1985 At Edwards AFB California

1985 Our lives in America
November 3, 1985   We're on our way to Edwards Air Force Base CA. We have been invited as guests of USAF Colonel Keith Trostle. We drive through the Mojave Desert to get there and pass Joshua Trees on the way. They have an impressive static display of USAF aircraft. This is a U2 Spy Plane The U2
SR71 Blackbird SR 71 Blackbird - I made a complete album of all the times I saw the SR71 Blackbird. X29 with swept forward wings and a small canard (front wing) It was made by Grumman who usually make the planes for the US Navy but they made this experimental plane for NASA and the USAF
Front end of the F15 Eagle F 15 Two F16s and an F15 The same three planes from the front
F111 from General Dynamics The F-20 Tigershark (initially F-5G) was a privately financed light fighter, designed and built by Northrop; the USAF never purchased it. The primary design change between the earlier F-5E and the F-20 was the F-20's use of a single General Electric F404 engine that was originally designed for the F/A-18 Hornet. The F-20 Tigershark program was abandoned in 1986 after three prototypes had been built (two of which crashed after their pilots blacked out due to excessive g-forces). A fourth was partially completed. An old Curtis C46 from WWII.
An array of USAF aircraft. 1985 EdwardsAFB 0075 a 1985 EdwardsAFB 0076 a Very impressive number of planes on display, even a B1 Bomber.
The B1 Bomber cost $63,000/hour to run When President Carter took office in 1977 he ordered a review of the entire B1 program. By this point the projected cost of the program had risen to over $100 million per aircraft (from $40 million). He was informed of the relatively new work on stealth aircraft that had started in 1975 and decided that this was a program than the B-1. Pentagon officials also stated that the AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) launched from the existing B-52 fleet would give the USAF equal capability of penetrating Soviet airspace. With a range of 1,500 miles (2,400 km), the ALCM could be launched well outside the range of any Soviet defenses and penetrate at low altitude like a bomber (with a much lower radar cross-section due to smaller size), and in much greater numbers at a lower cost. A small number of B-52s could launch hundreds of ALCMs, saturating the defense. A program to improve the B-52 and develop and deploy the ALCM would cost at least 20% less than the planned 244 B-1As B52
A privately owned F100 Super Sabre along side of an Air Guard F106 Delta Dart. Note the coke bottle fuselage to conform with the newly discovered supersonic area rule. KC10 taker, derived from DC10, with a C140 transport in the rear. An AWACs Airborne Warning and Control System Boeing E-3. The E-3 is derived from the Boeing 707 airliner and provides all-weather surveillance, command, control, and communications. It is used by the United States Air Force, NATO, French Air and Space Force, and Royal Saudi Air Force. The E-3 is distinguished by the distinctive rotating radar dome above the fuselage. Production ended in 1992 after 68 aircraft had been built. McDonnell Douglas F4 Phantom
This is the swing wing NASA AD-1 that was both an aircraft and an associated flight test program conducted between 1979 and 1982 at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB California. It successfully demonstrated an aircraft wing that could be pivoted obliquely from zero to 60 degrees during flight. Privately owned North American F86 Sabre by North American. Through a series of mergers and sales, North American Aviation became part of North American Rockwell, which later became Rockwell International and is now part of Boeing. P51 Mustang by North American. T28 Trojan trainer by North American is a radial-engined military trainer aircraft used by the USAF and the US Navy.   Besides its use as a trainer, the T-28 was successfully employed as a counter-insurgency aircraft during the Vietnam War. It has continued in civilian use as an aerobatics and warbird performer.
The Saturn V, F-1 is a rocket engine developed by Rocketdyne. It was developed in the United States in the late 1950s and was used in the Saturn V rocket in the 1960s and early 1970s. Five F-1 engines were used in the S-IC first stage of each Saturn V, which served as the main launch vehicle of the Apollo program. The F-1 remains the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ever developed. This is the engine from the Space Shuttle, the Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25. It is a liquid-fuel cryogenic rocket engine and it is the Space Shuttle's Main Engine. NASA is planning to continue using the RS-25 on the Space Shuttle's successor, the Space Launch System (SLS). The Ryan PT-22 was developed in 1941 from the civilian Ryan ST series. It was powered by a 160 hp R540-1 engine and 1,023 were built. The PT-22 was the United States Army Air Corps' first purpose built monoplane trainer. The Zlin Z-526 Akrobat is a Czech sports plane used in aerobatics. More than 1,400 Z-526s were manufactured, many for military and private flying schools.
Keith and Barbara Trostle sit with Jenni in the VIP stand. Chuck Yeager joins the show immediately in front of us. 1985 EdwardsAFB 0077 a He walks to the podium where he makes a speech. Chuck Yeager was the first man to exceed the speed of sound. He flew a rocket powered Bell X1 to do so.
He received a special award for his achievements in the Bell XS-1. The crowd was half a million. An F111 taxis out for a flight presentation. It has a crew of 2 who sit side by side. F4 Phantom taxis past the waiting Thunderbird F16s to begin its display.
The f4 demonstrates its ability to be refuelled in flight behind a Boeing KC-135 tanker. A B52 does a fly past. F4 Phantom, F5 Tiger, Crusader and a trainer fly in formation. F15 Eagle. This plane and its pilot launched the first successful ASAT. The ASM-135 ASAT is an air-launched anti-satellite multistage missile that was developed by Ling-Temco-Vought's LTV Aerospace division. The ASM-135 was carried exclusively by United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft.
This F15 did an aerobatic pattern in front of the stands on the sheer power of its engines. A B1 gets ready to enter the show area. The B1 approaches . . . . . . and flies past with its wings swept back.
It then does a slow pass with its wings swept forward. These are the Golden Arrows, the US Army's parachute team. 1985 EdwardsAFB 0052 a He only slightly misses his target. Pretty confident to land with the Thunderbird's F16s just a few metres away.
A Thunderbird F16 pilot enters his plane. I was so impressed with this picture of precision, grace and professionalism that I had it enlarged (as was the way in 1986) and it hangs in my room to this day in 2022. 1985 EdwardsAFB 0078 a The Thunderbirds taxi out to begin their display.
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This was impressive. Air burst towards the end of the show. 1985 EdwardsAFB 0067 a 1985 EdwardsAFB 0068 a
1985 EdwardsAFB 0073 a 1985 EdwardsAFB 0074 a Of course, after the show they land. This is also another very precise manoeuvre. Thunderbird number 2 rolls past.
The end of a very great day. At the time, I classify it as the second-best day of my life (after marrying Jenni). I still remember it as such. Our VIP tickets also came with VIP parking. The end of this segment