2002 Displays

Click on any picture below to link to the related display.

Robert Coram has written a biography of John Boyd, titled BOYD: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. John Boyd served as an instructor at the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in the 1950s. He had a standing bet that any pilot could put his fighter behind Boyd's airplane, and Boyd would be behind the other pilot in less than 40 seconds or pay him $40. No pilot ever won that bet. Read my review of the book to see whether you want to buy it from Amazon.com.

November 1961- March 1962, Following the achievement of the X-15's design maximum mach number on November 9, 1961, the emphasis of the program shifted from envelope expansion to flight research at high mach numbers and altitudes. Repairs to the X-15-3 were completed by North American at El Segundo, and it returned to Edwards Air Force Base for its first flight a year and a half after it exploded in the rocket engine test stand.

April 1962, No X-15 missions were launched between January 17 and the beginning of April 1962. The pace of the program picked up significantly in April. Sixteen X-15 missions would be launched in the next four months. The X-15-3 was expanding its altitude envelope. The X-15-2 was slated to evaluate airframe heating, and the X-15-1 was expected to set another new altitude record.

At the beginning of May 1962, Major Robert Rushworth was preparing to fly an airframe heating investigation with the X-15-2, but first it would be carried across the country by the NB-52A to appear at the Eglin Air Force Base airshow. Major Bob White was planning to evaluate the performance of the Alternate Stability Augmentation System (ASAS) of the X-15-1 at high angle of attack.

A commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the Douglas XA3D-1 Skywarrior was held at the Van Nuys Airport in October 2002. Four of Raytheon's Skywarriors were on static display. The morning was capped by a flight of one of the Skywarriors.

After a one year hiatus, the Edwards AFB Open House returned on October 26, 2002 with several novel aircraft making their first public appearance and an action packed flying display.

Static Displays of the 2002 Edwards Air Force Base Open House.

Flying Displays of the 2002 Edwards Air Force Base Open House.

A Minuteman II was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on October 14, 2002.

Allies with aircraft participating in the Red Flag Exercise 02-04 included Australia, Canada, Israel, Italy.

Red Flag exercise 02-04 in September 2002.

Camarillo hosted an airshow on August 11, 2002. It featured the aircraft of the southern California Wing of the Air Force formerly known as Confederate and the Experimental Aircraft Association.

Page 1 of the 2002 Camarillo EAA Fly-in

Page 2 of the 2002 Camarillo EAA Fly-in on August 11, 2002

The Camino Fire broke out on the crest of the Santa Ynez Mountains above Santa Barbara on August 15, 2002. I shot pictures of three helicopters, a Grumman S-2 Tracker, and a Douglas DC-4 fighting the fire.

I drove up the Swansea-Cerro Gordo Road to the Burgess Mine at the crest of the Inyo Mountains just before sunset on the longest day of 2002. I continued across the crest of the Inyo Mountains to Cerro Gordo, arriving as the full moon rose.

Now you can buy panoramic prints from the Goleta Air & Space Museum!

Hawkins & Powers of Greybull, Wyoming maintained five P4Y-2 Privateer tankers in airworthy condition until recently. Tragically, tanker #123 shed a wing and crashed near Estes Park, Colorado on July 18, 2002, killing its crew of two. Hawkins-Powers has four remaining airworthy Privateers.

On June 24 and June 25, I toured China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in the Mojave Desert.

Vintage airplanes

China Lake NAWS is home to a variety of vintage aircraft. The U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology has assembled a very interesting collection with some types not found elsewhere. The Weapons Survivability Laboratory (WSL) evaluates the damage done to airframes by different types of weapons.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal demonstration

The Explosive Ordnance Disposal team set up a demonstration of several types of explosives, including an anti-car-bomb blast.

U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology.

China Lake NAWS is home to the U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology. It houses an extensive collection of missiles and weapons delivery systems.

The 1988 China Lake Naval Weapons Center airshow was held on April 16.

Tankers fought the Wolf Fire from the Santa Barbara Airport during the first half of June 2002.

The Ramona Air Fair was held over the weekend of June 1-2, 2002

Castle Air Museum hosted Open Cockpit Days over the weekend of May 25-26, 2002. I took the opportunity to climb inside the forward crew compartment of their Convair RB-36H, 51-13730 and photograph the various crew stations.

I also added some new photos of the exterior of the RB-36H to the Castle Air Museum RB-36H Restoration Page. They are near the bottom of the page.

The Collings Foundation Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, Nine-O-Nine and Consolidated B-24J Liberator, The Dragon and His Tail visited the Santa Barbara Airport on May 16 and 17, 2002.

A wildfire broke out in Bouquet Canyon, near Santa Clarita, California on May 11, 2002. A dozen tankers fought the fire out of the tanker station at the Santa Barbara Airport on May 11 and 12. This page features the tankers that were assigned to fight the Bouquet Canyon Fire from the Santa Barbara Airport on Sunday, May 12.

Tankers that were assigned to fight the Bouquet Canyon Fire from the Santa Barbara Airport on Saturday, May 11.

The AQUA spacecraft, part of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS), was launched from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base by a Delta-II at 2:54 A.M. on May 4, 2002.

I have refurbished a couple of the museum's old displays featuring photos of fire fighting aircraft.

The Cuyama Fire on July 3 and 4, 1996

The Azalea Fire at Vandenberg Air Force Base on September 27, 1997.

A Minuteman III was launched from Vandenberg AFB at sunset on March 15, 2002. Its exhaust trail was illuminated by the sun for a long while.

Lockheed A-12, YF-12, and SR-71 Blackbirds

McDonnell-Douglas QF-4S+ Phantom II, 155749 crashed at Pt Mugu on April 20, 2002, killing its crew of two.

I spent a week in early April camping in the Saline Valley photographing military jets, mostly Hornets.

Boeing Helicopter at Mesa, Arizona treated the second annual International Symposium of Aviation Photographers to an AH-64D Longbow Apache photo session in the foothills of the Mazatzal Mountains on March 1, 2002.

A Boeing-McDonnell-Douglas Delta-II launched another constellation of Iridium satellites from Vandenberg AFB at 9:44 A.M. P.S.T. on February 11, 2002.

The Orbital Sciences Corporation L-1011, Stargazer, carried the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, February 1.

It is not widely realized that the largest airplanes in the world come from Ukraine. The Antonov Design Bureau located in Kiev, Ukraine has produced a series of airplanes able to claim the title of biggest airplane in the world.

An-22 Antheus

The Antonov An-22 Antheus was the largest production airplane in the world from 1965 until the introduction of the Lockheed C-5A Galaxy in 1969. 66 were built. A number are still in service with the V-TA and one is used by Antonov to transport An-124 wings attached along the top of its fuselage. In Greek mythology, Antheus was a giant whose great strength depended on keeping his feet in contact with the ground.

An-124 Ruslan

The Antonov An-124 Ruslan is the largest production airplane in the world. It was introduced to the west at the Paris Airshow of 1985. It succeeded the C-5A Galaxy in the role of world's biggest airplane. Construction continues in Kiev, Ukraine and Ulyanovsk, Russia.

An-225 Mriya

Designed specifically to carry oversized cargo externally, the fuselage of the An-225 Mriya has been stretched fifty feet compared to the An-124. An entirely new wing root was designed to add fifty feet to the span of the smaller giant. The wing of the An-225, from just outward of the inboard engine, is similar to the wing of the An-124.

New Display Archives:

2007 New Displays

2006 New Displays

2005 New Displays

2004 New Displays

2003 New Displays

Send a message to Brian.