Mojave Air and Space Port
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The Mojave Air & Space Port is an airport located in the Mojave Desert in the U.S. state of California. In civil aviation, it is mainly used as a cargo airport. In addition, he is known primarily as a parking space for the temporary storage of mothballed aircraft. Furthermore, at the Mojave Air & Space Port located companies that deal with the dismantling and scrapping of aircraft. Due to its location and facilities it is often used for filming. Since the launch of SpaceShipOne in June 2004, the Mojave Airport is approved as a starting place for civil space and is used by several private space companies as a testing ground.
History
The Mojave Airport was founded in 1935 as an airfield for civilian use after since the late 1920s, a small airfield had existed near the village Mojave. In 1942, the U.S. government took over the operation of the aerodrome and used it as the " Mojave Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station " for military purposes. For civilian air traffic in the region existed only a small with two start and runways equipped airfield named Myer Field close to the present-day Mojave Air & Space Port during this time.
Military use ended in 1959, and in that time the Myer Field was abandoned. 1961 was the management of the Mojave Airport about to Kern County, California. After the withdrawal of the military it was, apart from a few training flights with machines of the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, first quietly around the airport. The runways were even sometimes used at this time for drying raisins. In 1965 came the crash of a Boeing 707 of American Airlines during a training flight about a quarter mile before the targeted runway. On 16 June 1976, a North American P -51 Mustang crashed on landing from the Mojave Airport. The pilot of the aircraft was killed in this accident. On a flight maneuver during a test flight at the Mojave Airport, it came on April 3, 1980 crash of a Challenger 604 manufacturer Bombardier Aerospace, in which the pilot was killed. Two other passengers survived the accident.
After triggered by the crash of a North American F -86 disaster at an air show in Sacramento on September 24, 1972, at the 22 people lost their lives, began the aircraft manufacturer and the owners of historic aircraft for test and training flights, and for the storage of aircraft to search for remote airports. This also led to the Mojave Airport to the sudden upswing of its meaning. In the same year the "East nuclear Airport District " was established for the operation of the airport, which has since also promotes the settlement of their respective companies. On 17 June 2004, the Mojave Airport was approved as spaceport and changed the name to Mojave Air & Space Port. Currently, there are about 140 companies are located approximately 1300 employees.
Location and facilities
The IATA code of the Mojave Air & Space Port is MHV, the responsible Flight Information Service Federal Aviation Administration (FAA ) is the Riverside Flight Service Station (FAA ID code: RAL ). Its exact geographical position is 35 ° 03.56 'N 118 ° 09.11 ' W. It is located about 25 kilometers north-west of Edwards Air Force Base at an altitude of about 850 meters ( 2,791 ft. ) above sea level. Additional civilian airfields near the Mojave Air & Space Port is the California City Municipal Airport ( FAA ID Code: L71 ) in California City, California and the General Wm J Fox Airfield ( FAA ID code: WJF ), Lancaster, California. The airport has a tower, an illuminated wind indicator and three take-off and landing runways, of which two with light beacon ( edge - lighting) are fitted:
Use in civil aviation
The traffic volume is currently about 50 to 60 aircraft movements a day, spread over approximately 54 percent of civilian through traffic, about 41 percent of civilian local traffic and about five percent of military use. For the passenger traffic of the Mojave Air & Space Port is considered as regional airport and due to its location only of very limited relevance. In civil aviation, it is used primarily as a cargo airport of national importance and has this on the highways CA -14 ( " Antelope Freeway ", towards Los Angeles and northern Nevada) and CA -58 (towards mid- California, Arizona and Southern Nevada) as well as a web connection (network operator Union Pacific Railroad, joint use by the BNSF railway) opened accordingly transport links. Also located at the Mojave Air & Space Port with the National Test Pilot School ( NTPS ) an academic training center for test pilots for civil and military aviation, as well as a flight school for individuals (Viking Aviation ).
Aircraft storage, maintenance, and demolition
An important role of the Mojave Air & Space Port for more specific uses. This primarily involves the temporary storage of aircraft that were temporarily shut down mostly for economic reasons, by the airlines. Among these " aircraft parking " (English aircraft storage location ), he is one of the most famous, however, is on the number of interposed aircraft not the greatest. Another representative is the Marana Pinal Airpark. The price for the parking of a passenger plane lies with the Mojave Air & Space Port, depending on the size of the machine between 250 and 500 U.S. dollars per month. Its advantages for the storage of aircraft are the dry desert climate, the remote location and the fact that the parking of aircraft on the hard and dry desert floor without asphalting or concreting of the subsurface is possible.
For reasons of confidentiality the airline be covered to allow the rival society no conclusions on the economic situation of the company at mothballed aircraft in the Rule name and logo. In the bankruptcy of Braniff International Airways in 1982 the entire fleet, which consisted of 62 machines of the Boeing 727, Boeing 747 and Douglas DC- 8 was parked at Mojave Airport. In the period immediately after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, some newly built Boeing aircraft have been flown for intermediate storage for Mojave Airport right after the completion in Seattle, as the airlines concerned because of the attacks following the crisis in civil aviation ordered for their aircraft had no use. The number of at Mojave Air & Space Port and other " aircraft parking " interposed aircraft varies greatly and is usually a good indicator of the economic situation of the aviation industry. However, the number of parked aircraft, even in periods of growth rise, especially through withdrawals from service to a greater extent when the model changes, for example in the introduction of the jumbo jet Boeing 747, or the introduction of fundamentally new technologies such as the transition from propeller-driven to jet engines for the civil aviation.
Other major business areas of the Mojave Air & Space Port resident companies are maintenance and remodeling of aircraft, including renewal of paint or repainted at change of ownership, as well as the disassembly and scrapping of decommissioned aircraft ( airplane graveyard, Eng. Aircraft boneyard ). For a significant number of aircraft parts and components while also re-use as spare parts is common, complete cockpits can be converted into simulators. A similar task in the military field, the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group ( AMARG ) in Tucson, Arizona.
Similar offers services in Germany only the company ams Aircraft Maintenance Service at the former Bundeswehr Airport Ahlhorn to.
Film Production
The Mojave Air & Space Port is often used for filming, especially for action movies and commercials. The airfield has this on some special equipment and facilities, and provides the opportunity to complete start and runways for filming for rent. In addition, a wide range of modern and historical aircraft available, as well as shared scrapping aircraft for spectacular scenes. Other advantages are the large space of the airport and its proximity to Los Angeles or Hollywood. Well-known films containing incurred at Mojave Airport scenes, for example, Die Hard 2, Speed , Thirteen Days, Waterworld and the video for the song "Bodies " by Robbie Williams.
Start and test site for air and space company
On 17 June 2004, the Mojave Airport from the Federal Aviation Administration was approved as Spaceport for the horizontal start of reusable space vehicles. The airport operates since the suffix " Civilian Aerospace Test Center". Four days later, on June 21 launched from the Mojave Air & Space Port with the SpaceShipOne, developed by Scaled Composites, the first privately funded space flight in air and space history. A number of other private space companies or projects (for example, XCOR Aerospace, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Inter Orbital Systems, Pacific Rocket Society, Space Launch Corporation, Trans Lunar Research, Rocket Propulsion Engineering Company ) use the Mojave Air & Space Port as a testing ground.
Scaled Composites is also the developer of the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, which was built on behalf of the joint proprietor Steve Fossett. From 1 to March 3, 2005, he put on the plane in about 67 hours the first man alone a non-stop circumnavigation of the earth back. The first test flight of Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer was held from Mojave Air & Space Port from October 21, 2004.