LANCASTER, Calif. — This is the year the planets align over Southern California’s High Desert Aerospace Valley, declaring the region “the center of the aerospace testing universe.”
This is part of a message and request for volunteer support delivered on April 13 to members of the newly merged and reorganized chambers of commerce in the area, representing Lancaster and Palmdale.
Accompanying the expanded mid-October 2022 Aerospace Valley airshow at Edwards Air Force Base, a separately organized and funded companion project from the Flight Test Historical Foundation aims to complete and open the under-construction aerospace museum just in outside the west gate of Edwards Air Force Base.
Speakers representing the complementary efforts told Chamber business leaders that the two bold initiatives will simultaneously boost the national and international brand image of “Aerospace Valley” and benefit the entire regional economy, the vocational and technical training, growth and stability of the aerospace and commercial industry.
With this year’s restoration of an Edward AFB air show, last held in 2009, timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of supersonic flight, and the US Air Force, also in 1947, officials estimate a crowd daily of up to 100,000 visitors on Saturday and Sunday air show days at Edwards, and thousands of veterans, EAFB families and additional media in attendance for the air show rehearsal on Friday, October 14 and over 10,000 students at a STEM exhibit at Hangar 1600.
The stars of the Aerospace Valley Air Show will be the USAF Thunderbirds, a precision flight demonstration team, supported by a cast of military and NASA aircraft and historic and aerobatic civilian aircraft.
Chase Kohler, chief of media operations for the 412th Test Wing in Edwards, told his audience that the Aerospace Valley Air Show needs about 1,250 volunteers to support not only the air show week events from Wednesday October 12 to Monday October 17, but other pre- and post-show preparations planned or already underway.
The total number of volunteers needed is inclusive for all aspects of the show. Regardless of affiliation, all volunteers must submit their information to the registration link at www.avairshow.com
Art Thompson, chairman of the board of the Flight Test Historical Foundation, remarked that while Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, is revered for the first airplane flight, “history is being made every day in the valley. of aerospace. Kitty Hawk was the first. The first of all the rest started here.
Lisa Brown, FTHF’s Director of Education and Community Outreach, said the new museum’s expansive education center will be a global hub to bring together and inspire future generations of technologists, engineers and researchers. aerospace.
Among the museum’s main attractions for researchers, educators and historians will be the Bob Hoover Research Library and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) archives. Brown concluded, “Our mission is to uplift this valley.”
