the airport.
More than 400 people were employed at Aerotest in 1986. A huge
120,000-square-foot hangar was constructed at Mojave Airport in
1990. The company moved operations from Mojave to Santa Barbara
in 1994.

Looking to the future
Today, the tenants at Mojave Air and Space Port are thinking and
acting far into the future — and the future is space.
Virgin Galactic’s Cosmic Girl, The Spaceship Company, Strato-
launch, Masten Aerospace and Scaled Composites are all looking
Courtesy photograph Courtesy photograph upward to the stars.
Air Races at the Mojave Airport ran from 1969 to 1979. The Rutan VariEze in flight.

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